While self-assessments of welfare have become popular for measuring poverty and estimating welfare effects, the methods can be deceptive given systematic heterogeneity in respondents' scales.
... See More + Little is known about this problem. This study uses specially-designed surveys in three countries, Tajikistan, Guatemala, and Tanzania, to study scale heterogeneity. Respondents were asked to score stylized vignettes, as well as their own household. Diverse scales are in evidence, casting considerable doubt on the meaning of widely-used summary measures such as subjective poverty rates. Nonetheless, under the identifying assumptions of the study, only small biases are induced in the coefficients on widely-used regressors for subjective poverty and welfare.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6726 DEC 01, 2013
The development objective of the Education Quality and Secondary Education Project for Guatemala is to improve access to a quality lower secondary education for low-income students, especially in indigenous communities, through improved primary education completion rates for overage students, and strengthened flexible lower secondary education modalities and school management.
... See More + The main changes to the project and rationale are as follows: (i) changes to the scope of project activities in line to the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC)'s strategy of expanding the professional development program for in-service teachers (PADEP/D) which will be financed with loan proceeds; (ii) a revision to the indicators and targets in the results framework and monitoring (RFM) table to: (a) ensure that all aspects of the project development objectives (PDOs) are measured; (b) reflect changes to the scope of project activities; (c) reflect the extended implementation period; and (d) reflect updated data collection for actuals for years 2007-2011; (iii) a revision of project costs consistent with the changes to the scope of project activities and to reflect cost-savings from activities whose targets have already been achieved or are on track to be achieved; (iv) a reallocation of loan proceeds among disbursement categories to reflect changes to the scope of project activities and project costs; (v) a revision of the implementation arrangements to modify the personnel responsible for the implementation of the project, as a result of which the project manager position will be eliminated since the general oversight of the project activities left under the extended implementation period will be carried out by the project administration manager; (vi) a request by MINEDUC to utilize the latest version of the consultant and procurement guidelines dated January 2011; and (vii) an extension of the closing date from December 31, 2013 to November 30, 2015, in order to: (1) scale up over 2014 and 2015 MINEDUC's professional in-service teacher training program; (2) continue supporting the lower secondary education flexible modalities supported under the project; (3) finance scholarships for lower secondary education cohorts in 2014 and 2015; and (4) complete the training for school councils in 2014 to ensure grants from project funds are distributed to school councils to help finance school development plans.
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The development objective of the Second Land Administration Project for Guatemala is to foster the process of achieving land tenure security in the project area through the provision of efficient and accessible cadastral and land administration services in the project area.
... See More + The level two restructuring will provide for: (i) a first extension of the loan closing date from December 1, 2013 to September 1, 2015; and (ii) modifications and clarifications to the Project Results Matrix to reflect and quantify better several indicators and targets. Due to delays, including an initial 17-month delay in loan effectiveness and subsequent implementation challenges, the Government of Guatemala has requested 21 additional months to ensure completion of key project activities, especially institutional strengthening and cadastral surveying.
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Ratings for the Emergency Support for Social Services Project for Guatemala were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, risk to development outcome was moderate, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: this Emergency Recovery Loan (ERL) provides a means of designing a fast-disbursing project with the aim of achieving medium-term objectives that the government and the Bank are in joint agreement on. This type of loan can also be useful in the event of an emergency where the government is trying to obtain funding quickly but not have the lead time to implement development policy reforms. Project design should take into account the country's existing reporting systems. It is important to manage the administrative burdens that come with ERL (as opposed to development policy loans). These burdens include compliance with safeguards and the preparation of operational manuals, even though the loan did not finance any investments and only reimbursed teacher and health worker salaries. The triggering of safeguards in particular created substantial work- including environmental plans, operational manuals, discussions and follow-up, in order to deal with an issue that seemed beyond the scope of the project. Such administrative requirements need to be carefully considered upfront and explained to the client during project preparation.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR2651 JUN 14, 2013