The objective of the Fiscal Performance Improvement Support Project for Afghanistan is to contribute to the improvement of domestic revenue mobilization and public expenditures management, and of reinforcing a performance oriented management culture in the Ministry of Finance.
... See More + There are four components to the project, the first component being budget as tool for development. This component aims to increase budget credibility by improving the efficiency of budget processes, realistic budget estimation and costing, linking budget with policy and introducing medium term budgeting. It is organized along the following inter-linked sub-components: budgeting processes, fiscal policy, and development policy. The second component is the revenue mobilization. This component is designed to strengthen capacities of various revenue administration departments to increase tax compliance and facilitate timely filing and payment. It further aims to enhance Government’s capacity to effectively regulate Afghanistan’s minerals and hydrocarbon resources sector. The third component is the treasury management, accountability, and transparency. It is organized along the following subcomponents: treasury, audit and financial reporting, SOEs, insurance, and properties, and citizen’s engagement. Finally, fourth component is the institutional capacity building and performance management. This component aims to build capacity of MOF staff and the requisite systems for effective functioning of the ministry, and to reinforce overall performance management and coordination of the FPIP.
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The development objective of the Second Fiscal Consolidation and Private Sector Support Development Policy Financing Project for Mauritania is to support fiscal consolidation and private sector participation in non‐extractives sectors.
... See More + It is articulated around two pillars: pillar A of the programmatic series supports the government’s ongoing fiscal consolidation by increasing domestic revenues, controlling public enterprises expenditures, and increasing the efficiency of public spending. Pillar B supports the private sector‐led diversification in the non‐extractive sectors. The operation is aligned with the reform program of the government and its national development plan 2016‐2030 (national strategy for accelerated growth and shared prosperity (SCAPP)), and supported by ongoing technical assistance (TA) projects implemented under the upcoming World Bank’s FY18‐FY22 country partnership framework (CPF) for Mauritania. The macroeconomic policy framework provides an adequate basis for the operation.
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The development objectives of the Third Fiscal Consolidation, Sustainable Energy, and Competitiveness Programmatic Development Policy Financing Project for Egypt are built around three pillars: (1) advance fiscal consolidation through higher revenue collection, greater moderation of the wage bill growth, and stronger debt management; (2) ensure sustainable energy supply through private sector engagement; and (3) enhance the business environment through investment laws, industrial license requirements as well as enhancing competition.
... See More + The government’s reform efforts are focusing on pressing macroeconomic challenges, where they have already delivered some visible results, and on bolstering social protection measures to protect the poor and vulnerable from the negative effects of the broader macroeconomic reforms. The government’s evolving development model increasingly shifts the focus toward the private sector as the engine of growth and job creation. In the industrial sector, the government has launched a sweeping reform of the archaic industrial licensing regime, which dates back to 1954, introducing risk-based licensing, new controls, and service standards to this historically complex area of business regulation. The reforms in the energy sector are closely aligned with Egypt’s contribution to the Paris Agreement on climate change. The program contributes to renewing Egypt’s social contract through the promotion of transparency and inclusive growth. This approach is consistent with the World Bank Group’s Middle East and North Africa strategy, which aims to renew the social contract. Overall, the programmatic series has already yielded substantial results and is bringing about important structural changes in the economy.
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This is a statement by Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General at the 96th meeting of the Development Committee held on October 14, 2017. Global growth will accelerate this year thanks to a pick-up in all regions, developed and developing.
... See More + However, ten years after the first signs of financial turmoil that led to the great global recession, the world economy remains in a state of sub-standard growth thanks to a lack of concerted policy effort to boost demand, particularly in the leading advanced economies. Social and economic inequities exposed by the crisis show few signs of moderating and harbor serious downside risks. Governments have taken measures to strengthen their banking systems and have closed the most egregious loopholes and toxic instruments exposed by the crisis; but however good their intentions, the reality is that few who caused the crash have been held accountable for their actions, and little has been done to tackle its root causes. Much bolder policies will be needed if growth is to be made more inclusive and sustainable.
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The IDA16 replenishment arrangements provide that IDA country allocations be made available for information to IDA’s Executive Directors and disclosed on the IDA’s external website at the end of each fiscal year of the IDA16 implementation period.
... See More + This note responds to these disclosure commitments by providing: (i) FY14 IDA country allocations in table one; and (ii) key input data on which the FY14 allocations were based in table two. In addition, the note also provides the FY14 allocations under the IDA’s Crisis Response Window (CRW) in table three.
