There is an increasingly stronger demand for more frequent and accurate poverty estimates, despite the oftentimes unavailable household consumption data.
... See More + This paper offers a review of alternative imputation methods that have been employed to provide poverty estimates in such contexts. These range from estimates on a nonmonetary basis, estimates for specific project targeting or tracking trends at the national level, to estimates at a more disaggregated level, as well as estimates of poverty dynamics. The paper provides a concise and accessible synthesis, which serves as an introduction to the literature. The focus is on intuition and practical insights that highlight the nuanced differences between the existing methods rather than technical aspects.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8403 APR 11, 2018
Given existing physical and human capital assets, Brazil could almost triple its income per capita if it managed to achieve the United States efficiency level.
... See More + Cross-country evidence confirms that upgrading productivity instead of accumulating more physical capital and increasing the size of the workforce is the main driver of income differences across countries and of sustainable per capita income growth. Cross-country evidence supports the inclusive benefits of productivity growth. Within-country evidence for Brazil and other emerging economies also supports the inclusive benefits of policies that foster productivity growth. New evidence from Brazil indicates that tariff liberalization benefited households across the income distribution and was largely pro-poor, with net welfare gains. Further trade opening should benefit all households and remain inclusive, offering opportunities for financing redistributive policies. One of the main learnings from Brazil’s experience is that insufficient geographical labor mobility has impeded the reallocation process triggered by productivity policies, distributing unevenly the costs and benefits of productivity growth across regions. An additional important lesson learned from Brazil experience is that a strong output expansion from productivity upgrading, especially for less-skilled intensive industries, is essential for policies to result in more and better paid jobs for less well-off people. Finally, the administration of current passive labor market and social programs could be enhanced to ensure that income support is provided to less well-off individuals unable to adjust to the new market conditions and directly contribute to productivity growth.
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Vietnam has achieved remarkable success in reducing poverty while controlling inequality. The country’s broad-based growth reflects the government’s focus on developing labor-intensive export sectors while investing heavily in human capital that saw the country exceed its peers.
... See More + However, gains have been concentrated among the Kinh and Hoa ethnic majority, while minority groups have not only continued to experience poverty rates far above the national average, but have seen slower progress too. This report analyzes recent trends in poverty and shared prosperity. It presents the findings of the 2016 Vietnam household and living standards survey (VHLSS), highlighting important progress and identifying new challenges. The report is organized into two main sections. The first section reviews Vietnam’s progress in reducing poverty and promoting share prosperity. It describes updated poverty and shared prosperity trends, the nature of economic mobility, and the drivers of poverty reduction. The second section – titled leaving no one behind is more forward-looking, starting by identifying major constraints faced by the poor, then proceeding to lay out challenges for moving the poverty and shared prosperity agenda going forward.
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Vietnam has achieved remarkable success in reducing poverty while controlling inequality. The country’s broad-based growth reflects the government’s focus on developing labor-intensive export sectors while investing heavily in human capital that saw the country exceed its peers.
... See More + However, gains have been concentrated among the Kinh and Hoa ethnic majority, while minority groups have not only continued to experience poverty rates far above the national average, but have seen slower progress too. This report analyzes recent trends in poverty and shared prosperity. It presents the findings of the 2016 Vietnam household and living standards survey (VHLSS), highlighting important progress and identifying new challenges. The report is organized into two main sections. The first section reviews Vietnam’s progress in reducing poverty and promoting share prosperity. It describes updated poverty and shared prosperity trends, the nature of economic mobility, and the drivers of poverty reduction. The second section – titled leaving no one behind is more forward-looking, starting by identifying major constraints faced by the poor, then proceeding to lay out challenges for moving the poverty and shared prosperity agenda going forward.
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This public-private infrastructure advisory facility (PPIAF) - funded report aims to discuss and disseminate information on how Islamic finance has been applied in infrastructure projects through public-private partnership (PPP) schemes, what the structural challenges and solutions are, and what can be done to deepen and maximize the use of Islamic finance for this purpose.
