Central African Republic (C.A.R.) continues to be assessed at high risk of external debt distress. This rating is unchanged from the previous analysis and consistent with the staff report of December 2017.
... See More + Under the baseline scenario, one debt burden indicator breaches its threshold. And stress tests show that both external and total public debt sustainability is vulnerable to slower gross domestic product (GDP), export, and revenue growth. For total public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) debt (external plus domestic), the debt-to-GDP indicator remains below its prudent benchmark. However, the existence of large arrears to suppliers and unpaid public-sector wages in the domestic debt stock justifies the assessment of a heightened overall risk of debt distress. Contingent liabilities can further exacerbate vulnerability concerns. To safeguard debt sustainability, the government’s investment program requires grant financing, with highly concessional debt financing to be considered only in exceptional cases.
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A deteriorating security and humanitarian situation is dimming hopes for a robust economic recovery in the Central African Republic (CAR). The government continued to implement its fiscal consolidation and took corrective action to meet its revenue target for end-2017.
... See More + While these positive developments and the peaceful presidential election of 2016 have contributed to a climate of cautious optimism, CAR remains a fragile state. As it strives to overcome a legacy of fragility and violence, CAR can learn important lessons from the experience of other post-conflict countries.
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A deteriorating security and humanitarian situation is dimming hopes for a robust economic recovery in the Central African Republic (CAR). The government continued to implement its fiscal consolidation and took corrective action to meet its revenue target for end-2017.
... See More + While these positive developments and the peaceful presidential election of 2016 have contributed to a climate of cautious optimism, CAR remains a fragile state. As it strives to overcome a legacy of fragility and violence, CAR can learn important lessons from the experience of other post-conflict countries.
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The election of President Faustin Archange Touadéra in February 2016, and of the National Assembly, reinstituted constitutional order in the Central African Republic (CAR) after nearly three years of political transition.
... See More + The return to constitutional order and stability is supported by the international community, and facilitated by the deployment of the 12,000-person United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Together, these factors have created high hopes that the country will at long last break free from the cycle of fragility and crisis it has experienced since independence. Challenges are significant and urgent as the CAR prepares to tackle the results of more than two years of armed confrontation and decades of poor governance and underdevelopment. Armed groups took control of a vast majority of the territory, with unprecedented levels of looting, pillaging, and acts of retaliation and abuse. Insecurity led to the forced displacement of approximately one-third of the CAR population. The crisis also devastated the country's economy, and the main productive sectors—agriculture, the extractive industries, and forestry—collapsed. Armed groups took control of mining sites, and growing resource trafficking and corruption financed warlords and fueled instability, all of which further weakened the state's ability to respond to the urgent needs of its population. Vulnerable groups were particularly hard hit.
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The Central African Republic (CAR) is emerging from the most violent conflict in its history, following the turmoil and chaos that superseded the government overthrow in March 2013.
... See More + Yet the challenges are significant and urgent as the CAR now tackles the results of almost two years of ongoing armed confrontation and decades of poor governance and underdevelopment. Significant support from donors and partners will be required as the government moves to restore peace and security and create the foundations for recovery and economic development. Against this backdrop, the government requested support from the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), and the World Bank to prepare a Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment (RPBA), which could forge consensus on needs and priorities for the 2017–2021 period. The resulting report, which is presented in this document covers a period of five years, for which a comprehensive set of strategic objectives, results, activities, and costs is identified for the first three years; with a broader outline of needs and priorities included for the subsequent two years. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the current context; the impact of the recent crisis; the underlying drivers of fragility, conflict, and violence in the CAR; and the crisis response to date. Chapter 3 describes the framework used to assess and identify priorities. Chapter 4 outlines the needs and priorities the National Recovery and Peacebuilding Plan (RCPCA) aims to address; while chapter 5 describes the proposed coordination, financing and monitoring arrangements. Chapter 6 concludes with some suggestions for a longer-term strategy.
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Doing Business 2018 is the 15th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
... See More + This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Central African Republic. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 Central African Republic ranks 184. Doing Business measures aspects of regulation affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in this year’s ranking. Data in Doing Business 2018 are current as of June 1, 2017. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where and why.
