Sector/Thematic Studies

6,688 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2110

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

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 17

Gender-Based Violence Country Profile: Guatemala

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-06-01) World Bank

With a population of approximately 18.2 million people, Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America. Guatemala has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world, with violent deaths of women increasing from 1.3 per 100,000 women in 2020 to 1.6 per 100,000 women in 2021, resulting in 527 femicides reported in 2021 and 534 in 2022, and 69 femicides reported by March 2023. High-risk groups facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination include young and adolescent girls, indigenous women, those who have experienced adolescent pregnancies, early unions or marriages, women and girls living with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ groups. In order to address violence and discrimination against women and girls in Guatemala, various initiatives and policies have been implemented by the government and civil society organizations. However, much work remains to be done to effectively address the root causes of these issues and ensure the safety and wellbeing of all women and girls in the country.
VAWG Prevention and Response Opportunities in FY21 Pipeline IPF Projects in Central America: Portfolio Review

(Washington, DC, 2023-06) World Bank

The Advisory Services and Analytics (ASA) Mitigating Gender-Based Violence Risks and Expanding the gender-based violence (GBV) portfolio in Central America carried out in FY21 aimed to develop and apply a methodology to screen World Bank (WB) projects across sectors to identify entry points for preventing and/or responding to GBV beyond actions to mitigate sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and sexual harassment (SH). The ASA comprises several documents that are intended primarily for WB task teams, who can help their clients adopt GBV prevention and response measures in projects across sectors. This document uses a tool for integrating violence against women and girls (VAWG) actions in WB operations to identify a selected group of operations to address VAWG prevention and response actions that align to the scope of the operation.
Diagnosing the Binding Constraints to Better Jobs: An Approach and Framework

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-16) Osborne, Theresa

The persistent lack of good jobs that is, an inadequate level or quality of jobs, inefficient and/or inequitable jobs outcomes is a key economic issue in developing (and some developed) economies. Yet policy responses often lack an understanding of the causes. While the proximate drivers, such as low productivity growth, slow capital deepening, or a lack of firms and other organized economic actors, may share patterns, the policy roots and circumstances of these outcomes vary a great deal by country. Thus, making progress in a meaningful and lasting way requires, in the first instance, a clear understanding of the binding constraints which, if alleviated, would result in a substantial structural improvement to jobs outcomes. Binding constraints could arise in a host of policies and institutions, including possibly inadequate human capital and labor market policies but also in infrastructure, regulatory, financial, judicial and other areas. This paper provides a data-driven approach and framework for diagnosing the truly binding constraints to better jobs. The approach is to rule out broad categories of constraints using economic logic and data, and to utilize an array of empirical indicators to test whether remaining candidate constraints are binding. While this paper outlines an exhaustive approach, the style of thinking and techniques can also be applied selectively to fill analytical gaps and ensure that key issues are not left unaddressed.
Working for Inclusion: Economic Inclusion in Contexts of Forced Displacement

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06-15) Heisey, Janet ; Sánchez, Inés Arévalo ; Bernagros, Alexi

Since 2012, the number of forcibly displaced people has more than doubled, reaching 89.3 million by the end of 2021. Ongoing conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, will result in even larger numbers of forcibly displaced people. The economic and human development impacts of forcible displacement present challenges for the people who have been displaced, the communities that host them, and governments that receive them. Governments, humanitarian organizations, and others are using economic inclusion programs as one strategy to increase income and assets and build the resilience of displaced people and host populations living in poverty. An estimated 95 economic inclusion programs are underway in contexts of forced displacement in 45 countries, more than half led by governments. This note examines the experience of economic inclusion programs that serve forcibly displaced people, including internally displaced people, refugees, and their host communities. It also examines the emerging lessons learned in program design and delivery based on new data on the footprint of economic inclusion programs and a review of evidence on forced displacement and economic inclusion programming.
Toward More People-Centered Service Delivery: Opportunities for the National ID System in Lesotho

(Washington, DC, 2022-05) World Bank

This note documents the current and emerging use cases for the national ID (NID) system in the Kingdom of Lesotho. It demonstrates considerable potential and progress to date, and makes recommendations for moving toward a more inclusive, trusted and service delivery-oriented NID system. Global experience has shown that national ID systems can promote more efficient, transparent and people-centered service delivery in the public and private sectors, particularly when the system is designed with the appropriate enablers and safeguards in place to support improved development outcomes and mitigate risks. As countries move toward digital economies and governance, ID systems often serve as an essential digital platform, underpinning the digital payment infrastructure and transactions, as well as the provision of online and offline government services.
Chad Economic Update - April 2022: Resilience in Uncertain Times - Harnessing Agriculture and Livestock Value Chains

