Publication: Georgia Systematic Country Diagnostic Update: Keeping the Reform Momentum
Loading...
Other Files
50 downloads
Date
2023-10-26
ISSN
Published
2023-10-26
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Since the release of the first Georgia Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) in 2018 Georgia has regained upper middle-income status and has shown resilience amid a rapidly changing external environment. Economic growth has remained robust despite shocks, driven by capital accumulation. Consistent with the slowdown in the labor contribution to growth, poverty reduction has slowed in recent years, as income from wages has decreased. Georgia has struggled to create quality jobs, and labor force participation has declined. Constraints to firm productivity and growth limit the ability of enterprises to create good jobs. Georgia has made significant strides in access to social services, but human capital formation is undermined by quality constraints, particularly in education. In terms of sustainability, Georgia has so far been unable to decouple carbon emissions from economic growth. The report discusses as well other aspects of resilience, in terms of response to shocks and overall governance. Going forward, this SCD update identifies ten policy objectives and four high level outcomes (HLOs). These HLOs are: (i) enhanced creation of good quality jobs by boosting productivity; (ii) improved and more equitable human capital; (iii) enhanced readiness to climate change and the green transition; and (iv) improved resilience to shocks.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2023. Georgia Systematic Country Diagnostic Update: Keeping the Reform Momentum. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40540 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Azerbaijan Systematic Country Diagnostic Update(Washington, DC, 2022-06-27)The Azerbaijan Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) Update 2022 identifies the most critical challenges facing the government in the effort to achieve the country’s national goals and the twin goals of eradicating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. It also identifies policy priorities to address these challenges within a changing economic and geopolitical environment. The SCD is a comprehensive evidence-based analysis founded on the latest data and analyses available. The document benefited from comments and feedback provided by stakeholders in Azerbaijan, including national authorities, the private sector, and civil society. By reflecting voices on the ground, the SCD is intended to support the implementation of the country’s development agenda as outlined in “Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for Socio-Economic Development” (Azerbaijan 2030) (President of the Republic of Azerbaijan 2021). The analysis is built on the findings of the first generation Azerbaijan SCD, which was published in 2015, and also updates the analysis to account for recent developments since 2015. The SCD likewise plays a crucial role in providing an analytical basis for the Country Partnership Framework (CPF), a document that will guide the World Bank’s engagement and partnership with the government of Azerbaijan over the next four to six years.Publication Bulgaria Systematic Country Diagnostic(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021)The Systematic Country Diagnostic Update examines the key constraints to and opportunities for sustainably accelerating inclusive growth and boosting shared prosperity in Bulgaria. It builds on the first Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) published in 2015, entitled “Bulgaria’s Potential for Sustainable Growth and Shared Prosperity”. The analysis is organized in three components related to economic growth: strength, inclusiveness and sustainability. Although the earlier diagnostic remains valid for the most part, several contextual factors such as the health, social and economic repercussions of COVID-19, a drive to embrace the digital and green transformation, and a rapidly aging population— have emerged or gained prominence, creating new challenges or sharpening existing ones in all three growth areas. Alongside these mega-trends, institutions and governance continue to play a prominent role through their impacts on all segments of growth.Publication Lesotho Systematic Country Diagnostic Update(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12)The 2015 Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) emphasized the need to shift from a public sector-driven to a private sector-driven, export-oriented, and job-creating economic growth model. This SCD Update revisits the constraints and priority interventions identified in the 2015 SCD and posits that most of the challenges and binding constraints identified in the first SCD remain valid today.Publication North Macedonia Systematic Country Diagnostic Update(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-10)The 2018 North Macedonia SCD evaluated the country’s economic development and recognized its impressive progress in reducing poverty and advancing shared prosperity. Between 2002 and 2018, income per capita doubled, and the country rose from lower-middle-income to upper-middle-income status. In the wake of the global financial crisis, a sustained increase in the incomes of households in the bottom 40 percent of the distribution halved the headcount poverty rate to about 20 percent, and years of inclusive growth drove one of the world’s steepest declines in inequality. While this assessment was broadly positive, it also highlighted challenges that could make progress difficult to sustain unless structural reforms were advanced including within the European Union (EU) accession negotiations context. The SCD presented three complementary pathways for North Macedonia to achieve faster, more inclusive, and sustainable growth: (i) increasing productivity; (ii) enhancing job opportunities for all; and (iii) achieving sustainability through effective governance, fiscal prudence, enhanced environmental management and resilience to natural hazards. Five years later, these same pathways remain central to inclusive growth and poverty reduction in North Macedonia. North Macedonia envisions a future characterized by higher productivity and better paid jobs; enhanced infrastructure and public services that allow a more balanced regional development; a sustainable environment and higher resilience to shocks; and, ultimately, being a member of the EU. Unfortunately, the country lags on these aspirations and grapples with the pressing issue of population decline and emigration. Numerous factors contribute to the wave of emigration, encompassing political polarization, corruption, eroded trust in public institutions, perceptions of socioeconomic inequality, persisting intergenerational poverty, low-quality healthcare and education systems, and alarming levels of air pollution.Publication Malawi Systematic Country Diagnostic(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-12)The Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for Malawi provides the analytical foundation for country-level actions and investments to foster progress towards the World Bank Group (WBG) Twin Goals as well as the country’s national goals. The main purpose of the SCD is to identify the key challenges and opportunities that Malawi faces as it works towards eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. The systematic and evidence-based analysis from the SCD will serve to inform a new Country Partnership Framework and help the