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The Development Policy Loan (DPL) aims to support the Government of the Republic of Indonesia’s priorities for improving quality of spending, strengthening revenue administration and enhancing tax policy to further the country’s medium-term economic development and poverty reduction goals.
... See More + The operation, in the amount of US$300 million, is the second in a programmatic series of now three single-tranche operations supporting critical policy and institutional reforms with three development objectives: a) improving composition of spending, budget execution rates and efficiency of spending; b) increasing tax administration efficiency and compliance and audit capability; and c) increasing revenue potential and economic efficiency of tax policy. A third single tranche operation is proposed, with the same development objectives. The third operation responds to a direct request from the government to support the acceleration of fiscal reform efforts in 2017. Government’s commitment to maintaining reform momentum before the election cycle beginning in 2019, is evidenced in recent appointments of a revenue reform team and special advisers to the Minister of Finance, as well as a significant increase in demand for technical assistance which the World Bank is responding to with development partners. This DPL series forms an integral part of the Indonesia Country Partnership Framework (CPF) collecting more and spending better engagement, which aims to support the Government’s fiscal reforms. The DPL series aims to address key policy and institutional bottlenecks in support of the Government’s fiscal reforms to improve the quality of spending, strengthen revenue administration and enhance tax policy.
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The proposed operation is the first in a programmatic series of two development policy operations (DPOs), aimed at boosting the resilience of Samoa to some of the majorrisks threatening its sustainable growth and development.
... See More + The proposed operation will strengthen Samoa’s macroeconomic and financial resilience, including through increasingrevenue collection to help build the fiscal buffers necessary to respond to external shocks. It will also support the Government of Samoa’s (Government) efforts to increase Samoa's resilience to the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Under the proposed operation, the World Bank (WB) will continue to support the implementation of reforms that have been prioritized by the Government, and that are closely aligned with target areas identified in the Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2017–2020 (SDS), including economic sustainability and business development, improved health outcomes, and climate and disaster resilience.As a very small remote economy that is highly vulnerable to external shocks, Samoa illustrates many of the constraints facing even well-performing small island states.Given these geographic constraints, remittances, tourism, and aid flows are critical to improving livelihoods and supporting the domestic economy.After a period of low and volatile growth, economic activity has picked up in recent years, and Samoa has largely recovered from the effects of Tropical Cyclone Evan in late 2012.According to national estimates, extreme poverty is rare in Samoa, and the incidence of basic needs poverty has also declined in recent years after peaking in 2008, although progress has been unevenly distributed across the country.According to internationally-comparable estimates, poverty is very low in Samoa compared with other countries in the region.In general, and compared to the rest of the Pacific, most Samoan households enjoy relatively good access to electricity, safe drinking water, and sanitation.The proposed operation is structured around two development objectives: i) To strengthen Samoa's macroeconomic and financial resilience; and ii) to increase Samoa's resilience to the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and non-communicable diseases.This operation builds on the substantial progress achieved under the previous DPO series in improving macroeconomic sustainability and in the specific policy areas of revenue mobilization, procurement reform, and climate resilience.Over time, the operation is likely to particularly benefit the poorer and more vulnerable in Samoa, by reducing the risks of: (i) a contraction in the provision of essential public services (due to insufficient fiscal buffers); (ii) a disruption to remittance flows; and (iii) alack of access to key services after a natural disaster.The main risks to the proposed operation stem from Samoa’s macroeconomic context and its vulnerability to external shocks.However, development partners continue to be a source of support for the Government's capacity-building efforts in these areas, which are closely aligned with the 2017-20 SDS, and the Ministry of Finance is playing a strong coordinating role and using the sector coordination mechanism to implement reforms.
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A broad-based recovery in global economic activity has been taking hold since late 2016. Industrial production has picked up and global trade accelerated after two years of pronounced weakness.
