Sector/Thematic Studies
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Economic and Sectoral Work are original analytic reports authored by the World Bank and intended to influence programs and policy in client countries. They convey Bank-endorsed recommendations and represent the formal opinion of a World Bank unit on the topic. This set includes the sectoral and thematic studies which are not Core Diagnostic Studies. Other analytic and advisory activities (AAA), including technical assistance studies, are included in these sectoral/thematic collections.
Sub-collections of this Collection
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Country Gender Assessment -
Recent Economic Development in Infrastructure -
Energy Study -
Energy-Environment Review -
Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Insight -
Debt and Creditworthiness Study -
General Economy, Macroeconomics, and Growth Study -
Legal and Judicial Sector Assessment -
Gender Innovation Lab Federation Causal Evidence Series -
Health Sector Review
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse ...
Items in this collection
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Publication
Rwanda Economic Update, February 2023: Making the most of Nature Based Tourism in Rwanda
(Washington, DC, 2023-02)The Rwandan economy continued to achieve strong growth in 2022 in the face of weakening external demand and restrictive monetary policies required to control inflation. Rising food prices particularly affected the poor, who devote a large share of their spending to food and appear to have faced higher food inflation than richer households did. Growth is expected to decline somewhat in 2023 and then to recover closer to historical rates over the medium term. Tourism is a major source of Rwanda’s foreign exchange earnings and tends to generate a higher proportion of formal sector jobs than other sectors and could make a substantial contribution to growth. Within tourism, strengthening the provision of nature-based tourism, which accounts for eight percent of leisure and conference visitors in Rwanda would also help protect biodiversity and advance Rwanda’s efforts to adapt to climate change. Nature-based tourism faces significant challenges, including potential limits on expansion of revenues from one of the primary international attractions - gorilla trekking, degradation of the natural assets that underpin the sector, risks presented by infectious diseases, habitat change and overexploitation, and the impact of climate change on tourism demand. Key measures to promote nature-based tourism will need to include expanding the network of protected areas and improving management of the natural assets within and outside protected areas and diversifying the nature-based tourism’s offering while complementing efforts to diversify tourism activities. Efforts are required to enhance revenue sharing mechanisms to increase incentives for local communities to conserve natural assets and unlock new opportunities and community-led enterprises that generate revenue from tourism and sustainable management of natural resources, including forests. This is essential to address poverty, to mitigate poaching threats, other illegal activities, and reduce unsustainable exploitation of resources. It is also imperative to secure private sector participation in financing and operation of facilities by introducing innovative financing methods to secure the necessary investment, strengthening capacity and management of tourism facilities and services, and removing subsidies that contribute to environmental degradation. -
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Continued Rebound, but Storms Cloud the Horizon: Policies to Accelerate the Productive Economy for Inclusive Growth
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12)Kenya’s rebound from the pandemic continued in 2022. Driven by broad-based increases in services and industry, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 6.0 percent Year-on-Year (y/y) in the first half (H1) of 2022. However, the agriculture sector contracted by 1.5 percent during thesame period, and with the sector contributing almost one fifth of GDP, its poor performance pulled back GDP growth by 0.3 percentage points. Notwithstanding the strong y/y creases, GDP has seen a marked sequential slowdown since the 2021 third quarter (Q3) as base effect dissipatedand business confidence weakened because of the global commodity market shock, a long regional drought and domestic political uncertainty in the run up to the August 2022 general elections. Business confidence however picked up in the wake of a smooth transition of power following a largely peaceful presidential election. Kenya’s growth prospects remain bright; however, emerging shocks are challenging the broad-based rebound. Thebaseline assumes robust growth of credit to private sector, contained COVID-19 infections, and high commodity prices favorable for Kenyan exports to boost Kenya’s growth in the medium term. However, the ongoing shocks, including the long drought in arid and semi-arid areas, rising inflation,and tighter global financial conditions, create challenges for Kenya to sustain its recovery. -
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Planning Beyond the Next Harvest: Advancing Economic Stability and Agricultural Commercialization
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12)The 16th edition of the Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM) calls for urgent actions to stabilize the economy and enhance growth. As in the previous MEM, this includes addressing three key areas: i) Stabilizing the economy: While some progress is being made, there remains an urgent need for theimplementation of the announced macroeconomic reforms, including building foreign reserves, achieving fiscal consolidation goals for the current fiscal year, returning debt to a sustainable path through restructuring, implementing key fiscal governance and public financial management (PFM) reforms, and continuing the shift toward a more flexible exchange rate regime. ii) Stimulating agricultural export competitiveness and market-driven growth in the economy: In the context of an ongoing macroeconomic crisis, it will be essential to focus on reforms to catalyze growth. This includes a sustained emphasis on advancing agricultural commercialization, improving the productivity of firms, and increasing and diversifying exports. It will also be important to deliver on the planned reform of expensive and poorly targeted subsidies, such as those for the Affordable Input Programme (AIP), and remove distortions that constrain firms’ growth. iii) Protecting the poor and strengthening resilience: As another difficult lean season approaches, including the heightened risk of extreme weather events, it will be essential to advance implementation of the significantly expanded Social Cash Transfer Program and other assistance programs. In the context of fiscal pressures, it will also be important to continue prioritizing the deliveryof essential services to the most vulnerable, while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of social sector expenditure. -
