Publication:
Georgia: Towards Green and Resilient Growth

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (7.19 MB)
2,635 downloads
Date
2020-11
ISSN
Published
2020-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Georgia has made remarkable progress in terms of economic growth and poverty alleviation. In 2019, the country became an upper middle-income country Georgia’s endowment of natural resources is a significant source of national wealth and has the potential for accelerating inclusive socio-economic development. Yet, challenges persist as poverty and inequality remain high, especially in rural areas. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) induced global recession has affected important sectors of the economy, including tourism and the travel industry. This report fills knowledge gaps in the upstream importance of environment and natural assets, and highlights areas for aligning national strategies with sustainable recovery from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In so doing, the report aims to inform national policies by which Georgia has commitments to “greening” sector developments aligned with the provisions of the EU–Georgia Association Agreement. The analysis underlying the report includes updates to the cost of environmental degradation (CoED) published in 2015. It also reflects the new government priorities and options for addressing specific challenges in forest management, land and coastal degradation, and air pollution. The recommendations of this report are designed for a wider audience, including the government of Georgia, as well as development partners and broader society.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2020. Georgia: Towards Green and Resilient Growth. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34862 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
    Environment Matters at the World Bank, 2007 Annual Review : Climate Change and Adaptation
    (Washington, DC, 2007) World Bank
    This edition of environment matters arrives just as the international community embarks on a two-year process to secure a new global framework to limit the amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) entering the atmosphere and devise ways to help developing countries adapt to and prepare themselves for the effects of climate change. At the World Bank, the author believe that climate change, and developing countries' adaptation to it, is a critical challenge of our time that must be integrated into core development strategies. Changes in temperatures and weather patterns will affect the frequency and severity of rainfall, droughts, floods, and access to water, flood protection, health, and the use of land. These impacts will not be evenly distributed. The poorest countries and people, those least responsible for climate change and least able to cope with it, will suffer earliest and most due to their geographical location, low incomes, and low institutional capacity, as well as their greater reliance on climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture. This is why building up resilience to increasing climate variability is the most significant climate challenge facing many developing countries. But we believe that adaptation, while necessary in and of itself, can also serve to meet the development objectives of countries. Many appropriate adaptive measures are consistent with good development practice. They can improve the local environment, increase resilience to current and future climate variability and to natural disasters, and ease the dissemination of innovative technologies. They can also reduce resource scarcity within specific social groups or regions, thereby addressing some of the principal causes of social unrest and violent strife. In other words, climate action is development action.
  • Publication
    Using Forests to Enhance Resilience to Climate Change : What Do We Know About How Forests Can Contribute to Adaptation?
    (Washington, DC, 2012-11) World Bank
    The global dialogue surrounding the United Nations framework convention for climate change has focused on two strategies for addressing challenges associated with climate change: (1) mitigation (reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere); and (2) adaptation (reducing the vulnerability of societies and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change). Forests feature in both of these strategies. The role of forests as stores of carbon and therefore in reducing GHG emissions has been captured in the efforts associated with reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and enhancing carbon stocks (REDD+). The report points to how forests will respond to climate change, and advocates strengthening the ability of institutions to deliver on sustainable forest management, which will help with the resilience of forest systems. This working paper presents a review of relevant work on forests and the services, and the use of forests and trees in adaptation. The paper starts with a brief discussion about climate change. It also provides a conceptualization of how to link forest services with their use for adaptation (more specifically, ecosystem-based adaptation). This report is structured as follows: chapter one gives introduction; chapter two focuses on climate change; chapter three presents vulnerability and climate change adaptation; chapter four introduces the ecosystem-based adaptation; chapter five deals with forests and adaptation; and chapter six gives conclusions and way forward.