... See More + A gradual recovery in commodity prices diminished growth constraints among commodity exporters, including major emerging economies. Despite heightened policy uncertainty, growth in major advanced economies, including the United States, the European Union, and Japan, has strengthened, reflecting buoyant domestic demand and rising exports. Growth in developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) continues to be resilient as already robust domestic demand was supported by a pickup in external demand and a gradual recovery in commodity prices. After a large surplus in 2016, Vietnam’s external current account balance started to decline in early 2017. Robust growth in exports, tourism receipts, and private remittances led to a current account surplus of about 4 percent of GDP in 2016, marking the sixth consecutive year of a widening current account surplus. The financial account also saw large net inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) and long-term loans, allowing the State Bank of Vietnam to gradually rebuild foreign reserves. The current account surplus started to decline in early 2017 due to a recovery in import growth. Bolstered by a strong external position, the nominal exchange rate has been relatively stable but the real exchange rate continues to appreciate. The reference rate was devalued modestly by 1.23 percent in 2016 and around 1.3 percent year-to-date in 2017. Meanwhile, the real effective exchange rate continued to appreciate by about 5 percent in 2016 and 24 percent since 2010. Real exchange rate appreciation is driven by a large external surplus of the FDI sector, but is a concern for Vietnam’s domestic private enterprises, which continue to face significant external imbalance and competitiveness challenges. This special focus issue is part of two-part series on fiscal reforms. While this installment of the taking stock special topic is focused on specific revenue and debt management options to underpin more sustainable and efficient fiscal management, the December issue will focus on expenditure restructuring.
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A broad-based recovery in global economic activity has been taking hold since late 2016. Industrial production has picked up and global trade accelerated after two years of pronounced weakness.
... See More + A gradual recovery in commodity prices diminished growth constraints among commodity exporters, including major emerging economies. Despite heightened policy uncertainty, growth in major advanced economies, including the United States, the European Union, and Japan, has strengthened, reflecting buoyant domestic demand and rising exports. Growth in developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) continues to be resilient as already robust domestic demand was supported by a pickup in external demand and a gradual recovery in commodity prices. After a large surplus in 2016, Vietnam’s external current account balance started to decline in early 2017. Robust growth in exports, tourism receipts, and private remittances led to a current account surplus of about 4 percent of GDP in 2016, marking the sixth consecutive year of a widening current account surplus. The financial account also saw large net inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) and long-term loans, allowing the State Bank of Vietnam to gradually rebuild foreign reserves. The current account surplus started to decline in early 2017 due to a recovery in import growth. Bolstered by a strong external position, the nominal exchange rate has been relatively stable but the real exchange rate continues to appreciate. The reference rate was devalued modestly by 1.23 percent in 2016 and around 1.3 percent year-to-date in 2017. Meanwhile, the real effective exchange rate continued to appreciate by about 5 percent in 2016 and 24 percent since 2010. Real exchange rate appreciation is driven by a large external surplus of the FDI sector, but is a concern for Vietnam’s domestic private enterprises, which continue to face significant external imbalance and competitiveness challenges. This special focus issue is part of two-part series on fiscal reforms. While this installment of the taking stock special topic is focused on specific revenue and debt management options to underpin more sustainable and efficient fiscal management, the December issue will focus on expenditure restructuring.
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Ratings of Emergency Economic and Fiscal Support Operation Project for Sierra Leone were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, risk to development outcome was significant, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some of the lessons learned included: (i) Even in the case of a national emergency, it is possible to make progress in government fiscal management reforms; (ii) It is important to have a central command with strong authority to coordinate the many actors coming together to fight the epidemic; (iii) It is also helpful to have a lead development partner who lead the coordination of other development partners; (iv) A fiduciary agent can play a critical implementation role in emergency contexts; (v) In emergency situations it is vital to consider practical project management issues, such as payment of workers; (vi) The existence of widespread mobile phone use offers an opportunity to convey funds to works in an emergency situation; and (vii) Results indicators should not rely just on completed actions, but should attempt to the extent possible, capture the outcomes of completed actions of the program
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR4121 JUN 26, 2017
The development objective of Emergency Development Policy Operation Project for The Gambia is to support strengthening the government’s fiscal position while restoring the provision of essential public services.
... See More + The operation will provide emergency financial support to The Gambia as the authorities strive to restore macro-fiscal sustainability while shielding poor and vulnerable households from the impact of the economic crisis. This operation is articulated around three intertwined pillars in support of the PDO as follows: 1) The first pillar consists of rapid-response fiscal stabilization measures; 2) The second pillar starts addressing critical fiscal risks from State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs); and 3) The third pillar is to mitigate the social impact of the economic crisis in health centers.
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The development objective of the Emergency Fiscal Stabilization Development Policy Operation Project for Chad is to support immediate fiscal stabilization through expenditure rationalization.
... See More + The Government of Chad (GoC) remains at a critical juncture to meet the pressing financing needs of the 2017 budget in the aftermath of multiple shocks combining the oil price collapse, terrorist threats, and related security costs as well as an ensuing humanitarian crisis. The reform program supports the government’s response to the immediate fiscal crisis and to address some related negative social impacts. The emergency fiscal stabilization operation (EFSO) is prepared in the context of a more pronounced than expected gross domestic product (GDP) contraction of 6.4 percent in 2016 and the persistence of severe fiscal pressures. The government is demonstrating strong determination to manage what seems a much deeper and longer fiscal and social crisis than expected. The government has functioned on the basis of cash-based budget execution since early 2016, cutting public expenditure by 10.8 percent of non-oil GDP between 2014 and 2016. On the other hand, additional domestic borrowing by the government will further increase commercial banks’ already high levels of direct and indirect exposure to the public finances.