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Uganda Economic Update, 20th Edition: Unlocking the Benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area and Regional Integration
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-12)The Ugandan economy will need to grow rapidly, sustainably, and broadly (i.e., in a shared manner), to reach middle-income status, lift its population out of poverty, and generate enough jobs for one of the fastest growing populations in the world. To do so, the country needs to unlock its growth potential by allocating productive factors to their most efficient uses. However, like many least developing countries, Uganda suffers from a small domestic market and distortions, which leads to misallocation of resources. As a result, international trade will play a critical role in solving some of the current challenges faced by the Ugandan economy and ultimately boosting economic growth and development. For Uganda, greater integration into global value chains will be crucial to create jobs outside of subsistence agriculture and the informal economy. Sustained growth in trade will also increase consumer welfare by expanding options and lowering prices of consumer goods. Regional trade agreements can help Uganda diversify its range of markets and products, mitigating the risk of external shocks by lessening dependence on any single trading partner. Greater intra-African trade also offers opportunities to add more value to export commodities and to leverage the potential of agribusiness to promote inclusive growth. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers opportunities for Uganda to deepen its access to regional markets and exploit the growth potential of the region. Expanding regional and continental trade offers significant benefits for Uganda, including potential economies of scale, new export opportunities, access to higher levels of the value chain, and forums to improve trade facilitation. However, non-tariff barriers continue to limit trade, including the discriminatory use of technical regulations, non-harmonized sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, and complex rules of origin. Security challenges such as the closure of the border between Rwanda and Uganda in 2019 has also constrained regional integration. To benefit fully from the AfCFTA, Uganda and her neighbors will need to overcome hurdles that have long weakened the effectiveness of existing regional arrangements by facilitating better trade through improved logistics, infrastructure, addressing non-tariff barriers and avoiding the politically motivated trade barriers like border closures. -
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Nigeria Development Update December 2022 - Nigeria's Choice
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-11-30)Nigeria’s economic performance has weakened since the previous Nigeria Development Update (NDU) was published in June 2022 under the title of “The Continuing Urgency of Business Unusual”. The global economic environment has weakened. Economic activity in most major economies has slowed in 2022 amid high inflation and central banks shifting toward contractionary monetary policies. External financing conditions, particularly for governments and private borrowers in frontier markets such as Nigeria, have tightened, as the US dollar has appreciated sharply against most other currencies to historically strong levels, and global benchmark interest rates have risen. Moving into 2023, growth in most regions is expected to weaken further, and uncertainty regarding the outlook remains elevated, partly because of key unknowns such as future developments related to the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine. -
Publication
Adaptive Social Protection in Southern Africa
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-10-31)The countries of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) - Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa are exposed to climatic shocks, especially drought, that pose a continual threat to lives and livelihoods across the subregion. The pandemic has compounded these existing vulnerabilities. Climatic shocks such as these tend to affect the poorest most, exacerbating inequalities and increasing poverty. Food insecurity, which is chronic in the subregion and both a root cause of vulnerability to drought and an outcome of it also increased as a result of impacts from the pandemic. Social safety net programs can help poor and vulnerable households manage the risks they face from shocks, helping to mitigate the impacts on poverty and food insecurity, but their effectiveness can be constrained in several ways. The mobilization of social protection in response to COVID-19 and the challenges that have emerged to that mobilization have strengthened the case for investments in preparedness ahead of future shocks. Adaptive social protection refers to an agenda for preparing social protection systems to improve their response to shocks and to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households. This report takes stock of ASP in four of the five SACU countries and provides targeted recommendations for each country’s development. -
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Burkina Faso - Note Sectorielle sur les Forêts: Pour une Gestion Durable des Forêts du Burkina Faso