... See More + This report has two broad dimensions. The first is to enhance the understanding of Islamic finance building blocks as they relate to financing infrastructure PPP projects, and the second, and perhaps less well understood, is to explore how the building blocks of Islamic finance can fit within a PPP context. This report paves the way for providers of Islamic finance capital to become partners in infrastructure development and thus contribute to its overall global financing pool.
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The Lao PDR Economic Monitor provides updates on macroeconomic developments and sectoral issues in the country. It is produced bi-annually and distributed widely to the government agencies, development partners, the private sector, think tanks, civil society organizations, and academia.
... See More + Addressing macroeconomic risks remains a pressing priority while improving environment for long-term growth is a continuous agenda. To create a more stable macroeconomic environment for reforms, maintaining fiscal discipline and bolder steps towards fiscal consolidation is of utmost importance at this stage. Growth is projected to further moderate to 6.7 percent in 2017, below historical averages, but towards a more sustainable level. Continued expansion in power generation, manufacturing, and agriculture are weighed down by slight deceleration in investment, moderating credit growth, stronger controls over government spending and lower-than-expected tourism performance. Domestic demand also shows signs of slowing. Still, compared to developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) and regional peers such as Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, growth remains robust. Headline inflation further declined in 2017, reflecting falling food prices and slowing aggregate demand, amidst a gradual recovery in oil prices. In this regard, the proposed 2018 best, only a modest adjustment. More meaningful consolidation will require stronger efforts to strengthening revenue collection through improved tax administration, fiscal consolidation is of utmost importance at this stage.
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The development objective of Strengthening Social Protection for Rwanda is to improve the effectiveness of Rwanda’s social protection system, notably the flagship Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP), for targeted vulnerable groups.
... See More + This project has three components. 1) The first component, Improving coverage, adequacy and effectiveness of the Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP) cash transfers, aims to cover, through IDA funds, 40 percent of the costs of the VUP safety nets: transfers; PW wage and non‐wage costs, including capital costs of cPW; and associated administrative costs. 2) The second component, Enhancing access to human capital and economic inclusion services, aims to improve the contribution of the social protection sector to boost human capital creation and economic inclusion services, with a focus on combating chronic malnutrition and improving child development goals, as well as improving livelihoods by promoting skills development, resilience, and access to services. 3) The third component, Delivery systems, policy and program management, aims to build local and national government’s capacity to implement Components 1 and 2, as well as to improve the larger social protection system in Rwanda.
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Despite significant challenges, Sri Lanka's economic performance remained broadly satisfactory in the first half of 2017. The corrective policy measures taken in the monetary and fiscal fronts have led to gradual stabilization.
... See More + The construction sector's rapid recovery supported by a strong rebound in investment was partially able to mitigate the impact of inclement weather conditions on the real sector. External buffers strengthened thanks to foreign exchange purchases and improved capital flows. Inflation has risen since the second half of 2016 on account of drought and changes to the VAT Act. Authorities pursued the economic reform agenda presented in the government policy statements, albeit at a slower pace, owing to the difficulties faced in a complex political environment and institutional constraints on policy implementation. Parliament passed a new Inland Revenue Law in September 2017, which marks a key milestone towards sustainable revenue-led fiscal consolidation.
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Mozambique and the World Bank have maintained continuous relations since the country joined the institution in 1984. Over these years, the World Bank has provided development assistance to Mozambique in accordance with the country needs and priorities, from economic stabilization in the 1980s, to post-war reconstruction in the early 1990s, to a broader and comprehensive assistance starting in the 2000’s.