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The ongoing conflict in Yemen has led to substantial destruction of physical infrastructure and significant disruptions in public services, livelihoods, income and well-being of individuals and households throughout the country.
... See More + With little signs of the conflict abating,innovative options are now being explored to rehabilitate infrastructure and restore services during and immediately after conflict.This note reviews the existing service delivery landscape in Yemen, examines immediate to short term institutional and implementation challenges in service delivery (energy, water, telecommunications, transport, education, health etc.), and proposes a framework for rapid restoration and enhancement of service delivery in post-conflict Yemen. This note is part of a broader set of notes examining Inclusive Service Delivery in Yemen and it serves as an umbrella note to identify the common challenges, as well as outline a shared set of principles, priorities and approaches in service delivery restoration.
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The development objective of the Strengthening Social Risk Management and Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response Project for Uganda are to increase: (i) participation in Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention programs; and (ii) utilization of multi-sectoral response services for survivors of GBV in targeted districts.
... See More + This project has three components. 1) The first component, Prevention of social risks and gender-based violence will strengthen the development, coordination and implementation of a set of comprehensive GBV prevention interventions within the broader context of social risk management. In particular, this component will focus on: (i) promoting behavior change and addressing social norms and values that may enable or condone GBV at community and household level as well as in the workplace; (ii) strengthening referral mechanisms and ensuring information on available services for GBV survivors is available and widely disseminated at community level and in the workplace (in prioritized sectors). This component has two sub-components, (a) Preventing Gender-Based Violence in the workplace in the broader context of social risk management; (b) GBV prevention and referral at community level in the context of social risk management; 2) The Second component, Gender-Based Violence Response in the context of social risk management will strengthen the responsiveness of front-line service providers: Health Sector, Uganda Police Force and the Directorate of Public Prosecution to cases of GBV and improve their ability to provide quality care to survivors. This component will: (i) strengthen national coordination systems, (ii) support the enhancement and adoption of comprehensive guidelines for referrals; (iii) the review and updating of Standard SOP for the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS) and; (iv) training curricula for Uganda Police Force. This component has two sub-component, (a) Strengthening the Health Sector Response to GBV, and (b) Strengthening the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS) Response to GBV; 3) The third component, project management and monitoring and evaluation will cover overall project management costs to ensure efficient and effective coordination, fiduciary management at national and local levels. This component will focus on the review and roll-out of a National System for data collection on GBV. The project will further support key measures to ensure effective data collection and information management on GBV. The project will assess the data currently being collected through the National GBV Database and the Occupational Health and Safety Database currently managed by Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development (MOGLSD) as well as the data on GBV currently collected through the Health Management Information System (HMIS). This component consists of two sub-component, (a) project management and (b) monitoring and evaluation.
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The development objective of Strengthening Fiscal and Financial Stability Project for Mongolia is to contribute to the government of Mongolia’s efforts to strengthen fiscal and financial stability and improve the quality of expenditure management.
... See More + This project has five components. 1) The first component, Strengthening Macroeconomic and Fiscal Management, aims to strengthen fiscal responsibility and support the implementation of relevant policy measures toward (a) improving the quality of expenditure management, (b) strengthening macroeconomic and budget policy-making capacity, and (c) improving regulatory processes. It has the following three subcomponents: (i) Improving macroeconomic policy tools and enhancing research capacity; (ii) Strengthening fiscal policy and planning; and (iii) Strengthening capacity for debt management and external development financing operations. 2) The second component, Improving the Efficiency of Public Financial Management, aims to improve fiscal discipline by strengthening the country’s PFM and enhance the quality of expenditures by revamping PIM and fostering activities aimed at increasing transparency and accountability. It has the following four subcomponents: (i) Improving budget credibility, predictability, and execution for better delivery of services; (ii) Increasing budget comprehensiveness and transparency through better control, reporting, and expansion of the recipient’s Integrated Financial Management Information System capabilities; (iii) Strengthening the public financial management institutional capacity; and (iv) Strengthening Public Investment Management. 3) The third component, Enhancing Financial Sector Stability, aims to support the MOF, BOM, FRC, DBM, and DICOM to strengthen the resiliency of the banking system. It has the following five subcomponents: (i) Developing and implementing a financial sector development strategy to strengthen financial sector stability; (ii) Providing support to the effective management the Development Bank of Mongolia; (iii) Strengthening financial safety nets; (iv) Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Financial Regulatory Commission; and (v) Improving the capacity of the Bank of Mongolia to enhance financial stability. 4) The fourth component, Strengthening of the Social Protection System, aims is to support the government’s efforts to improve public expenditure quality in social protection. It has the following two subcomponents: (i) Strengthening social welfare design, targeting, operations, and performance; and (ii) Strengthening social insurance design, governance, and financial management. 5) The fifth component, Project Management and Monitoring, aims to provide support for project implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, including, among others, audit arrangements, reporting requirements, procurement, and FM activities.
