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.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: Vietnam
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    Vietnam is a Southeast Asian nation with an extensive coastline and diverse but generally warm climate including temperate and tropical regions. Given that a high proportion of the country’s population and economic assets are located in coastal lowlands and deltas and rural areas face issues of poverty and deprivation, Vietnam has been ranked among the five countries likely to be most affected by climate change. This document aims to succinctly summarize the climate risks faced by Vietnam. This includes rapid onset and long- term changes in key climate parameters, as well as impacts of these changes on communities, livelihoods and economies, many of which are already underway. Climate change is a major risk to good development outcomes, and the World Bank Group is committed to playing an important role in helping countries integrate climate action into their core development agendas. The World Bank Group (WBG) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are committed to supporting client countries to invest in and build a low-carbon, climate resilient future, helping them to be better prepared to adapt to current and future climate impacts.
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: Thailand
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    Thailand is the twentieth most populous country in the world, located at the center of Southeast Asia. The southern end of the country is a peninsula with the Andaman Sea to the west and Gulf of Thailand. Located in the tropical region, Thailand’s climate is relatively warm all year round. Thailand has experienced negative growth due to the impacts form the Coronavirus (COIVD-19) pandemic, which has adversely affected Thailand’s small, open economy, its export and the country’s tourism sector. To counter this, Thailand has placed emphasis on self-reliance and resilience to external factors in its economic planning. This document aims to succinctly summarize the climate risks faced by Thailand. This includes rapid onset and long-term changes in key climate parameters, as well as impacts of these changes on communities, livelihoods and economies, many of which are already underway. Climate change is a major risk to good development outcomes, and the World Bank Group is committed to playing an important role in helping countries integrate climate action into their core development agendas. The World Bank Group (WBG) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are committed to supporting client countries to invest in and build a low-carbon, climate resilient future, helping them to be better prepared to adapt to current and future climate impacts.
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: Cambodia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented adverse social and economic impacts. Further, the pandemic has demonstrated the compounding impacts of adding yet another shock on top of the multiple challenges that vulnerable populations already face in day-to-day life, with the potential to create devastating health, social, economic, and environmental crises that can leave a deep, long-lasting mark. However, as governments take urgent action and lay the foundations for their financial, economic, and social recovery, they have a unique opportunity to create economies that are more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient. Short and long-term recovery efforts should prioritize investments that boost jobs and economic activity; have positive impacts on human, social and natural capital, protect biodiversity and ecosystems services; boost resilience; and advance the decarbonization of economies. This document aims to succinctly summarize the climate risks faced by Cambodia. This includes rapid onset and long-term changes in key climate parameters, as well as impacts of these changes on communities, livelihoods, and economies, many of which are already underway. This is a high-level synthesis of existing research and analyses, focusing on the geographic domain of Cambodia, therefore potentially excluding some international influences and localized impacts. The core data presented is sourced from the database sitting behind the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP), incorporating climate projections from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). This document is primarily meant for WBG and ADB staff to inform their climate actions. The document also aims and to direct the reader to many useful sources of secondary data and research.
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: Philippines
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    The Philippines is an archipelago comprised of 7,107 islands with a humid climate and a topography characterized by mountainous terrain bordered by narrow coastal plains. Considered one of the most biologically rich and diverse countries in the world, the Philippines also has one of the world’s longest coastlines, and its marine and coastal resources yield in goods and services. The country’s mineral, oil, gas, and geothermal potential are also significant. The Philippines is also considered to be among the world’s most disaster-prone countries. Commonly occurring hazards include floods, droughts, typhoons, landslides and mudslides, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. This document aims to succinctly summarize the climate risks faced by the Philippines. This includes rapid onset and long-term changes in key climate parameters, as well as impacts of these changes on communities, livelihoods and economies, many of which are already underway. Climate change is a major risk to good development outcomes, and the World Bank Group is committed to playing an important role in helping countries integrate climate action into their core development agendas. The World Bank Group (WBG) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are committed to supporting client countries to invest in and build a low-carbon, climate resilient future, helping them to be better prepared to adapt to current and future climate impacts.
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: China
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    Climate change is a major risk to good development outcomes, and the World Bank Group is committed to playing an important role in helping countries integrate climate action into their core development agendas. The World Bank Group (WBG) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are committed to supporting client countries to invest in and build a low-carbon, climate-resilient future, helping them to be better prepared to adapt to current and future climate impacts. The People’s Republic of China is the world’s second largest economy and the largest country by population, with over 1.4 billion people. The country is highly diverse, both in geography and ethnography. The country’s geography can be generally divided into four regions. The Southern region, consisting of hilly terrain and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The Northern region, consisting of low productivity plains and deserts, including Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Western Region, consisting of high-altitude plains and mountains in Tibet Autonomous Region, and the Eastern region, which can be sub-divided into the Central Plain, North Plain, and the Northeast Plain, consisting of alluvial plains of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, and a densely populated coastline. As of 2018 China contained six cities with populations over 10 million.
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: Lao PDR
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) is endowed with abundant natural resources, such as water, forests, minerals, and biodiversity. This document aims to succinctly summarize the climate risks faced by Lao PDR. This includes rapid onset and long-term changes in key climate parameters, as well as impacts of these changes on communities, livelihoods, and economies, many of which are already underway. This is a high-level synthesis of existing research and analyses, focusing on the geographic domain of Lao PDR, therefore potentially excluding some international influences and localized impacts. The core data presented is sourced from the database sitting behind the World Bank Group’s (WBG) climate change knowledge portal (CCKP), incorporating climate projections from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). This document is primarily meant for WBG and Asian Development Bank (ADB) staff to inform their climate actions and to direct them to many useful sources of secondary data and research.
