Publication: Afghanistan Development Update, April 2021: Setting Course to Recovery
Loading...
Files in English
1,639 downloads
Date
2021-04-05
ISSN
Published
2021-04-05
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Afghanistan continues to face daunting challenges and uncertainties. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis imposed a heavy burden on the economy, public finances, and private sector investment in 2020. Urban unemployment and hardship increased, while declining revenues limited the feasible extent of the government’s response. With many firms closed and jobs lost, recovery from the impacts of the crisis now depends on re-investment and a recovery in confidence. Restoration of confidence has been hampered, however, by challenging political and security conditions, and uncertainties regarding future international support. Peace talks between the government and the Taliban are making slow progress, while the frequency of Taliban attacks has increased. Economic recovery will depend on a continued strong partnership between the government and its international partners. To help restore private sector confidence and facilitate continued international support, the government needs to demonstrate substantial progress on revenue, anti-corruption, and private sector reforms.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2021. Afghanistan Development Update, April 2021: Setting Course to Recovery. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35363 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Maldives Development Update, April 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04)The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brought global tourism and travel to a standstill. Thus, although the health impact of the pandemic has been fairly contained in Maldives, its economic consequences have been devastating. To contain the spread of the virus, the country closed its borders for the first time in history, between March 27 and July 15, 2020, leading to a sudden stop in tourism, the main driver of growth, jobs, and revenues. The special focus article of the April 2021 Maldives Development Update explores how Maldives can leverage digital technologies to build back better for green, resilient, and inclusive development in the post-COVID world. It identifies the main bottlenecks to greater digital adoption and provides preliminary recommendations on how the government can address them.Publication Pakistan Development Update, April 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04)The World Bank Pakistan Development Update (PDU) provides an update on the Pakistani economy, its economic outlook, together with the development challenges it faces and the structural reforms that should be considered. The report begins with a chapter on recent economic developments, with sections on the real sector and economic growth, monetary and financial sector developments, the external sector, and fiscal policy and public debt. The second chapter provides the medium-term macroeconomic outlook, describes risks and challenges, and structural reform needs. This is followed by the focus topic section on the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on the private sector.Publication Bangladesh Development Update, April 2021(World Bank, Dhaka, 2021-04)This report provides an assessment of the state of the economy in Bangladesh, discussing the outlook, risks, and key reform challenges. It covers: real sector developments, focusing on growth and its components; inflation; monetary and financial sector developments; external sector trends, focusing on the balance of payments, foreign exchange reserves and the exchange rate; and fiscal outcomes, focusing on revenue mobilization, public expenditures, and deficit financing. The special focus section of this update discusses how improved connectivity and logistics can help the Bangladeshi economy recover from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and build resilience to future shocks.Publication Kenya Economic Update, June 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-28)The pandemic has dealt a major blow to the economy, but the government’s quick policy responses have helped to cushion the impact, and a partial recovery is underway. In response to the improving conditions, many of the tax and regulatory relief measures extended at the onset of the crisis have been discontinued. The economy is expected to continue to recover and gradually return to growth of above 5 percent. The near-term economic outlook for Kenya, as elsewhere, remains unusually uncertain and contingent on the course of the pandemic.Publication Sri Lanka Development Update 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-20)Amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sri Lanka’s economy contracted by 3.6 percent in 2020, the worst growth performance on record, as is the case in many countries fighting the pandemic. Swift measures enacted by the government in the second quarter helped contain the first wave of Coronavirus (COVID-19) successfully, but these measures hit sectors like tourism, construction, and transport especially hard, while collapsing global demand impacted the textile industry. Job and earning losses disrupted private consumption and uncertainty impeded investment. As a result, the economy contracted by 16.4 percent (y-o-y) in the second quarter. The economy began to recover in the third quarter as the first wave was brought under control and containment measures were relaxed. The momentum continued in the fourth quarter as the economy was broadly kept open despite a second wave of Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections. The special focus section of this edition discusses the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on poverty in Sri Lanka as of 2021.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition(Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank, 2016-09-13)The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.Publication Empowerment in Practice : From Analysis to Implementation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)This book represents an effort to present an easily accessible framework to readers, especially those for whom empowerment remains a puzzling development concern, conceptually and in application. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 explains how the empowerment framework can be used for understanding, measuring, monitoring, and operationalizing empowerment policy and practice. Part 2 presents summaries of each of the five country studies, using them to discuss how the empowerment framework can be applied in very different country and sector contexts and what lessons can be learned from these test cases. While this book can offer only a limited empirical basis for the positive association between empowerment and development outcomes, it does add to the body of work supporting the existence of such a relationship. Perhaps more importantly, it also provides a framework for future research to test the association and to prioritize practical interventions seeking to empower individuals and groups.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication World Development Report 2004(World Bank, 2003)Too often, services fail poor people in access, in quality, and in affordability. But the fact that there are striking examples where basic services such as water, sanitation, health, education, and electricity do work for poor people means that governments and citizens can do a better job of providing them. Learning from success and understanding the sources of failure, this year’s World Development Report, argues that services can be improved by putting poor people at the center of service provision. How? By enabling the poor to monitor and discipline service providers, by amplifying their voice in policymaking, and by strengthening the incentives for providers to serve the poor. Freedom from illness and freedom from illiteracy are two of the most important ways poor people can escape from poverty. To achieve these goals, economic growth and financial resources are of course necessary, but they are not enough. The World Development Report provides a practical framework for making the services that contribute to human development work for poor people. With this framework, citizens, governments, and donors can take action and accelerate progress toward the common objective of poverty reduction, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals.Publication Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises : A Toolkit(Washington, DC, 2014-10-04)This Toolkit provides an overall framework with practical tools and information to help policymakers design and implement corporate governance reforms for state-owned enterprises. It covers the key elements of corporate governance, including legal and regulatory framework, state ownership arrangements, performance management systems, financial and fiscal discipline, boards of directors, transparency and disclosure, and protection of shareholders in mixed ownership companies. Experience shows that no one approach is universally applicable and the choice of measures depends on country and enterprise circumstances. The Toolkit thus provides a range of frameworks, concepts, case examples, checklists, and model documents that together aim to help government officials make the appropriate choices for their circumstances. The Toolkit concludes with guidance on managing the reform process, in particular how to prioritize and sequence reforms, build capacity, and engage with stakeholders.