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The Country Opinion Survey in CAR assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in CAR perceive the WBG.
... See More + It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in CAR on 1) their views regarding the general environment in CAR; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in CAR; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in CAR; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in CAR.
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This survey is the first source of objective information on the state of the nation since the crisis. As such it covers some important data gaps.
... See More + The commune census provides information on conditions in all communes across the territory, including on local infrastructure, health and education facilities, local governance, economic activities, conflict, security and violence, and on local perspectives of security and policy priorities. The household survey complements the commune census. It provides information on socio-economic well-being, perceptions of security and economic conditions, and opinions on policy priorities. The household survey was conducted in all but two communes, with 10 households interviewed in each. By conducting the commune and household surveys simultaneously, it is possible to explore differences in perspectives between local authorities and citizens.
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The Monographies Communales survey, with its nationwide coverage and demonstrated ability to collect information rapidly and in a cost-effective manner, presents an objective feedback loop for the state and citizens.
... See More + It will form a key component of a new monitoring system that assesses progress towards Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment (RPBA) objectives. In future rounds of the survey, the commune census and household survey can be fine-tuned and tailored to provide answers to new policy questions that emerge. The survey can also be adapted to enable better inference about important subgroups such as those in displacement camps, those in Bangui or in mining settlements. In this report, Section two characterizes recent conditions of the communes based on data elicited from local authorities in the commune census and presents a composite index of indicators on local administration, infrastructure, and basic services, called the Local Development Index (LDI). Section three presents results from the household survey that describe the situation of households and individuals with respect to topics such as education, wealth, consumption, and vulnerability. Section four presents the perceptions and development priorities of both local authorities and households, and Section five concludes by summarizing key findings and by describing the survey’s potential role in a monitoring system. Additional details on the survey design and analytical methodology can be found in the Annex.
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This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Central African Republic. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2017 is the 14th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2016 Central African Republic ranks 186. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency, and labor market regulation. Doing Business 2017 presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where, and why. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2016 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January-December 2015).
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The Congo Basin represents 70 percent of the African continent's forest cover and constitutes a large portion of Africa's biodiversity. The objective of the two-year exercise was to analyze and get a better grasp of the deforestation dynamics in the Basin.
... See More + The primary goal of the exercise was to give stakeholders (and particularly policy makers) a thorough understanding of how economic activities (agriculture, transport, mining, energy, and logging) could impact the region's forest cover through an in-depth analysis of the connections between economic developments and forest loss. Historically, the Congo Basin forest has been under comparatively little pressure, but there are signs that this situation is likely to change as pressure on the forest and other ecosystems increases. Until very recently, low population density, unrest and war, and low levels of development hampered conversion of forests into other land uses; however, satellite-based monitoring data now show that the annual rates of gross deforestation in the Basin have doubled since 1990. There is indeed some evidence that the Basin forests may be at a turning point of heading to higher deforestation and forest degradation rates. The forest ecosystems have not yet suffered the damage observed in other tropical regions (Amazonia, Southeast Asia) and are quite well preserved. The low deforestation rates mainly result from a combination of such factors as poor infrastructure, low population densities, and political instability that have led to the so-called passive protection. However, signs that the Congo Basin forests could be under increasing pressure from a variety of forces-both internal and external range from mineral extraction, road development, agribusiness, and biofuels to agriculture expansion for subsistence and population growth. All of these factors could drastically amplify the pressure on natural forests in the coming decades and trigger the transition from the 'high forest/low deforestation' profile into a more intense pace of deforestation.
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This economy profile for Doing Business 2016 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Central African Republic. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2016 is the 13th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 Central African Republic ranks 185. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2015 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period from January to December 2014).
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This Country Data Report summarizes the data from the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project for Central African Republic. The WGI report six aggregate governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996-2014, covering: i) voice and accountability, ii) political stability and absence of violence, terrorism, iii) government effectiveness, iv) regulatory quality, v) rule of law, and vi) control of corruption.
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This economy profile for Doing Business 2015 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Central African Republic. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator.