  • Publication
    Investing in a More Sustainable Indonesia : Country Environmental Analysis 2009 - Main Report
    (World Bank, 2009-10-01) World Bank
    The objective of this Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to highlight the underlying challenges and opportunities for Indonesia's environment and management of its natural resources in order to guide the World Bank support to Indonesian institutions for more sustainable development. Rather, the CEA sets the broader context (chapter one) and economic costs of environmental degradation (chapter two) in order to identify underlying challenges and opportunities. These are divided into two sets of priorities those related to environmental governance and those that are more sectoral in nature. Environmental governance encompasses the decentralized framework for environmental management (chapter three), enabling policies for greater environment and resource sustainability (chapter four) and building environmental constituencies (chapter five). The sectoral challenges that are most important for Indonesian development are vulnerability to climate change (chapter six), land use and climate change (chapter seven) and energy and climate change (chapter eight). The report concludes with options for a more sustainable Indonesia, including recommendations for how the World Bank can more effectively invest in light of the CEA findings (chapter nine).
  • Publication
    Convenient Solutions to an Inconvenient Truth : Ecosystem-based Approaches to Climate Change
    (World Bank, 2010) World Bank
    Global warming and changes in climate have already had observed impacts on natural ecosystems and species. Natural systems such as wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, cloud forests, and Arctic and high-latitude ecosystems are especially vulnerable to climate-induced disturbances. However, enhanced protection and management of biological resources and habitats can mitigate the impacts and contribute to solutions as nations and communities strive to adapt to climate change. Biodiversity is the foundation and mainstay of agriculture, forests, and fisheries. Biological resources provide the raw materials for livelihoods, agriculture, medicines, trade, tourism, and industry. Forests, grasslands, freshwater, and marine and other natural ecosystems provide a range of services often not recognized in national economic accounts but vital to human welfare: regulation of water flows and water quality, flood control, pollination, decontamination, carbon sequestration, soil conservation, and nutrient and hydrological cycling. Current efforts to address climate change focus mainly on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by adopting cleaner energy strategies and on reducing the vulnerability of communities at risk by improving infrastructure to meet new energy and water needs. This book offers a compelling argument for including ecosystem-based approaches to mitigation and adaptation as an essential pillar in national strategies to address climate change. Such ecosystem-based strategies can offer cost-effective, proven, and sustainable solutions that contribute to, and complement, other national and regional adaptation strategies.
  • Publication
    Convenient Solutions to an Inconvenient Truth : Ecosystem-based Approaches to Climate Change
    (World Bank, 2009-06-01) World Bank
    The World Bank's mission is to alleviate poverty and support sustainable development. Climate change is a serious environmental challenge that could undermine these goals. Since the industrial revolution, the mean surface temperature of earth has increased an average 2 degree Celsius due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Most of this change has occurred in the past 30 to 40 years, and the rate of increase is accelerating. These rising temperatures will have significant impacts at a global scale and at local and regional levels. While it remains important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reverse climate change in the long run, many of the impacts of climate change are already in evidence. As a result, governments, communities, and civil society are increasingly concerned with anticipating the future effects of climate change while searching for strategies to mitigate, and adapt to, its current and future effects. Global warming and changes in climate have already had observed impacts on natural ecosystems and species. Natural systems such as wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, cloud forests, arctic and high latitude ecosystems are especially vulnerable to climate-induced disturbances. Current efforts to address climate change focus mainly on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly through cleaner energy strategies, and on attempting to reduce vulnerability of communities at risk by improving infrastructure to meet new energy and water needs. This report attempts to set out a compelling argument for including ecosystem-based approaches to mitigation and adaptation as a third and essential pillar in national strategies to address climate change. The report is targeted at both Bank task teams and country clients. Such ecosystem-based strategies can offer cost-effective, proven and sustainable solutions contributing to, and complementing, other national and regional adaptation strategies.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Bhutan Gender Policy Note
    (Washington, DC, 2013-10-10) World Bank Group
