Urban population growth is in full stride in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it has done less to reduce poverty than might be expected. Despite its high urban growth, Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing low urbanization.
... See More + In Sub-Saharan Africa, cities generate about one-third of national gross domestic product (GDP), but they are not creating enough jobs for the large youth population that is waiting to work. For African cities to grow economically as they have grown in size, they must create productive environments to attract investments, increase economic efficiency, and create livable environments that prevent urban costs from rising with increased population densification. For Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest cities to take advantage of agglomeration forces, policy makers will need to resolve basic structural problems and improve conditions for both people and businesses. To unleash the potential of African cities and towns for delivering services and employment in a livable and environmentally friendly environment, a sequenced approach is needed to reform institutions and policies and to target infrastructure investments. Three foundations need fixing to guide cities and towns throughout Sub-Saharan Africa on their way to productivity and livability: empowering land markets; strengthening urban planning and regulatory functions; and financing for public assets and infrastructure investments.
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Investments in forest landscapes and agroforestry will be critical in efforts to address climate change and rural poverty challenges in many countries.
... See More + While it is the people living in and around forests that are best placed to make the efforts needed to transform them into more sustainable systems from both environmental and livelihoods perspectives, women and men in local communities typically receive very little technical or financial support to do so. This is particularly the case for women. In the context of forest landscape initiatives, two overarching arguments exist for why it is critical to address the challenges to integrating gender equality actions and investments and to take specific steps to address these challenges and enable successful implementation. First and foremost is a rights-based argument. These investments and efforts should not maintain gender inequalities, but rather work toward advancing gender equality, as all people have the right to fair and equal treatment. Secondly, a strong case can be made that many opportunities are missed and investments simply are not as effective and efficient as they potentially could be by being gender-responsive rather than ignoring gender considerations or being gender-blind. Thus, issues arising due to gender inequalities should not just be seen as problems, but as potential opportunities to take actions that enhance both gender equality and forest landscape management, resulting in transformational change on both fronts. Yet project designers, policy makers, and others making decisions affecting forest landscapes are not receivingmuch guidance on exactly what gender-responsive project activities and policy actions should be considered, which will vary according to different contexts. This paper explores these opportunities to enhance gender equality and forest landscape management with the goal of starting to provide such guidance. It reviews key gender gaps identified in forest landscape projects and programs in the literature. It examines what gender-focused activities and actions are being taken to address these gaps in many countries through a review of some of the projects and forest-sector investments supported by the World Bank Group and partners that are now incorporating such actions. The findings show that there is a wide range of gender-responsive forest landscape investments that can be considered by those wishing to contribute to and catalyze results on multiple sustainable development goals. By synthesizing and categorizing these actions, this paper aims to offer both inspiration as well as practical, concrete ideas on how to link knowledge with action in the context of this complex challenge. Much remains to be done, however.
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Working Paper 135341 MAR 15, 2019
Kristjanson,Patricia M.; Bah,Tamara; Kuriakose,Anne T.; Shakirova,Meerim; Segura Warnholtz,Gerardo; Siegmann,Katharina; Granat,MargauxDisclosed
West Africa’s coastal areas host about one third of the region’s population and generate 56 percent of its GDP. They are home for valuable wetlands, fisheries, oil and gas reserves, and high tourism potential.
... See More + However, these areas are affected by severe pressures: rapid urbanization along the coast has increased the demands on land, water, and other natural resources; man-made infrastructure and sand extraction have contributed to significant coastal retreat; moreover, climate change and disaster risks are exacerbating these threats. As a result, coastal areas are undergoing alarming environmental degradation leading to deaths (due to floods, air and water pollution), losses of assets (houses, infrastructure) and damages to critical ecosystems (mangroves, marine habitat). This study estimates in monetary terms the Cost of Environmental Degradation (COED) in the coastal areas of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Togo. Specifically,it values the impacts of degradation that occur during one year, as a result of three major factors: flooding, erosion, and pollution (from water, air and waste). The final results are expressed in 2017 prices. They are reflected in absolute (USD) and in relative terms, as percentage of the countries’ GDP. Overall, the COED of the four countries is estimated at aboutUSD 3.8 billion, or 5.3 percent of the countries’ GDP in 2017. Flooding and erosion are the main forms of degradation, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total cost. Moreover, coastal degradation causes over 13,000 deaths a year, primarily due to air and water pollution, and to floods.
