From East to West, the economies of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) are not taking full advantage of the internet to foster economic growth and job creation.
... See More + The residents of Central Asia and the South Caucasus pay some of the highest prices in the world for internet connections that are slow and unreliable. In contrast, Europe enjoys some of the world’s fastest and affordable internet services. However, its firms and individuals are not fully exploiting the internet to achieve higher productivity growth as well as more and better jobs. Reaping Digital Dividends investigates the barriers that are holding back the broader adoption of the internet in ECA. The report identifies the main bottlenecks and provides policy recommendations tailored to economies at varying levels of digital development. It concludes that policies to increase internet access are necessary but not sufficient. Policies to foster competition, international trade and skills supply, as well as adapting regulations to the changing business environment and labor markets, will also be necessary. In other words, Reaping Digital Dividends not only requires better connectivity, but also complementary factors that allow governments, firms and individuals to make the most out of it.
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Publication 114437 APR 18, 2017
Kelly,Timothy John Charles; Liaplina,Aleksandra; Tan,Shawn Weiming; Winkler,Hernan JorgeDisclosed
Ratings for the First ICT Sector Development Policy Operation Project for Marshall Islands were as follows: outcomes were unsatisfactory, the risk to development outcome was high, the Bank performance was moderately unsatisfactory, and the Borrower performance was unsatisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: the delays and political opposition to reforms in the ICT sector are a reminder of the difficulties of sector reforms and the challenges of opening monopolies to competition. A thorough political economy assessment is an essential tool to support ambitious reform programs. The interests of incumbent monopolies, especially private shareholders, management and workers, capacity issues, and government readiness all play a role. Proper risk identification and mitigation, including to guide the choice of assistance instruments (IPF, DPO, non-lending TA, etc.), is essential. A DPO depends upon a deep and sustained level of engagement and trust between the Bank, the government and among stakeholder interested or affected by the proposed activity. With this in mind, it is doubtful that RMI was ready for this type of operation as its first substantial lending activity with the Bank, especially in view of the government’s lack of familiarity with World Bank Group processes and procedures. The Bank must ensure that its operations are supported by robust analysis and understanding of political economy factors. This is especially pertinent for complex, risky operations such as the DPO Program assessed in this ICR. In this case, all the conditions seemed to be in place to support the reform objectives. There were high levels of dissatisfaction with the low quality and high price of ICT services. Experience internationally and from around the Pacific region had demonstrated the benefits of liberalization and the potential for market-based reforms to attract new private sector investment, which will lead to substantial improvements in sector performance.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3905 FEB 21, 2017
This paper exploits variations in the timing of telecommunications reforms across Europe to analyze the relationship between the rise of alternative work arrangements and the emergence of the Internet.
... See More + The paper evaluates whether sectors that are technologically more dependent on information and communications technologies experienced disproportionately larger changes in their employment outcomes after telecommunications reforms were introduced. The main results point to a disproportionate increase in total employment, part-time work, and home-based work among information and communications technologies–intensive sectors after the implementation of telecommunications reforms. The analysis does not find a link between the incidence of temporary employment, self-employment, second job holding, and telecommunications reforms. The main results are robust to several specifications.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7976 FEB 16, 2017
The automation and out-sourcing of routine, codifiable tasks are seen as driving polarization in labor markets in high-income countries. This paper first offers several explanations for why developing countries might show differing dynamics, at least for the present.
... See More + Census data then confirms this, showing on average no evidence of polarization in developing countries. However, incipient polarization in a few countries as well as major drives to automate in some large, labor intensive producers suggests this may not remain the case. This raises concerns first about the impact on equity within those countries, but second the possibility that the traditional flying geese pattern" -- whereby low skilled jobs are progressively off-shored to poorer and poorer countries -- may be short circuited.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7922 DEC 19, 2016
Ratings for the Communications Infrastructure and Technology Adaptable Program Lending Project for Africa were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, the risk to development outcome was substantial, the Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and the Borrower performance was also moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: projects should not move forward to Board approval if the project team and client countries are not truly ready. In avoiding rush, consider which approach to use; a thorough political economy assessment and high-level national commitment, alongside regional, are key for complex, ambitious regional projects.consider strengthening regional institutions as part of this process; Use of DPOs vs. IPF projects; importance of consultation and a communication campaign; Importance of sound, workable, embedded M&E for TA projects with appropriate capacity building and indicator targets; Incorporate country-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in regional projects.strengthening technical expertise for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects in Project Coordination Unit (PCU) and implementing agencies.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3827 DEC 15, 2016
The transition to cloud computing broadly means shifting programs and data from personal or office hardware to shared hardware that many individuals and organizations access over the Internet.