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-10)Les forets apportent une contribution essentielle au développement socioéconomique du Burkina Faso. Dans le même temps, moins de 1% du budget de l’État est consacré à la gestion des forêts. Le manque de financement - à la fois pour l’investissement et le fonctionnement - est l’un des principaux problèmes auxquels le secteur est confronté. En conséquence, les forêts disparaissent. Le Burkina Faso a perdu près de la moitié de ses forêts en 30 ans. Les actions prioritaires sont : (i) Accroître les revenus tirés des forêts ; (ii) Modifier la clé de répartition du prix de vente du stère de bois de feu entre les acteurs et augmenter la part destinée aux communes ; (iii) Augmenter les investissements publics destinés au secteur forestier et le budget qui lui est alloué ; (iv) Faire une plus grande place à la biomasse dans les politiques énergétiques ; (v) Utiliser les fonds carbone comme une opportunité de générer des recettes supplémentaires et (vi) Renforcer les capacités techniques des services forestiers. -
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Enhancing Links of Poor Farmers to Markets: A Practice Review for Economic Inclusion in Zambia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09-16)This report reviews the experiences of market linkage programs implemented globally, particularly those focused on poor smallholders, including women, as beneficiaries and farmers who participated in government social safety net schemes. The report highlights lessons learned by program implementers, governments, and other stakeholders related to efforts to link extremely poor households to productive markets. The research was commissioned to inform potential links between two World Bank projects that are currently supporting the economic inclusion of poor households in Zambia. The supporting women’s livelihood (SWL) program of the Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) Project provides a comprehensive package to promote economic inclusion among women from the poorest households. A second project, the Zambia Agribusiness and Trade Project (ZATP), enhances access to markets by linking producer organizations and high-growth small and medium-size enterprises to buyers (commercial off-takers) by facilitating productive alliances (commercial agreements between a producer organization and a commercial off-taker) and providing matching grants and technical support. A diagnostic of the status of and constraints facing SWL beneficiaries with respect to market linkages highlights the lack of upstream value chain linkages for them. The World Bank will provide technical assistance to the government of Zambia, through relevant ministries, to operationalize a mechanism, at scale, for forging market linkages by SWL households by linking them to ZATP beneficiaries. This report reviews and highlights the experiences of similar market linkages programs implemented globally, in an attempt to answer key questions raised by the program. This report describes operational considerations that may be relevant to the ZATP-GEWEL project context. It provides recommendations to guide the next steps in developing the ZATP-GEWEL pilot. -
Publication
Bending the Pollution Curve: An Analysis and Prioritization of Pollution Management in Ethiopia
(World Bank, Washington DC, 2022-09-14)Pollution and environmental degradation often worsen as countries develop and industrialize. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis suggests that, initially, economic growth increases pollution up to a certain income threshold, and then it begins to decrease pollution. Pollution reduction is not inevitable, however. As one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, Ethiopia has been facing natural resource depletion and pollution problems which threaten to slow or impede development gains. The country must actively improve its pollution management practices and mitigate the impact of pollution on its economy, public health, and the natural environment as much as possible. This report aims to identify, diagnose, and evaluate air, water, and solid waste pollution issues facing Ethiopia and advise governments on developing and prioritizing pollution management interventions through a long-term perspective. It assesses the impacts of pollution problems and estimates the economic costs of pollution in selected study cities, which provide an economic basis for prioritizing and recommending pollution management interventions and programs. The report concludes that, with a good understanding and public awareness of pollution problems, strong political will, and sound strategies for pollution management, Ethiopia may bend the EKC and avoid the “pollute first, clean up later” development path that industrialized countries have taken—creating the chance for a cleaner environment, a healthier population, and a stronger and sustainable development progress. -
Publication
Rwanda Economic Update, September 2022: Boosting Exports Through Technology, Innovation, and Trade in Services
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-09)Rwanda’s economy staged a strong recovery in 2021. Inflationary pressures are mounting, leading the National Bank of Rwanda to tighten monetary policy. Looking ahead, economic growth is expected to moderate in 2022-24, weighed down by the war in Ukraine. Fiscal consolidation and spending efficiencies will be introduced with the FY22-23 budget to preserve space for growth-enhancing investment. Rwandan firms’ participation in international trade has increased dramatically. Econometric analysis shows that obtaining International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification, adoption of e-commerce and access to credit are significantly co-related to a Rwandan firm’s participation in exports. Innovation is significantly related to exports, although the relationship varies by sector and type of innovation. Rwanda is facing a skills deficit that, if not remedied, will constrain potential growth for high-skill services exports. Rwanda’s efforts to achieve international cooperation on services trade policies have been mixed. Rwanda should address its skills shortage by recognizing qualifications of regional professionals and abolishing work-permit regimes for all eligible regional professionals. However, the attraction of regional services providers should be accompanied by aggressive measures to help expand the number of Rwandan professionals.