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Working Paper 135269 MAR 13, 2019
Croitoru,Lelia; Miranda Montero,Juan Jose; Sarraf,MariaDisclosed
Thanks to strong economic growth over the last two decades, poverty in Mozambique has decreased and the average household is now more likely to access basic education, health, and housing.
... See More + Yet, the country is still ravaged by intense and frequent weather disasters. To determine the scale and nature of the impacts of these shocks, this paper analyzes the vulnerability of rural livelihoods across three different extreme weather events: droughts, floods and cyclones. The study finds that per capita food and non-food consumption and asset ownership are reduced among households affected by any of the three weather shocks. Their children are less likely to attend school, have a higher probability of falling sick and show higher engagement in paid and unpaid work. What’s more, staple food prices are disrupted and remain affected nearly a year after the disaster. Helping households confront these events requires comprehensive risk management policies, including making agriculture more resilient to weather, improving the functioning of credit and insurance markets, facilitating economic diversification and market access, and increasing the availability of flexible safety nets – all before the shocks occur.
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This policy note was prepared in parallel to the report Pakistan at hundred – Shaping the Future. The report Pakistan at hundred discusses options to accelerate and sustain growth in Pakistan so that the country becomes an upper middle-income country when it turns hundred years old in 2047.
... See More + This policy note discusses inequality of opportunities women face in Pakistan. Excluding women from the labor force means that a large share of Pakistan’s greatest asset, its population, is being wasted.
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This policy note was prepared in parallel to the report Pakistan at hundred – Shaping the Future. The report Pakistan at hundred discusses options to accelerate and sustain growth in Pakistan so that the country becomes an upper middle-income country when it turns hundred years old in 2047.
... See More + This policy note discusses Pakistan's main environmental concern; poor water management. Improved water management in the agriculture sector will be key to ensure the economy's sustainability.
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This policy note was prepared in parallel to the report Pakistan at hundred - shaping the future. The report Pakistan at hundred discusses options to accelerate and sustain growth in Pakistan so that the country becomes an upper middle-income country when it turns hundred years old in 2047.
... See More + This policy note discusses the need for strong governance to accelerate and sustain Pakistan’s growth. Strong governance will require improved transparency and accountability, so policies are designed and implemented to benefit Pakistan’s population.
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This document summarizes evidence and guidance on project design and results framework indicators for nutrition-sensitive water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) operations and WASH components of other sector and subsector projects.
... See More + The current body of evidence on the links between WASH and nutrition provides important clues as to what nutrition sensitive enhancements are needed to achieve greater impacts on early child nutrition and human capital. Six principles are outlined that aim to address some of the limitations that are found with conventional WASH interventions. A set of results framework indicators are proposed to support nutrition-sensitive WASH monitoring and evaluation in water supply and sanitation lending operations and for WASH components of projects in other sectors.
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The March 2019 update to PovcalNet involves several changes to the data underlying the global poverty estimates. Some welfare aggregates have been changed for improved harmonization, and the national accounts and population input data have been updated.
... See More + This document explains these changes in detail and the reasoning behind them. Emphasis is given to the update of the CPIs series released by the IMF on November 2018 and the changes to the national inequality measures in China, India, and Indonesia. In addition to the changes listed here, 50 new country-years have been added, bringing the total number of surveys to 1657.
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The purpose of this report is to identify how to maximize finance available to Nepal in the electricity sector. This report identifies financing needs and constraints for the energy sector in the short to medium term and outlines a road map for overcoming these constraints and seizing opportunities to gradually achieve a sectoral transformation.