... See More + Doing Business 2015 is the 12th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 Central African Republic ranks 187. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and over time. Doing Business measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business known as indicators. Ten of these areas are included in this year's ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures labor market regulation, which is not included in this year's ranking. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2014 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period from January to December 2013).
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The Country Opinion Survey for FY2012 in Central African Republic assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Central African Republic perceive the WBG.
... See More + It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Central African Republic on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Central African Republic; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Central African Republic; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Central African Republic; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Central African Republic.
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This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Central African Republic. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.
... See More + This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the 11th edition of the Doing Business series.
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This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions: Southern African Development Community, Economic Community of West African States, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and OECD High Income.
... See More + The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2013, except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January to December 2012. Regional Doing Business reports capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across countries in a single region. They provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. The report sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high-income economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.
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A crisis has been ongoing since 2008 in the tri-border region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR), and Republic of South Sudan (ROSS).
... See More + Activities of the lord’s resistance army (LRA) have caused the displacement of a large number of the population living in the area creating a serious humanitarian situation with widespread implications for stability and the ability of communities to remain self-reliant. The strategy, developed by the United Nation (UN) Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), focuses on five key strategic objectives to address the threat from the LRA: the African union-led regional cooperation initiative against the LRA is fully operational and implemented; efforts to promote the protection of civilians are enhanced; current , demobilization, repatriation, reintegration, and resettlement (DDRRR) activities are expanded to cover all LRA affected areas; a coordinated humanitarian and child protection response is promoted in all LRA affected areas; and peacebuilding, human rights, rule of law, and long-term development support is provided to LRA - affected governments to enable them to establish authority across their territory. The African Union Commission (AUC) request emphasized the attention to issues related to cross-border, stabilization, and recovery responses in the context of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) initiatives; as well as the need for parallel efforts at the national and regional levels as postulated by its post-conflict reconstruction and development policy (PCRD). The preliminary assessment field missions were conducted between October and December 2012. This report presents a summary of the main findings of the preliminary assessment of stabilization and rehabilitation needs in the areas affected by LRA activity in ROSS, DRC, and CAR. Section one provides the background to the assessment and its linkages to wider AU and UN initiatives related to the LRA. Section two, outlines the main premises for the conduction of the assessment, as well as the stages and principles applied for its execution. Section three, presents the findings of the preliminary assessment on the main triggers of conflict in the area; priority needs of stabilization and rehabilitation; and a preliminary vision for action within the framework of the AU regional cooperation initiative against the LRA (RCI-LRA). Section four, outlines a proposal on the next steps to be taken for the completion of the assessment.
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The Congo Basin represents 70 percent of the African continent's forest cover and constitutes a large portion of Africa's biodiversity. The objective of the two-year exercise was to analyze and get a better grasp of the deforestation dynamics in the Basin.
... See More + The primary goal of the exercise was to give stakeholders (and particularly policy makers) a thorough understanding of how economic activities (agriculture, transport, mining, energy, and logging) could impact the region's forest cover through an in-depth analysis of the connections between economic developments and forest loss. Historically, the Congo Basin forest has been under comparatively little pressure, but there are signs that this situation is likely to change as pressure on the forest and other ecosystems increases. Until very recently, low population density, unrest and war, and low levels of development hampered conversion of forests into other land uses; however, satellite-based monitoring data now show that the annual rates of gross deforestation in the Basin have doubled since 1990. There is indeed some evidence that the Basin forests may be at a turning point of heading to higher deforestation and forest degradation rates. The forest ecosystems have not yet suffered the damage observed in other tropical regions (Amazonia, Southeast Asia) and are quite well preserved. The low deforestation rates mainly result from a combination of such factors as poor infrastructure, low population densities, and political instability that have led to the so-called passive protection. However, signs that the Congo Basin forests could be under increasing pressure from a variety of forces-both internal and external range from mineral extraction, road development, agribusiness, and biofuels to agriculture expansion for subsistence and population growth. All of these factors could drastically amplify the pressure on natural forests in the coming decades and trigger the transition from the 'high forest/low deforestation' profile into a more intense pace of deforestation.
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