(Washington, DC, 2022-04) World Bank

Chad’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 1.2 percent in 2021 - the second consecutive year of recession - driven by a two-month suspension of oil production at its Esso plants, economic disruptions due to sociopolitical insecurity, and liquidity constraints because of delays in debt restructuring. Low oil revenue, coupled with increased spending to deal with shocks, widened the fiscal deficit to 4.3 percent of GDP in 2021. The 2022-24 economic recovery is expected to be fragile and subject to significant downside risks related to recurrent and emerging sources of vulnerability. With a slow and fragile economic recovery, the adverse effects of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable households are expected to last in the short to medium term. Chad can seize emerging opportunities offered by the political transition, increasing oil prices, and debt restructuring to undertake reforms aimed at renewing its social contract and reducing long-term vulnerabilities. Stronger agricultural and livestock value chains are critical to economic diversification, sustainable growth, and food security in the medium to long term. Livestock is the economy’s most important non-oil sector and represents a major income source in the agriculture sector. The government should take bold actions to strengthen or create agricultural and livestock value chains.
Guidelines for a Strategy for Ports and Inland Waterways

(Washington, DC, 2022-03-28) World Bank

Argentina has a fairly developed transport system, which in the case of cargo shows a performance in progressive decline, with remarkable differences between components, logistics chains, and regions. Water transport, a key sector for the country’s connectivity with world markets, encounters difficulties when it comes to facilitating international trade. Two of these difficulties are of a structural nature, the first related to Argentina’s location in global maritime networks, far from key markets and major cargo corridors. The second concerns the limitations inherent to the waterways accessing ports with the largest movements of agri-bulks and containers, on the Río de La Plata and the Lower Parana River. Ports and waterways were subject to far-reaching reforms in the 1990s, fostering the greater participation of the private sector through dredging and port terminal operation concessions. At present, the contractual terms of these reforms are coming to an end, so the government now has the opportunity to redefine them, within the framework of a global context where maritime navigation - and cargo logistics in general - faces major changes and challenges. This is thus an auspicious moment to redefine strategies for ports and inland waterways, looking at safeguarding the country’s maritime connectivity and fostering greater competitiveness in international trade, whose growth is intrinsic to economic development and poverty reduction.
Cultivating Opportunities for Faster Rural Income Growth and Poverty Reduction: Mozambique Rural Income Diagnostic

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-01) World Bank

Mozambique’s economy has experienced strong growth over the last two decades, with GDP expanding at an annual average rate of 7.2 percent. However, this growth has been unequally shared and rural areas still lag far behind urban centers in both monetary and non-monetary dimensions of wellbeing. As most poor households live in rural areas, increasing rural incomes is essential to reducing poverty and ensuring the benefits of growth are distributed more equally. Income growth opportunities for rural poor households in Mozambique in the next 5-10 years are predominantly in the agricultural sector. Smallholder farming is the chief activity for most rural households, with income from non-farm sources and migration playing a lesser role and often constrained to specific regions. However, low levels of agricultural productivity, low participation in input and output markets, and high vulnerability to seasonality factors and shocks inhibits the capacity of rural households to increase their incomes. This report proceeds as follows: After setting out the framework and methods in more detail in section two, the following section provides some context by detailing the income, assets, and market engagements of rural households in Mozambique, focusing on a characterization of the livelihoods of the rural bottom 40 percent. Section four discusses the opportunities for growth across the main three sources of rural income (farm, non-farm, and migration). Section five then presents the main barriers to taking advantage of these opportunities, detailing the evidence behind this prioritization for the three most binding set of constraints. From this list of priority constraints, policy actions and investments to address the top three groups of binding constraints are discussed.
Retail Payment Costs and Savings in Kosovo

(World Bank, Washington, DC: Central Bank of Kosovo, Prishtinë, Kosovë, 2022-02) World Bank ; Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK)

This report is based on a study of the costs of retail payments in Kosovo, using a methodology (A Practical Guide for Measuring Retail Payment Costs) developed by the World Bank's Payment System Development Group (PSDG), part of the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice. The study is based on survey data, with questionnaires administered to a sample of households and businesses on the demand side, as well as to 9 commercial banks operating in Kosovo; the Central Bank of Kosovo (in its role as currency issuer and as the operator of the Automated Clearing House); 4 money transfer operators; and the Post Office on the supply side. The study aims to establish a sound economic baseline for the national retail payments system regarding the costs of different payment instruments to better guide system development and enable high-impact changes. Efficiency gains resulting from migration to lower-cost retail payment instruments and more efficient use of those instruments could have significant benefits for economic development and growth as the transaction costs of exchanging goods and services are reduced. Lower costs of retail payments can also fundamentally extend the access of electronic payment services to lower-income households and further improve the efficiency of the national payments system as access to modern payment instruments is broadened.
Agriculture, Water, and Land Policies to Scale Up Sustainable Agrifood Systems in Georgia: Synthesis Report and Way Forward

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022) World Bank

This Synthesis report summarizes the main constraints and opportunities that Georgia faces in amplifying the contribution of the agriculture sector to the country’s economic growth and diversification, employment creation, poverty reduction, food security and nutrition, and climate resilience and mitigation. Successful achievement of these multiple objectives, however, requires an integrated set of multi-sectoral policies. Synergistic public and private investments in agriculture, water, and land can lead to increased production and productivity by transitioning from low returns from agriculture to high-value crop production.