... See More + Today, Mozambique’s overarching long-term development challenge is to translate its economic growth into poverty reduction by stimulating a more diversified and inclusive growth. In a shorter term, the country needs to address the challenges posed by the previously undisclosed loans, which led to a rapid deterioration of its macroeconomic stability, by restoring investors and development partners’ confidence. International Development Association (IDA), also known as the World Bank’s Fund for the Poorest provides the bulk of the financial support to Mozambique among the five institutions comprising the World Bank Group. IDA work in Mozambique spans development assistance to natural resources management, forest and wildlife conservation, sustainable tourism, agriculture, including irrigation, among others. This IDA at Work brochure highlights IDA results in Mozambique addressing the root causes of poverty in Africa and in Mozambique.
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The program development objective of Fourth Economic Reform Development Policy Operation Project for Kiribati is to: (i) strengthen public financial management; and (ii) improve the environment for inclusive growth.
... See More + These two components correspond to the two pillars of the operation. The first pillar is supported through strengthening the management of public assets and liabilities, and improving public procurement. The second pillar is supported through improving oversight of joint ventures in the fisheries industry, improving the quality and expanding the coverage of essential public utilities, and facilitating competition and universal service provision in the telecommunications industry. The operation is aligned with the priorities identified in the Regional Partnership Framework (RPF). It is complemented by a number of other Bank engagements in contributing to achieve the objectives of the RPF. The World Bank has collaborated closely with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) in the preparation of this operation. In keeping with the established practice in the region, this operation is based on a joint policy matrix agreed between the Government of Kiribati (GoK) and this group of development partners. This approach improves the feasibility of reforms by having the GoK and key development partners focusing on a small set of reforms, and coordinating the provision of their technical assistance in support of these reforms. This approach also reduces the transaction costs on the GoK, by harmonizing a number of the engagement and procedural aspects of budget support operations. With respect to the actions in the joint matrix, the World Bank provides technical assistance on the Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund (RERF) and telecommunications reform areas, the ADB provides assistance on the contingent liabilities and procurement reform areas as well as on broader SOE monitoring and reform, and MFAT provides assistance on the fisheries reform areas. The Bank, ADB, MFAT and DFAT also work together to provide assistance to Public Utilities Board (PUB). In addition, the Bank collaborates closely with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and with the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC) on macro-fiscal policy and Public Financial Management (PFM) issues.
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This paper proposes a non-parametric adaptation of a recently developed parametric technique to produce point estimates of intra-generational economic mobility in the absence of panel data sets that follow individuals over time.
... See More + The method predicts past individual income or consumption using time-invariant observable characteristics, which allows the estimation of mobility into and out of poverty, as well as household-level income or consumption growth, from cross-sectional data. The paper validates this method by sampling repeated cross-sections out of actual panel data sets from three countries in the Latin America region and comparing the technique with mobility from panels. Overall, the method performs well in the three settings; with few exceptions, all estimates fall within the 95 percent confidence intervals of the panel mobility. The quality of the estimates does not depend in general on the sophistication level of the underlying welfare model's specifications. The results are encouraging even for those specifications that include few time-invariant variables as regressors.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8220 OCT 16, 2017
This is a statement by H. E. Johann N. Schneider-Ammann, Minister and Head of the Federal Department for Economic Affairs, Education and Research, at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017.
... See More + He spoke about his Constituency which was celebrating its 25th anniversary. As members of the Bank and as a Constituency, he looked back on many achievements and an excellent cooperation over the last 25 years, knowing that many challenges still lay ahead. He highlighted on the need for a reliable and effective multilateral development system that supports countries in addressing their most pressing and complex development challenges, and how the World Bank Group is the international institution with a truly global character. He insisted on how the Bank needs to take a leading role in developing a stringent and disciplined approach to blending finance, including engaging with donors, to avoid the risk of a race to the bottom. He welcomed the initiative of the Bank to develop a Human Capital Project. He concluded by saying that the Bank with its profound knowledge of human development on one hand, and economic growth on the other, is in the best position to deliver this new set of indicators and to put it to productive use for its members.
