Publication:
Nicaragua - Public Expenditure Review : Improving the Poverty Focus of Public Spending

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (18.47 MB)
175 downloads
English Text (931.32 KB)
659 downloads
Published
2001-12-07
ISSN
Date
2013-08-28
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This Public Expenditure Review has two broad objectives. The first is to analyze the pattern and evolution of public expenditures in Nicaragua with a view toward assessing their consistency with the priorities expressed in the recent Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), as well as recommending ways to improve their poverty reducing impact. The PRSP puts heavy emphasis on the social sectors and the rural sectors: projects in these sectors account for 80 percent of the total portfolio of poverty reducing projects. Accordingly, the sector reviews in this report mainly focus on these two sectors plus transport, which has the single largest sector investment program. Municipal finances are not covered for lack of adequate information. The second objective of the PER is to diagnose Nicaragua's institutional capacity to implement the poverty reduction programs to be defined in the PRSP and recommend measures for raising that capacity. The Joint Staff Assessment of the Interim and full PRSP point toward the need to proioritize further the poverty reducing projects and programs envisaged by the government. Such a prioritization is likely to require a significant reallocation of public resources that could strain the limited capacity of the public sector's planning and budgeting framework. As part of this institutional diagnosis, the PER also evaluates the tracking mechanism to monitor the use of HIPC funds, and recommends measures for strengthening it.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2001. Nicaragua - Public Expenditure Review : Improving the Poverty Focus of Public Spending. Public expenditure review (PER);. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15446 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Honduras : Public Expenditure Management for Poverty Reduction and Fiscal Sustainability
    (Washington, DC, 2001-06-28) World Bank
    As a highly indebted poor country, Honduras faces a dual challenge of reducing poverty while ensuring medium-term sustainability of its public spending to avoid recurrence of over indebtedness. This Public Expenditure Review (PER) is intended to contribute to the government's overall poverty reduction efforts through efficient use of public resources and fiscally sustainable improvement in public services. It provides an assessment of Honduras' institutional capacity for good expenditure management and identifies key policy priorities in selected sector (health, education, and infrastructure). A good institutional arrangement of effective public expenditure management requires achieving the three inter-related objectives of aggregate fiscal discipline, allocation of resources to strategic priorities, and operational efficiency. One of the problems in Honduras' public expenditure management that can be tackled immediately is the need for improvement in the budget classification system for better fiscal transparency. Besides, a medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) is useful to guide budgetary decision-making that balances medium-term fiscal affordability/sustainability and strategic priorities of policies and expenditure programs. This report presents an illustration that emphasizes developing a MTEF for personnel expenditures, whose control is critical for fiscal sustainability and the government's ability to fund other critical spending item for poverty reduction.
  • Publication
    Guyana : Public Expenditure Review
    (Washington, DC, 2002-08-20) World Bank
    Since independence in 1966, Guyana's economy has gone through a state control of major productive sectors, and financial institutions - including controls of prices, credit, and foreign exchange - to a combination of political/social unrest, with terms of trade deterioration, and slow economic growth. This led Guyana to become the fourth poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, despite its rich endowment in mineral resources, biodiversity, and forested land. In this context, the main objective of the Public Expenditure Review (PER) is to analyze its expenditures so as to gain understanding of the structure of Government's budget processes to allow its execution, and, assist the Government in reorienting policies, institutions, and expenditures, to achieve private sector-led growth, and better services to the poor. The PER identifies a number of weaknesses in the budget process, namely, the need for intermediate steps to set the budget within a forward-looking medium term expenditure framework, the need to prepare current and capital expenditure budgets jointly, planning for future recurrent costs, and, the need to present the budget to Parliament on a timely basis with adequate information. Recommendations suggest the budget be prepared within a national development program, and a multi-year rolling expenditure framework, with integrated budget processes for current, and capital expenditures, and, strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Finance for economic modeling, and forecasting. The report assesses sectoral policies, and expenditures in four broad areas: health, education, poverty programs, and infrastructure, focusing on how policies, incentives, and budgetary allocations can change to improve economic efficiency, and poverty alleviation.