... See More + That migration is happening fast. By 2019, according to the information technology company Cisco, 83 percent of all global data center traffic will come from cloud services. And the profitability of the cloud services unit of Amazon, the leader in the worldwide cloud computing market, has been growing strongly. Relative to conventional computing, the cloud can offer more efficiency, scalability, and flexible real-time service to employees, customers, and citizens. Cloud computing, a fast-growing business, appeals to governments that want to provide more accessible, secure, and cost-effective public services. However, putting government data in the cloud—that is, on remote, Internet-connected devices owned by another, typically private, organization—poses the question of readiness to handle issues that are inherent in the technology, including security, dependability, and the scope of control that might be exercised by the owner of the cloud hardware and the Internet service provider. The World Bank’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) unit in collaboration with Accenture Consulting, recently developed a toolkit that can assess government readiness for cloud migration. It is conducting pilot studies to improve and refine the ability of the toolkit to provide recommendations to interested national policy makers and digital leaders.
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The objective of the Second Energy for Rural Transformation Adaptable Program Loan Project for is to increase access to energy and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in rural Uganda.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: land in the way leaves is not acquired but since its use is restricted, it is ‘orphaned land’ and valued at a proportion of the market value reflecting this restriction. Plantation crops such as tea in way leaves that are shorter than 1.8 m are allowed beneath the line or in the way leaves and are not compensated. However allowance was made in the valuation exercise for their compensation if damaged during power line construction. Although REA does not completely prohibit human activities within the way leave, it restricts certain uses and heights in there. For example no buildings are allowed and crops therein grown must not exceed 1.8 meters in height; the construction of the power line imposes restrictions on the use of land within the 10 meters way leaves corridor including planting of trees and construction of buildings and structures; wetlands, road reserves and forest reserves were considered to be Government Land. However in areas where economic activities were being carried out by claimants, assessment for compensation of damaged crops and trees was made; where community lands were identified, the crops and trees on the land were assessed and the whole compensation amount will be paid for those assets. Working with local leaders, every effort will be made to identify the PAPs who were cultivating the land at the time of the census. Payments will be made directly to the beneficiary entity; seasonal crops were not considered in the assessments since people would be given time to harvest their crops; and the assessment covered only trees and some perennial crops.
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The objective of the Second Energy for Rural Transformation Adaptable Program Loan Project for is to increase access to energy and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in rural Uganda.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: land in the way leaves is not acquired but since its use is restricted, it is ‘orphaned land’ and valued at a proportion of the market value reflecting this restriction. Plantation crops such as tea in way leaves that are shorter than 1.8 m are allowed beneath the line or in the way leaves and are not compensated. However allowance was made in the valuation exercise for their compensation if damaged during power line construction. Although REA does not completely prohibit human activities within the way leave, it restricts certain uses and heights in there. For example no buildings are allowed and crops therein grown must not exceed 1.8 meters in height; the construction of the power line imposes restrictions on the use of land within the 10 meters way leaves corridor including planting of trees and construction of buildings and structures; wetlands, road reserves and forest reserves were considered to be Government Land. However in areas where economic activities were being carried out by claimants, assessment for compensation of damaged crops and trees was made; where community lands were identified, the crops and trees on the land were assessed and the whole compensation amount will be paid for those assets. Working with local leaders, every effort will be made to identify the PAPs who were cultivating the land at the time of the census. Payments will be made directly to the beneficiary entity; seasonal crops were not considered in the assessments since people would be given time to harvest their crops; and the assessment covered only trees and some perennial crops.
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According to the National Institution of Standards and Technology, cloud computing is a model for enabling ever present, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (i.e., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction (U.S.
... See More + Department of Commerce, 2011). In other words, cloud computing can also be referred to as on-demand computing. It is a way for users to get continual access to shared computing resources, such as servers, storage, and sometimes services, as needed. Many countries that are interested in implementing a cloud platform are either uncertain where to start or are focused on building a national data center, or equivalent; however, a government may not be ready to leverage the cloud, even if they have one available. In order to assist governments with this gap, the World Bank Cloud Readiness Assessment Toolkit provides a series of questions that determines where a country is in terms of overall readiness, what deployment model they may wish to pursue based on their current regulatory environment, and recommendations on how they can better position their government to take advantage of cloud computing. The toolkit is comprised of five documents, two of which are the assessments that are the foundation of the recommendations. This Word document provides a high level overview of the basics of cloud computing and key considerations for a government when considering migrating to the cloud. It provides a high level overview of the various toolkit components along with guidelines on who might be the best choice to complete the various sections. This Word document also provides detailed instructions on completing the Country Assessment and the Application and Infrastructure Assessment.