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This program document presents a proposed programmatic Development Policy Financing (DPF) operation to support the Government of Jamaica’s (GOJ’s) policies aimed at (i) improving investment climate and competitiveness and (ii) sustaining fiscal consolidation and enhancing public financial management.
... See More + This program ahs two pillars: 1) The first pillar of the proposed operation supports policy reforms that are central to the government’s growth agenda. The second pillar helps the government to sustain fiscal consolidation by strengthening the legal and institutional framework for fiscal and public financial management. The government’s program is anchored in the objectives of the National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 Jamaica, which seeks to transform Jamaica into a developed country by 2030. The Programmatic DPF series supports the GOJ’s policies aimed at (i) improving investment cli-mate and competitiveness and (ii) sustaining fiscal consolidation and enhancing public financial management.
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Ratings for the Fiscal Management and Public Sector Performance Technical Assistance Project for El Salvador were as follows: outcomes were unsatisfactory, risk to development outcome was moderate, Bank performance was moderately unsatisfactory, and Borrower performance was unsatisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: the lack of full-time staff working for the project implementation unit (PIU) limited the government’s support to the implementation of activities. The absence of a dedicated Project Manager to guide the development of second integrated financial management system (SAFI II) led to significant integration issues. The absence of appropriate technical expertise (in the areas of financial management information system and public financial management (PFM) on the World Bank team during the first years of project implementation contributed to oversights in design and limited the ability of the World Bank to advise the government during reform implementation. The project suffered from a lack of engagement of senior public officials in resolving technical disagreements in the development of SAFI II. Standard World Bank supervision missions (two per year) were not sufficient in such a challenging reform environment. A positive lesson from the operation was the engagement of the opposition in Congress to help get the project approved. Coordination of various donor interventions by the government was weak, leading to overlapping interventions and divergent interests between donors, undermining the overall coherence of the government’s PFM reform strategy. The PIU’s and the implementing agencies’ limited degree of experience working with World Bank procurement procedures negatively affected the rhythm of project execution. The absence of a strategic approach to the planning of information and communication technology (ICT) procurement at the onset led to major failures in procurement.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3947 MAR 10, 2017
The objectives of the Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project are to: (a) support the Government of Nigeria towards rehabilitating and improving critical service delivery infrastructure, improve the livelihood opportunities of conflict and displacement-affected communities, and strengthen social cohesion in the North East Participating States of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa; and (b) in the event of an eligible Crisis or Emergency, to provide immediate and effective response to said Eligible crisis or emergency.
... See More + There are four components to the project, the first component being strengthening peace building, stability, and social cohesion. The focus is on: transitional support toward stabilization and self-reliance by increasing and improving the access to basic necessity kits, and restoring immediate access to productive assets by providing agricultural inputs and livestock for farming families and trading commodities for non-farmers. The second component is the infrastructure rehabilitation and service delivery restoration and improvement. This component will include the rehabilitation of critical physical infrastructure and the sustainable restoration of service delivery. The third component is the technical assistance and program management support. This component will include TA for: (a) strengthening the institutional capacity for the coordination of the programmatic recovery program, in line with the Buhari Plan and the RPBA and (b) strengthening the MCRP implementation capacity. Support for overall programmatic and policy coordination at the federal, interstate, and intrastate levels will include the provision of TA for the development of implementation and performance management frameworks for programmatic recovery. Finally, the fourth component is the contingent emergency response. This component will have no funding allocation initially and will draw resources from the unallocated expenditure category in the case of activation. If an Immediate Response Mechanism (IRM) is established, this component will serve as an IRM CERC to allow the reallocation of uncommitted funds from the project portfolio to the IRM Designated Account (DA) to address emergency response and recovery costs, if approved by the World Bank.
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