... See More + The report forms part of the World Bank Group’s Infrastructure Sector Assessment Program (INFRA-SAP).
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A new generation of infrastructure projects that harness the power of nature can help achieve development goals, including water security and climate resilience.
... See More + In this report from the World Bank and World Resources Institute, both organizations are calling for green infrastructure, such as mangroves and wetlands, to play a bigger role in traditional infrastructure planning. Integrating nature into mainstream infrastructure systems can produce lower cost and more resilient services. This report guides developing country service providers and their partners on how to seize this opportunity. It reviews approaches and examples of how to integrate green infrastructure into mainstream project appraisal processes and investments.
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As the world’s largest multilateral source of financing for water in developing countries, the World Bank is working closely with partners to achieve “A Water-Secure World for All,” by investing in water solutions that enable universal access, promote water security, and build resilient societies.
... See More + Below is a selection of reports, case studies and toolkits produced by the Water Global Practice in 2016-2019. The first section highlights studies of global interest along priority themes, while a second section provides a list of publications focusing on specific regions or countries.
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Nature-based Solutions (NBS) that strategically conserve or restore nature to support conventionally built infrastructure systems (also referred to as gray infrastructure) can reduce disaster risk and produce more resilient and lower-cost services in developing countries.
... See More + In the disaster risk management (DRM) and water security sectors, NBS can be applied as green infrastructure strategies that work in harmony with gray infrastructure systems. NBS can also support community well-being, generate benefits for the environment, and make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ways that gray infrastructure systems alone cannot.Though NBS approaches have yet to be fully integrated into decision-making or to compel widespreadinvestment in developing countries, this is on the brink of change. Developing countries and theirpartners (including multilateral development banks and bilateral agencies) are increasingly utilizing NBS in DRM, as well as in water security, urban sustainability, and other development projects. The growing number of NBS projects offer lessons and insights to help mainstream NBS into development decision making. As more disaster risk managers understand and integrate well-designed NBS into DRM projects, more finance can be routed to nature-based projects that are cost-effective and resilient. With that goal in mind, the World Bank’s Nature-based Solutions Program aims to facilitate uptake of NBS in water management and DRM projects.
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Nature-based Solutions (NBS) that strategically conserve or restore nature to support conventionally built infrastructure systems (also referred to as gray infrastructure) can reduce disaster risk and produce more resilient and lower-cost services in developing countries.
... See More + In the disaster risk management (DRM) and water security sectors, NBS can be applied as green infrastructure strategies that work in harmony with gray infrastructure systems. NBS can also support community well-being, generate benefits for the environment, and make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ways that gray infrastructure systems alone cannot.Though NBS approaches have yet to be fully integrated into decision-making or to compel widespreadinvestment in developing countries, this is on the brink of change. Developing countries and theirpartners (including multilateral development banks and bilateral agencies) are increasingly utilizing NBS in DRM, as well as in water security, urban sustainability, and other development projects. The growing number of NBS projects offer lessons and insights to help mainstream NBS into development decision making. As more disaster risk managers understand and integrate well-designed NBS into DRM projects, more finance can be routed to nature-based projects that are cost-effective and resilient. With that goal in mind, the World Bank’s Nature-based Solutions Program aims to facilitate uptake of NBS in water management and DRM projects.
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This paper examines patterns of market integration for food commodities in India. First, it tests the extent of domestic spatial market integration for retail and wholesale markets in 2006–14 and 2008–15, respectively, and looks at patterns of price transmission of shocks from international sources.
... See More + Second, it measures vertical integration from wholesale to retail markets and tests for asymmetric speed of adjustment to shocks. Third, it examines the determinants of spatial integration. The results reveal that in India, food markets are imperfectly integrated across space, with the law of one price being systematically rejected, with heterogeneities across states and products. There is substantial co-movement between wholesale and retail prices, although integration is still imperfect in all commodities but one: rice, for which perfect vertical integration cannot be rejected. Retail prices adjust faster when wholesale prices rise than when wholesale prices fall. The analysis of the determinants of spatial integration reveals that prior to implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, the mere act of crossing a state border increased prices; unexploited gains from arbitrage persisted after considering the effects of transport costs; and information frictions and menu costs reduced market integration.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8755 FEB 25, 2019
Sea-level rise threatens low-lying areas around the world's coasts with increased coastal flooding during storms. One response to this challenge is to build or upgrade coastal flood defenses.
