Vietnam's 50 million jobs are a cornerstone of its economic success. The transformation toward services and manufacturing, and impressive labor productivity and wage growth led to plunging poverty rates and globally enviable economic growth over the last decades.
... See More + Employment rates are high and unemployment rates are low by global standards. The jobs challenge is to create more high quality and inclusive jobs. Shiny foreign factories paying above the minimum wage and offering social benefits typify, at best, only 2.1 million jobs. And registered domestic firms provide no more than 6 million jobs. Meanwhile, 38 million Vietnamese jobs are in family farming, household enterprises, or uncontracted labor. These traditional jobs tend to be characterized by low productivity, low profits, meager earnings, and few worker protections. While they have been a path out of poverty, they will not provide the means to reach the middle-class status that Vietnam's citizens aspire to. Ethnic minorities, women, and unskilled workers cluster in these jobs.
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The development objective of the Erosion and Watershed Management Project for Nigeria is to reduce vulnerability to soil erosion in targeted sub-watersheds.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) land for land compensation is preferred priority, or cash compensation at replacement value based on market rate plus 10 percent compulsory acquisition surcharge as second option; (2) estimated net income for each lost cropping season, based on land record averages of crops and area planted in the previous four years; (3) cash compensation for loss of built-up structures at full replacement costs; and (4) restoration of livelihood (vocational training) and subsistence allowance at agreed rate per day for a total of 6 months while enrolled in a vocational training facility.
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The Gezira scheme is an irrigated project lying between the White and Blue Niles. The scheme slopes gently downwards from the south to the north and west.
... See More + The 420 m (above sea level) contour runs through Sennar and the 385 m through the north and west of the scheme. The soils of the area consist largely of sediments of the Blue Nile and tributaries, mostly derived from the basic rocks of the Ethiopian Highlands. The soils in the Gezira Scheme can produce excellent crops. Their self-mulching characteristics guarantee a good structure as soon as the soil contains adequate amount of moisture. They are not easy to work and require special attention after irrigation. The fertility level is reasonable, but exhaustive cropping requires ample replenishment of nutrients. Even after decades of irrigation, salinity is not a problem, except in some fringe areas in the north and west of the project. The climate in the Gezira is suitable for growing crops year-round as long as irrigation water is available. Variation in temperatures throughout the year allow the cultivation of a range of crops. High yields of cotton and groundnut are possible, in spite of high summer temperatures. Favorable factors for production are the abundant solar radiation and the substantial difference between day and night temperatures. Temperatures in the project area are high. Extremes of 46'C were recorded. The hottest months are May and June. The lowest temperatures occur during December and March. Differences in day and night temperatures are significant, which has a bearing on crop production. Optimum growth takes place between October and December. After the end of December, the low temperatures are likely to limit growth. Sowing dates for all crops are highly affected by prevailing temperatures throughout the critical growth period. The components as follows: telecommunications component, roads component, ginneries, cotton handling and storage, housing and utilities, Schitosomiasis component, and rural water supply and sanitation component.
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The development objectives of the First Phase of the Water Security and Climate Resilience Project for Kenya are to: increase availability and productivity of irrigation water for project beneficiaries; and enhance the institutional framework and strengthen capacity for water security and climate resilience for the country.
... See More + Negative impacts include: loss of land, loss of crops, loss of trees, loss of special assets, and loss of regular income from businesses. Mitigation measures include: the valuation basis adopted for valuing the developments on the land taken for compensation is the full replacement cost approach or equivalent reinstatement basis or probable cost of acquiring similar premises for the same purpose This is the amount it would cost to search for a supplier of the construction material, the cost to purchase, transport and insure the materials to the site, and the costs of erection of the premises, including professional fees, and completed to a standard as existing at the valuation date; The trees have been valued based on compensation schedules prepared by the Kenya forest service for various species depending on age and its future potential just and considered open market approach, what the local people sell they tree at (considered as the market value); the crops which are on the affected land as at the time of our inspections have been valued based on the schedules prepared by the State Department of Agriculture for various types and age but considering the level of management; and there will be no loss and hence no compensation as crossing points to the river have been provided at various sections of the dykes for the sand harvesters.
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The development objective of the Third Phase of the Energy for Rural Transformation Project for Uganda is to increase access to electricity in rural areas of Uganda.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) cash compensation equivalent to average of at least three years market value for the mature and harvested crops affected by land acquisition or temporary acquisition or easement; and (2) cash compensation based on type, age, and productive value of affected trees loss.
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Identifying use cases for emerging technologies to reach financially excluded smallholders means looking beyond the hype to develop a clear understanding of these technologies’ unique features, costs, and benefits.
... See More + And because few innovations have generated as much hype as distributed ledger technologies (DLT), more commonly referred to as blockchain, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) set out to understand how this emerging technology could enable broader and more inclusive markets for agricultural finance. This Brief summarizes CGAP’s approach and offers insights into the applicability of DLT to agricultural finance in a developing country context. Importantly, this Brief does not attempt to provide comprehensive background on the technology itself while additional resources are provided for readers who would like a deeper understanding of this evolving space.
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The Modernization of Irrigated Agriculture in the Oum Er Rbia Basin of the Middle East and North Africa had a moderately satisfactory outcome, moderately satisfactory performance by the Bank and the monitoring and evaluation quality was substantial.
... See More + The lessons learned were: (1) Careful selection of irrigation sectors to modernize. (2) Long duration of works typical of modernization in large scale irrigation calls for long implementation period. (3) Targeting small farmers calls for tailored procedures. (4) Drip irrigation requires an efficient water service. (5) Design of the network should be done having its operation in mind. (6) Performance-based indicators are key to the management of service delivery improvement.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR4314 JUN 27, 2018
The traditional location theory predicts that firms' locational choice is independent of the output demand. However, firms are often concentrated in large markets.
... See More + In Africa, agrobusinesses are expected to play an important role to facilitate agricultural growth but are hardly available in rural areas. This paper examines the question of why agribusinesses are not located in local production areas despite the clear benefits expected from close proximity to their inputs. By applying the spatial autocorrelation Tobit model, the paper estimates the impacts of market and farm accessibility on agglomeration of new agrobusinesses in Madagascar. The findings show that market accessibility and agglomeration economies are important for attracting more agrobusinesses. The quality of labor is also an important determinant for their locational choice. The findings are consistent with some models of location theory: firms move away from rural areas where they may still have monopsony power, toward urban areas where productivity is higher.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8488 JUN 21, 2018