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: Indonesia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    The Republic of Indonesia, herein Indonesia, is the world’s largest archipelagic state, consisting of more than 17,500 islands with over 81,000 kilometres (km) of coastline, a population of 270.6 million as of 2019 and the largest economy in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, including extreme events such as floods and droughts, and long-term changes from sea level rise, shifts in rainfall patterns, and increasing temperature. This document aims to succinctly summarize the climate risks faced by Indonesia. This includes rapid onset and long- term changes in key climate parameters, as well as impacts of these changes on communities, livelihoods, and economies, many of which are already underway. This is a high-level synthesis of existing research and analyses, focusing on the geographic domain of Indonesia, therefore potentially excluding some international influences and localized impacts. The core data presented is sourced from the database sitting behind the World Bank Group’s (WBG) climate change knowledge portal (CCKP), incorporating climate projections from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). This document is primarily meant for WBG and Asian Development Bank (ADB) staff to inform their climate actions. The document also aims and to direct the reader to many useful sources of secondary data and research.
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    Climate Risk Country Profile: Mongolia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC and Asian Development Bank, Manila, 2021-09-24) World Bank Group ; Asian Development Bank
    Mongolia’s vast steppe plains and deserts experience about 250 sunny days every year, leading to the country commonly being termed the land of the blue sky. Historical climate warming is believed to have taken place at some of the fastest rates in the world in Mongolia and other shifts in climate dynamics are already strongly impacting on lives and livelihoods. This document aims to succinctly summarize the climate risks faced by Mongolia. This includes rapid onset and long-term changes in key climate parameters, as well as impacts of these changes on communities, livelihoods, and economies, many of which are already underway. This is a high-level synthesis of existing research and analyses, focusing on the geographic domain of Mongolia, therefore potentially excluding some international influences and localized impacts. The core data presented is sourced from the database sitting behind the World Bank Group’s (WBG) climate change knowledge portal (CCKP), incorporating climate projections from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). This document is primarily meant for WBG and Asian Development Bank (ADB) staff to inform their climate actions and to direct them to many useful sources of secondary data and research.
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    Country Gender Assessment for Lao PDR : Reducing Vulnerability and Increasing Opportunity
    (Manila, 2013-01) Asian Development Bank ; World Bank
    Since the introduction of economic reforms in the mid-1980s, strong growth and development have lifted thousands of poor women and men out of poverty, changing traditional ways of life in Lao PDR. In this environment of change, gender relations, within the family, village and society at large, are changing too. Gender equality is a core development objective. It is also smart economics. Greater gender equality can enhance productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions more representative. As Lao PDR continues its development, the empowerment of women and girls will be a key to translating the country's economic growth and the energies of its young people into improved living standards that benefit women and men alike. This assessment synthesizes information and findings from recent literature and research on gender issues in Lao PDR for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank's (WB) country partnership strategies. The assessment is planned to contribute not only to the work of the ADB and the WB, but also towards the work of the government and development partners by bringing the latest information on gender issues to the forefront. Many of the gender issues reviewed in this report cut across multiple aspects of social and economic life. This assessment presents gender issues into three main dimensions of gender equality, endowments, economic opportunities and agency, using the framework developed by the World Bank's world development report on gender. In addition to these three areas, the report also analyzes gender issues related to emerging areas of development and growing risks.
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    The Banking and Financial Sector of Lao PDR : Financial Sector Note
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-07-15) Asian Development Bank ; World Bank
    During the second half of the 1980s, Lao PDR embarked on an ambitious program of economic reforms, called the New Economic Mechanism, whose main purpose was to gradually transform its centrally-planned economy into a market-oriented economy. The initial reform momentum lasted about one decade. The far-reaching reform program encompassed many critical components including: (a) promotion of private production through improved incentives; (b) institutional infrastructure to improve market economy operations; (c) the strengthening of Lao comparative advantages through trade liberalization and further specialization; and (d) the establishment of price stability through macroeconomic policy measures. The systemic changes introduced in Lao PDR have contributed to a significant transformation of the country s economic system, away from a rigorously centrally-planned economy and towards a form of market economy based on private ownership. The percentage of poor declined based on the national poverty line from 45 to 39 percent between 1992-93 and 1997-982. But the percentage of very poor did not decline and remained at slightly above 30 percent evidencing the need for even broader and faster growth. Moreover, several factors slowed down the economic liberalization process. Such factors included the lack of transparency in government-business relations, a weak civil society, the position of some interest groups at the national and provincial levels, and the existence of noncompetitive economic structures with a few firms and actors accounting for a large share of domestic production (except in agriculture). In some areas, reform policy stagnated and is lagging. This is the case in the financial sector. The creation of a two-tier banking system in the early 1990s with separate and well-defined functions for the central bank and the state-owned commercial banks, has not resulted in the expected benefits: Lao PDR is still suffering from chronic macroeconomic instability and the state-owned commercial banks are suffering from a large amount of non-performing loans. Taking into consideration the objective of the Lao leaders to improve the well-being of the Lao People, this paper argues that there are valid reasons for establishing rules that discipline the political influence on the design and conduct of economic policy, and more specifically, policy regulating the financial sector.