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Digital technologies have permeated modern life, and their impact on creative work has been revolutionary. This revolution, as widely noted, has disrupted the making, distribution, and consumption of creative output.
... See More + On the downside, key concerns include Internet-induced piracy and inequality. Yet digital technologies also accelerate opportunities. So, how can these opportunities be reaped to promote creative work for development? Suggestions here include closing the digital gender gap, promoting appropriate intellectual property rights, and providing digital literacy. More needs to be done to understand the benefits and limitations of digital technologies on creative work for human development.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7683 MAY 24, 2016
The objective of the Bihar Transformative Development Project for India is to ‘diversify and enhance incomes and increase practice of nutrition and sanitation behaviors for targeted households’.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: use of vulnerability assessment tool to precede micro-planning with poorest households to identify real needs including entitlements and livelihoods and ability to repay loans; specific livelihoods indigenous or endemic to certain communities of STs will be further strengthened and necessary training and skill upgradation support will be provided. The new tribal geographies present an opportunity to strengthen traditional livelihood opportunities which are currently not being able to; cluster approach in promoting rural non-farm enterprises, handicrafts, handlooms and would need to target landless women, and vulnerable households like people with disability, single women households; and micro-planning to ensure the identification of activity for which loan is taken, the loan repayment schedule which suits the cycle of livelihood activity that has been opted and separately identify other support required for such as training, linking to services such as animal or crop insurance.
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The objective of the Bihar Transformative Development Project for India is to ‘diversify and enhance incomes and increase practice of nutrition and sanitation behaviors for targeted households’.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: suitable varieties based on soil and climatic conditions as recommended by Agriculture dept to be selected. Participatory Varietal Selection and Promotion (PVSP) method of seed variety selection may be promoted. Good yielding traditional varieties having demand in market to be encouraged for seed with the help of suitable technical agencies and agriculture department; restrict to the approved and proven best agricultural practices that include rationale Integrated Pest Management such as cultural practices, suitable Resistant varieties, sowing times, physical methods like setting traps and trap crops and biological control methods including bio control agents and botanical extracts.; and strictly avoid reuse of pesticide containers, and dispose them safely by burying in landfills or in field away from water resources after triple rinsing and crushing.
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Governments around the world are facing a double challenge. Their citizens are expecting everhigher standards of service and want to be able to interact with the government online as easily as they do with banks and Internet commerce companies.
... See More + At the same time, governments need to reduce administrative costs and increase program effectiveness. For many years, “e-Government” has been a major contributor to meeting these challenges. In recent years Russia has made good progress on its existing e-Government strategy for providing digital services in parallel with other channels. To assist the Government of the Russian Federation with its plans to develop and launch a project that will be designed to address these issues and move the country towards a Digital Government, this report from the World Bank team sets out high level recommendations that are tailored to the needs of Russia, and that are in line with the best international practices. The analysis shows that the situation with the monitoring of e-Government development in the Russian Federation as a whole is not bad. There are large amounts of data on various aspects of using ICT for public administration and local self-government. Most of measurable indicators used in Russia, as in many other countries, relate to assessments of the level of e-Readiness of the country, and of particular regions or industries. To conclude, for Russia, as well as for other countries, there is a challenge to create a new system of monitoring for the use of ICT for public administration in the context of proper Digital Government maturity models.
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Governments around the world are facing a double challenge. Their citizens are expecting everhigher standards of service and want to be able to interact with the government online as easily as they do with banks and Internet commerce companies.
... See More + At the same time, governments need to reduce administrative costs and increase program effectiveness. For many years, “e-Government” has been a major contributor to meeting these challenges. In recent years Russia has made good progress on its existing e-Government strategy for providing digital services in parallel with other channels. To assist the Government of the Russian Federation with its plans to develop and launch a project that will be designed to address these issues and move the country towards a Digital Government, this report from the World Bank team sets out high level recommendations that are tailored to the needs of Russia, and that are in line with the best international practices. The analysis shows that the situation with the monitoring of e-Government development in the Russian Federation as a whole is not bad. There are large amounts of data on various aspects of using ICT for public administration and local self-government. Most of measurable indicators used in Russia, as in many other countries, relate to assessments of the level of e-Readiness of the country, and of particular regions or industries. To conclude, for Russia, as well as for other countries, there is a challenge to create a new system of monitoring for the use of ICT for public administration in the context of proper Digital Government maturity models.