    Bhutan has undergone a major socio-economic transformation over the past few decades. Today, as a middle-income country guided by the unique development philosophy of Gross National Happiness, it continues to develop rapidly and become more integrated into the global economy. Coinciding with its development, Bhutan has also made considerable strides in closing gaps in gender equality. The analysis of the Gender Policy Note (GPN) focuses on specific issues related to economic empowerment. It analyzes patterns related to specific aspects of the economic empowerment of both men and women by applying the analytical framework of the 2012 World Development Report on Gender and Development to the Bhutan context. For the areas of focus, the report examines overall indicators on gender and identifies areas where gender gaps persist: agricultural land holding and inheritance practices, and gender gaps in labor markets and job quality. In Bhutan, most women acquire land ownership through inheritance, particularly in matrilineal communities. Unlike in other countries, the matrilineal inheritance practice offers economic opportunities for Bhutanese women and contributes to their relatively equal status with men. In addition, land holding through inheritance can also affect economic choices, particularly the decision to remain in one's village. Bhutan has made tremendous progress in female labor force participation, but the quality of jobs for women is still an issue. Although women's participation in the labor force has increased, it has not translated into improvements in employment quality. The Labor Force Survey shows that Bhutanese women work in lower quality jobs than men-women who earn income from work outside the home; their earnings are only 75 percent of men's earnings. The report recommends policy interventions in five main areas: first, it promotes equal ownership and agency over land. The policy appears to be working well in most areas of the country, and families are moving toward equal inheritance. Second, women's economic endowment could be augmented to increase labor productivity and earnings. Third, child care, along with vocational and life-skills training tailored for girls could women's access to good jobs. Fourth, social norms that lead to gender inequality could be addressed by promoting a greater role for men as fathers and caregivers and men's participation in housework. Finally, the report recognizes the need to conduct further research to better understand the gender gap in happiness.
  • Publication
    Exploring Universal Basic Income
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020) Gentilini, Ugo; Grosh, Margaret; Rigolini, Jamele; Yemtsov, Ruslan; Gentilini, Ugo; Grosh, Margaret; Rigolini, Jamele; Yemtsov, Ruslan; Bastagli, Francesca; Lustig, Nora; Monsalve Montiel, Emma; Quan, Siyu; Ter-Minassian, Teresa; De Wispelaere, Jurgen; Lowe, Christina; George, Tina
    Universal basic income (UBI) is emerging as one of the most hotly debated issues in development and social protection policy. But what are the features of UBI? What is it meant to achieve? How do we know, and what don’t we know, about its performance? What does it take to implement it in practice? Drawing from global evidence, literature, and survey data, this volume provides a framework to elucidate issues and trade-offs in UBI with a view to help inform choices around its appropriateness and feasibility in different contexts. Specifically, the book examines how UBI differs from or complements other social assistance programs in terms of objectives, coverage, incidence, adequacy, incentives, effects on poverty and inequality, financing, political economy, and implementation. It also reviews past and current country experiences, surveys the full range of existing policy proposals, provides original results from micro–tax benefit simulations, and sets out a range of considerations around the analytics and practice of UBI.
  • Publication
    What are the Main Variables that Influence the Dynamics of Ecuador’s Sovereign Risk?
    (Taylor & Francis, 2023-01-16) Carrillo-Maldonado, Paul; Díaz-Cassou, Javier; Flores, Miguel
    This paper analyzes the determinants of Ecuador’s sovereign spreads as measured by the EMBI index. We use Bayesian algorithms to estimate a structural vector autoregressive model with three blocks (international, regional, and domestic). Global variables drive most of the dynamics of the Ecuadorian EMBI, also influenced by the evolution of sovereign risks in other Latin American countries like Chile and Peru. We likewise show that the increase in public debt is the primary domestic variable affecting the Ecuadorian EMBI.
  • Publication
    Agriculture, Water, and Land Policies to Scale Up Sustainable Agrifood Systems in Georgia
    (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.
  • Publication
    Regulating Market Entry of Low-Cost Private Schools in Sub-Saharan Africa
    (Elsevier, 2018-05) Baum, Donald R.; Cooper, Rachel; Lusk-Stover, Oni
    This study provides a comparative assessment of policies governing private schools in twenty countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Findings suggest that current regulatory systems are failing to adequately address the negative externalities and failures of private schooling markets. Insufficient capacity on the part of governments is a contributor to uneven policy implementation and creates opportunities for rent-seeking and corruption. Onerous market entry regulations offer constraints on the growth of official private education markets, but facilitate growth in unofficial markets if demand for education is not being fully met by the supply of government service provision, restricting the government’s ability to provide adequate oversight of private providers.