  • Publication
    Azerbaijan : Public Expenditure Review
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-04-03) World Bank
    Azerbaijan has experienced robust economic growth during the past seven years, aided by its oil sector development. Nevertheless, poverty is still pervasive and social indicators have deteriorated. The oil and gas windfall will be of undoubted benefit to the country and its citizens if combined with a very careful macroeconomic policy and fiscal stance, as well as steadfast implementation of the structural reform program and poverty reduction strategy. The experience of other resource rich countries has often been disappointing and left large strata of the population in continued poverty. The main challenge for Azerbaijan is to design and implement a policy agenda that leads to poverty reduction and improves incomes as well as equity, while maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability. This Public Expenditure Review (PER) focuses on the public expenditure part of the overall policy agenda. Its main objective is to provide a framework for more efficient use of public resources and more effective poverty reduction efforts. This framework is designed to be consistent with the maintenance of overall macroeconomic stability and with sustainable economic growth in the non-oil sector. The macroeconomic achievements over the past five years have been encouraging. Continuing these achievements, however, may present a greater challenge to the authorities in the coming decade. The relatively speedy accumulation of fiscal revenues related to the oil and gas windfall will create heavy spending pressures. Using these funds unwisely or out of the context of a sound vision of the country's sustainable economic development path will create macroeconomic instabilities, inefficient and non-competitive non-oil activities, or both. The basic conclusion and simple recommendation of this PER is that Azerbaijan follow a fiscal strategy consistent with sustainable development of the non-oil sector, while over time mending institutional weaknesses and structural deficiencies, and investing in its people.
  • Publication
    Republic of Tajikistan : Evaluation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Process and Arrangements Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility
    (Washington, DC, 2004-07-06) International Monetary Fund; World Bank
    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank introduced the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process in 1999 to strengthen the poverty alleviation focus of their assistance to low-income countries. This report reviews Tajikistan s experience with the PRSP process, focusing on the effectiveness of IMF and World Bank support to the process and the extent to which the two institutions lending and non-lending activities in the country are aligned to the objectives of the PRSP approach. The rest of the report is organized as follows. Part two provides brief background accounts of political and economic developments since independence in 1991, including poverty incidence in the late 1990s. The relevance of the PRSP approach, application of the underlying principles, and preliminary evidence on results, are examined in part three. Part four considers the effectiveness of World Bank support, including alignment of that support to the objectives of the PRSP approach. The effectiveness of IMF support, including alignment of programs supported under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) and its predecessor, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), to PRSP objectives, is assessed in part five. Part six reviews IMF-World Bank collaboration, include the Joint Staff Assessments (JSA) of the PRSP and of collaboration on country operations. Part seven presents main conclusions and lessons.
  • Publication
    Reforms under Fiscal Stress : A Policy Note on the Priorities for Fiscal and Budget Reform in Nepal
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012) Bajracharya, Roshan Darshan; Biletska, Nataliya; Rajaram, Anand
    This note, first of the several on fiscal management and policy option notes planned, provides a concise assessment of the achievements to date of the ongoing reforms to budget management in Nepal and concludes with some guidance on the key focus areas of fiscal policy and expenditure management over the near and medium term. It is a selective assessment that looks at major aspects of the policy and budget process with a view to identifying areas for strategic focus, rather than a detailed rendering of the reforms. The note highlights the fiscal challenges that are assuming increasing prominence and which must be addressed by policy decisions and medium term reforms. While recognizing the uniqueness of Nepal's initial conditions, capacities and current security related challenges, the note takes account of international experience in implementing such reforms. The note starts with the economic and political background. The second section reviews fiscal trends and outlines issues to be considered by a fiscal strategy. The third section discusses institutional issues to strengthen the budget process.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03) World Bank
    Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.
  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23) Belacin, Matias; Iacovone, Leonardo; Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy
    Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.