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This is a statement by H. E. Henrique Meirelles, Minister of Finance, at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017.
... See More + He spoke about how the World Bank Group has successfully served its members for decades, even in the face of rapidly changing landscapes, in which both cyclical and structural transformations demand adaptable strategies. He commended on the World Bank Group (WBG) Climate Change Action Plan. He appreciated the additional efforts of WBG to promote integration and regional cooperation are welcome to foster growth across countries. He recognized many initiatives that were taken to advance the Forward Look implementation, has shown relevant progress being made since the last Spring Meetings. He mentioned about how the World Bank has been providing support to strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism frameworks in many countries. He spoke about how the WBG has successfully mobilized and disbursed significant resources in a relatively short period when dealing with intense crises.
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This is a statement by H.E. Maksim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development, at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017.
... See More + He spoke about witnessing historically unprecedented progress the developing countries managed to achieve within a relatively short time, generally much faster than advanced economies about a century ago. He also mentioned about many developing countries that are still facing the challenging task of translating this nearly universal enrollment into the truly learning process. He fully supported the objective of achieving a strategic shift in the way that the WBG engages the private sector in its core activities. He insisted on Bank to remain a first-class lending institution, and in the best interest of all shareholders to protect its financial health and lending capacity. He concluded by saying that maintaining the appropriate level of the IBRD and IFC capitalization is a key precondition for preserving their lending and investment capacities, extending their capabilities to leverage large private resources and assuring their financial sustainability.
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This is a statement by H.E. Hadizatou Rosine Coulibaly/Sori Minister of State for Planning and Development, at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017.
... See More + She focuses on the following four topics in this statement: (1) The World Development Report 2018 : Learning to Realize Education’s Promise; (2) Maximizing Finance for Development : Leveraging the Private Sector for Growth and Sustainable Development; (3) Progress Report on Shareholding and; (4) Forward Look Implementation Update.
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This is a statement by Angel Gurría, Secretary-General at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017. He spoke about the ongoing refugee and climate-related disaster crises and how they have highlighted the complex interactions between security, peace and sustainable development.
... See More + He told that the world is witnessing the highest levels of migration and displacement on record. He explained about how the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is working with partner governments, development and humanitarian actors to develop guidelines for donors on addressing the consequences of forced displacement through development planning and assistance. For disaster-affected countries, immediate humanitarian assistance needs must be balanced with longer-term investments that give countries the tools needed to build resilience. He highlighted about the investments in education which is going to be the key in achieving the 2030 Agenda. He pointed out that the Official Development Assistance can mobilize private sector investments to build resilience throughout the development path. In conclusion he said that achieving the SDGs requires innovative policies that build resilience through the right balance of humanitarian and development assistance, long-term investments in education and public-private financing models.
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This is a statement by H.E. Apisak Tantivorawong, Minister of Finance, at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017.
... See More + He discusses the following topics in this statement: (i) World Development Report 2018 – Learning to Realize Education’s Promise; (ii) Maximizing Finance for Development: Leveraging the Private Sector for Growth and Sustainable Development; (iii) Forward Look Implementation Update; and (iv) Shareholding Review: Progress Report to Governors at the Annual Meeting 2017. In conclusion, he strongly supports the Forward Look agenda in making a significant transformation in global development; i.e. maximizing development finance, mobilizing private solutions, taking a lead on global issues, increasing operational efficiency and strengthening financial capacity.
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This is a statement by H.E. Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017.
... See More + He explained about the economic growth in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. He spoke about how India is deeply committed to the achievement of its contribution to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. He highlighted on the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), AADHAAR (unique identification) and Mobile (JAM) revolution that has brought all citizens to a common economic, financial and digital mainstream. He has covered the following topics in this statement: (i) World Development Report 2018 on Education; (ii) Shareholding review; (iii) Maximizing Finance for Development; (iv) Forward Look; (v) Climate Change Agenda; and (vi) Way forward.
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