Publication: World Development Indicators 2008
Loading...
Date
2008
ISSN
Published
2008
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Release of the final report of the International Comparison Program (ICP) and publication of new estimates of purchasing power parities (PPPs) in World Development Indicators 2008 are an important statistical milestone. The estimates offer a consistent and comprehensive set of data on the cost of living in developed and developing countries, the first since 1997, when the results of the previous ICP data collection were published in World Development Indicators. The 2005 data cover 146 countries and territories, 29 more than the last round in 1993, and many for the first time. Collecting data on thousands of products sold through a multitude of outlets, the 2005 ICP is the largest international statistical program ever undertaken. New methods were used to describe the products being priced, record the data, and analyze the results. Countries in Africa took the opportunity to review their national accounts and adopt new standards and methods. In all regions regional coordinators worked closely with national statistical offices to collect and validate the data. The result is a genuine global effort, with an extensive capacity building component. More work will follow from the ICP. First is the revision of the international ($1 a day) poverty line and estimation of the corresponding poverty rates, certain to change a view of the absolute level of poverty in the world. PPPs have many applications in economic analysis. They are used to determine the relative size of countries and their obligations to international institutions. The publication of new estimates will inspire a new wave of academic studies. And as all of this work goes on, planning for the next round of the ICP will be getting under way.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2008. World Development Indicators 2008. World Development Indicators;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11855 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 World Development Indicators 2010(World Bank, 2010-04-01)The 1998 edition of world development indicators initiated a series of annual reports on progress toward the International development goals. In the foreword then, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn recognized that 'by reporting regularly and systematically on progress toward the targets the international community has set for itself, the author will focus attention on the task ahead and make those responsible for advancing the development agenda accountable for results.' The same vision inspired world leaders to commit themselves to the millennium development goals. On this, the 10th anniversary of the millennium declaration, world development indicators 2010 focuses on progress toward the millennium development goals and the challenges of meeting them.Publication World Development Indicators 2011(World Bank, 2011)World development indicators 2011, the 15th edition in its current format, aims to provide relevant, high-quality, internationally comparable statistics about development and the quality of people's lives around the globe. Fifteen years ago, World development indicators was overhauled and redesigned, organizing the data to present an integrated view of development, with the goal of putting these data in the hands of policymakers, development specialists, students, and the public in a way that makes the data easy to use. Although there have been small changes, the format has stood the test of time, and this edition employs the same sections as the first one: world view, people, environment, economy, states and markets, and global links. This edition focuses on the impact of the decision to make data freely available under an open license and with better online tools. To help those who wish to use and reuse the data in these new ways, the section introductions discuss key issues in measuring the economic and social phenomena described in the tables and charts and introduce new sources of data. The choice of indicators and text content was shaped through close consultation with and substantial contributions from staff in the World Bank's four thematic networks sustainable development, human development, poverty reduction and economic management, and financial and private sector development and staff of the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.Publication World Development Indicators 2009(World Bank, 2009-04-01)World Development Indicators (WDI) 2009 arrives at a moment of great uncertainty for the global economy. The crisis that began more than a year ago in the U.S. housing market spread to the global financial system and is now taking its toll on real output and incomes. As a consequence, an additional 50 million people will be left in extreme poverty. And if the crisis deepens and widens or is prolonged, other development indicators, school enrollments, women's employment, child mortality, will be affected, jeopardizing progress toward the millennium development goals. Statistics help us understand the events that triggered the crisis and measure its impact. Along with this year's 91 data tables, each section of the WDI 2009 has an introduction that shows statistics in action, describing the history of the current crisis, its effect on developing economies, and the challenges they face. Official statistical agencies need to take a long range view of their public role, to think broadly about data needs and build strategic partnerships with academia and the private sector.Publication World Development Indicators 2006(2006)The developing world has made remarkable progress. The number of people living in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day has fallen by about 400 million in the last 25 years. Many more children, particularly girls, are completing primary school. Illiteracy rates have fallen by half in 30 years. And life expectancy is nearly 15 years longer, on average, than it was 40 years ago. The demand for statistics to measure progress and demonstrate the effectiveness of development programs has stimulated growing interest in the production and dissemination of statistics. And not just in the traditional domains of debt, demographics, and national accounts, but in new areas such as biodiversity, information, communications, technology, and measures of government and business performance. In response World Development Indicators (WDI) has continued to grow and change. In 1999 members of the statistical community, recognizing that the production of sound statistics for measuring progress is a global responsibility, established the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the twenty-first century (PARIS21) to strengthen statistical capacity at all levels. In 2000 the United Nations millennium summit called on all countries to work toward a quantified, time-bound set of development targets, which became the millennium development goals (MDG). In the five years since the millennium summit, the idea of working toward specific goals has evolved into a general strategy of managing for development results. Countries are reporting on progress toward the MDG and monitoring their own results using a variety of economic and social indicators. Bilateral and multilateral development agencies are incorporating results into their own management planning and evaluation systems and using new indicators to set targets for harmonizing their joint work programs. All of these efforts depend on statistics.Publication World Development Indicators 2007(Washington, DC, 2007)This year the preliminary results of the international comparison program are being released, providing new comparisons of price levels for more than 140 countries. The program, the largest single data collection effort ever undertaken, is a salutary example of what can be accomplished through global partnership, technical innovation, and systematic attention to building local statistical capacity. Along with censuses, surveys are a major source of development statistics. In 2005 the international household survey network was formed to coordinate activities and provide tools for documenting and archiving surveys, thus ensuring that investments in surveys will continue to pay dividends into the future. All of these are important steps in building national and international statistical systems that respond to the demand for evidence to guide development. But more remains to be done, and the need is urgent. The challenges to us, national and international statisticians, donors, data users, and everyone concerned with measuring results, are threefold: a) how to accelerate investment in statistics; b) how to produce statistics that meet the needs of users; and c) how to harmonize donor efforts in support of developing countries as they build their statistical systems.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
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 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.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 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.