WBG, Government and external partners to prioritize and align their strategies towards achieving the twin goals. Over past decades, Malawi’s development progress has been negatively affected by shocks, both climate-related shocks, and domestic political and governance shocks, which have collectively contributed to a slow pace of poverty reduction. Very little progress has been made in reducing poverty in rural areas, where most Malawians live. Weak governance and entrenched political clientelism have been obstacles to policy reform and the development of the country. This SCD takes a holistic approach to identify the drivers of previous poor growth performances, drawing on the history of Malawi, and proposes a set of priority areas to promote durable and inclusive growth. The SCD is divided into six parts. The first part gives an overview of the country context, while the second part traces out the trends in economic growth. The third part analyses poverty and shared prosperity in Malawi and their main drivers. The fourth part provides the main diagnostics, identifying the key constraints and pathways for Malawi to achieve the twin goals. The fifth part outlines the preliminary hypotheses for achieving the twin goals, while part six indicates knowledge gaps and areas for further research.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-04-25)Migration is a development challenge. About 184 million people—2.3 percent of the world’s population—live outside of their country of nationality. Almost half of them are in low- and middle-income countries. But what lies ahead? As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, and climate change, migration will become a necessity in the decades to come for countries at all levels of income. If managed well, migration can be a force for prosperity and can help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. World Development Report 2023 proposes an innovative approach to maximize the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries and on migrants and refugees themselves. The framework it offers, drawn from labor economics and international law, rests on a “Match and Motive Matrix” that focuses on two factors: how closely migrants’ skills and attributes match the needs of destination countries and what motives underlie their movements. This approach enables policy makers to distinguish between different types of movements and to design migration policies for each. International cooperation will be critical to the effective management of migration.Publication Commodity Markets Outlook, October 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-29)Commodity prices are expected to decrease by 5 percent in 2025 and 2 percent in 2026. The projected declines are led by oil prices but tempered by price increases for natural gas and a stable outlook for metals and agricultural raw materials. The possibility of escalating conflict in the Middle East represents a substantial near-term upside risk to energy prices, with potential knock-on consequences for other commodities. However, over the forecast horizon, longer-term dynamics—including decelerating global oil demand, diversifying oil production, and ample oil supply capacity—suggest sizable downside risks to oil prices, especially if OPEC+ unwinds its latest production cuts. There are also dual risks to industrial commodity demand stemming from economic activity. On the one hand, concerted stimulus in China and above-trend growth in the United States could push commodity prices higher. On the other, weaker-than-anticipated global industrial activity could dampen them. Following several overlapping global shocks in the early 2020s, which drove parallel swings in commodity prices, commodity markets appear to be departing from a period of tight synchronization. A Special Focus analyzes commodity price synchronization over time and considers the relative importance across commodity cycles of a wide range of demand and supply shocks, including global demand shocks and shocks specific to different commodity markets. It concludes that, while supply shocks were the dominant commodity price driver in the early 2000s and around the global financial crisis, post-pandemic price movements have been more substantially shaped by commodity-specific shocks, such as those related to conflicts.Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2024: Better Education for Stronger Growth(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-17)Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is likely to moderate from 3.5 percent in 2023 to 3.3 percent this year. This is significantly weaker than the 4.1 percent average growth in 2000-19. Growth this year is driven by expansionary fiscal policies and strong private consumption. External demand is less favorable because of weak economic expansion in major trading partners, like the European Union. Growth is likely to slow further in 2025, mostly because of the easing of expansion in the Russian Federation and Turkiye. This Europe and Central Asia Economic Update calls for a major overhaul of education systems across the region, particularly higher education, to unleash the talent needed to reinvigorate growth and boost convergence with high-income countries. Universities in the region suffer from poor management, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding and infrastructure. A mismatch between graduates' skills and the skills employers are seeking leads to wasted potential and contributes to the region's brain drain. Reversing the decline in the quality of education will require prioritizing improvements in teacher training, updated curricula, and investment in educational infrastructure. In higher education, reforms are needed to consolidate university systems, integrate them with research centers, and provide reskilling opportunities for adult workers.Publication State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-21)This report provides an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments around the world, including international, national, and subnational initiatives. It also investigates trends surrounding the development and implementation of carbon pricing instruments and some of the drivers seen over the past year. Specifically, this report covers carbon taxes, emissions trading systems (ETSs), and crediting mechanisms. Key topics covered in the 2024 report include uptake of ETSs and carbon taxes in low- and middle- income economies, sectoral coverage of ETSs and carbon taxes, and the use of crediting mechanisms as part of the policy mix.Publication Supporting Youth at Risk(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008)The World Bank has produced this policy Toolkit in response to a growing demand from our government clients and partners for advice on how to create and implement effective policies for at-risk youth. The author has highlighted 22 policies (six core policies, nine promising policies, and seven general policies) that have been effective in addressing the following five key risk areas for young people around the world: (i) youth unemployment, underemployment, and lack of formal sector employment; (ii) early school leaving; (iii) risky sexual behavior leading to early childbearing and HIV/AIDS; (iv) crime and violence; and (v) substance abuse. The objective of this Toolkit is to serve as a practical guide for policy makers in middle-income countries as well as professionals working within the area of youth development on how to develop and implement an effective policy portfolio to foster healthy and positive youth development.