... See More + This report examines the potential investment costs of such an adaptation strategy applied globally over the 21st century for sea-level rise scenarios consistent with three Representative Concentration Pathways and 3 Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. For all the protection models considered, much less than half of the world's coast is protected. The total defense costs are significantly higher than earlier estimates, amounting to as much as US$18.3 trillion. With cost-benefit analysis, there are large uncertainties and empirical observations of protection standards are limited. Hence, the estimates should be considered as indicative, and this remains an important topic for future research. Further, building defenses is not a one-off capital investment. Over the 21st century, the cost of a comprehensive protection strategy is dominated by maintenance costs in all the cases considered in this report. This indicates that in addition to capital investment, the development of appropriate institutions and governance mechanisms to deliver maintenance, as well as the necessary funding streams, are essential for such a protection-based adaptation strategy to be effective.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8745 FEB 19, 2019
Nicholls,Robert John; Hinkel,Jochen; Lincke,Daniel; van der Pol,ThomasDisclosed
This paper presents the details of three scenarios -- leapfrog, lock-in, and lopsided -- that describe an illustrative set of technological states.
... See More + Based largely on expert interviews, the paper argues that the technology outcomes are heavily attributable to the actions (or in some cases, inaction) of policy makers and incumbents. For each scenario, the paper presents descriptive levels of technology achievement and market outcomes for the energy, transport, and water sectors. One of the central differentiating features of the three scenarios is the extent to which governments perform their roles as enabling, that is, whether the policies are designed to help or hinder innovations that improve service levels, and distributive, that is, whether the policies are designed to ensure that multiple segments of society reap the rewards of innovation. A question raised as part of that theme is how countries can avoid lock-in, or how they might become derailed into a lopsided scenario. Some institutional behavioral markers of the scenarios were identified in these discussions and are noted in the paper. It is important to recognize that multiple combinations of these behaviors can lead to a lock-in or lopsided scenario. In addition to describing the scenarios in detail, the paper discusses the rationale for their creation, along with a brief discussion on the nature of uncertainty. The paper also describes the methodology employed in the creation of the scenarios, including expert interview methods and a day-long workshop.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8748 FEB 19, 2019
This paper proposes a framework that examines three levels of access to infrastructure -- nominal, effective, and quality-adjusted access. Most conventional indicators measure nominal access --whether a household has physical access to a service in or near the house.
... See More + By contrast, effective access incorporates functionality and use of service, and quality-adjusted access raises the bar by incorporating quality metrics. The paper illustrates the analytical utility of this conceptual framework by deploying data from a survey of 14,200 households in 15 Kenyan cities in 2012-13. First, the analysis finds that these cities fall far short of delivering universal access to basic infrastructure. Second, for most services there a large gap -- 3 to 41 percentage points—between nominal and effective access. When the bar is raised to include quality of service, the drop-off in the proportion of those with access is even more dramatic. These findings suggest that conventional nominal measures overreport the level of service in urban communities, and that current approaches to infrastructure delivery might be enhancing availability of a service without ensuring that the service is usable -- that is, functional, reliable and affordable. Third, there is an infrastructure access gap between nonpoor and poor households, as well as formal and informal settlements. Fourth, hedonic regression analysis reveals that four services -- electricity, water, toilets, and garbage collection—are associated with higher rents. The analysis has broader implications for understanding and measuring service access. It raises important questions as global discussions turn to indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8750 FEB 19, 2019
Gulyani,Sumila; Ryan Rizvi,Andrea C.; Talukdar,DebabrataDisclosed