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For the first four decades of the Bank's operations, office technology consisted primarily of telephones, typewriters, and a secretarial pool.
... See More + Internal communications relied on inter-office memos and desk-to-desk distribution services. Carbon paper and four-part forms allowed distribution to multiple users, and routing slips ushered single copies through multiple recipients. In the early years of the 1960s, International Business Machines (IBM) Magnetic Tape and Selectric Typewriter (MT and ST) automated typing machines were introduced in the Bank, and four operators were trained to use them. In 1972, the Joint Computer Center opened, providing the World Bank and the IMF with mainframe technology services. In August 1981, large-scale computing at the Bank moved forward again with the creation of the Information Services Center. In 1983, FIRM-H opened in 12,000 square feet of space, housing the IBM Facility Center, the Office Automation Center, the Burroughs Facility Center, and the Network Communication Center. By 1979 the first individual computers appeared in the Bank, and in 1981, when IBM introduced the first personal computer, some Bank staff began integrating computers into their workflow, usually higher level staff using computers for analytical work. By 1991, there were over 6,600 desktop workstations and 6,200 printers in the Washington, D.C office and 1,200 portables and 500 desktop computers in country offices. In recent years, network technology and the Internet, along with email and new data communication technologies, have transformed the way we work. Today, we expect to communicate with the world from our desktop. File sharing and information exchange are commonplace in today's business practices; physical and geographic location no longer define the global workplace. These benefits, however, have produced new challenges, such as security, reliability, and authenticity, all core concerns for people who use computers and those responsible for managing the technology and systems we rely on. This exhibit was originally published in January 2006.
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Ratings for the Promoting Innovation to Enhance Competitiveness Project for Uruguay were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, risk to development outcome was low or negligible, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrower performance was satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: strong government support is crucial for quick and smooth implementation, but increased political coordination among executive branches may be necessary to move forward. The creation of a single agency responsible for the implementation of science, technology, and innovation (STI) programs improves coordination, efficacy, and efficiency of the STI policy. It is a good practice for STI projects to address and integrate different pillars of the STI system, by including actions that affect both demand and supply of knowledge and innovation. The project design should envisage early proactive action by the implementing agency to develop a partnership culture and demand, especially among the private sector. In designing a results matrix for STI projects, teams should consider the long term usually associated with the development of innovation outcomes, as well as the country-specific context that is likely to have a direct impact on STI through different channels - the education system, the level of international integration, and the industrial strategy. It may be especially important for the task team and the implementing agency to rapidly incorporate early lessons and changed circumstances.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3532 DEC 10, 2015
Smart City Gran Concepción is a World Bank Technical Assistance activity to support more efficient municipal and local public services in Chile that leverage technology (information and communications technology, ICT) and social entrepreneurship (that is, a bottom-up smart city model).
... See More + It was conducted in Gran Concepción, the second largest urban area in Chile, between November 2013 and October 2014. Smart City Gran Concepcion followed four components: 1) a codesign workshop on technology solutions for local and municipal challenges in the transport sector, 2) diagnosis, vision and a roadmap to support open innovation and technology solutions for local and municipal services, 3) a competition for cocreation of technology solutions for transport challenges and 4) a cocreation workshop for a strategic plan for the development of a local innovation hub. The activity had a threefold impact: 1) it achieved its objectives in Gran Concepción and proved the methodology to be effective; 2) it catalyzed the adoption of the bottom-up smart city model following this new methodology throughout Chile; and 3) it expanded the implementation and mainstreaming of the methodologies developed and tested through this activity in other Bank projects.
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The widening use of smartphones, high urbanization rates, and the rapid evolution of technologies are driving the expansion of real time passenger information (RTPI) systems for urban transport services.
... See More + RTPI provides accurate information on actual departure and arrival times and service disruptions, enabling passengers to plan more-efficient trips. Such public information systems can also create an extra incentive for the transit agency to maintain or improve performance. The market potential for RTPI systems includes installations in existing systems as well as new infrastructure. Traditionally sold as part of a larger vehicle management system that is controlled by a chosen vendor, conventional RTPI systems are a challenging expenditure in the developing world and, given the latest technologies, the conventional systems represent an increasingly outdated model. The new technologies can allow cities to obtain more economical and more adaptable RTPI systems, and government officials should consider these new developments when designing transit projects and procurement processes.
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