Ratings for the Chongqing Urban-Rural Integration Project for China were as follows: outcome was moderately unsatisfactory, Bank performance was moderately unsatisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was modest.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: having alternative subprojects ready to go will have reduced the long delays seen between the decision to drop a subcomponent and appraisal of a replacement. Another way to increase flexibility is to avoid listing the specific sectors to be included under access to services but to let the key performance indicators (KPIs) and Intermediate Outcome Indicators (IOI) define those service areas. During preparation, the Bank brought in expertise from these disciplines, but this was less the case for supervision. Selecting fewer project sites and supplying each with more inputs will demonstrate the intensity of impacts possible with a multi-sectoral approach, rather than focusing on a widespread area which diluted effects. Care needs to be taken during restructurings to make sure the theory of change remains clear, and indicators cover outcomes from the revised project.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR4173 FEB 08, 2018
This study analyses how the Syrian refugee inflows into turkey affected firm entry and performance. To estimate the casual effects, instrumental variables, difference-indifferences and synthetic control methodologies are used.
... See More + The results suggest that hosting refugees is favourable for firms. Total firm entry does not seem to be significantly affected. However, there is a substantial increase in the number of new foreign-owned firms. In line with the increase in new foreign-owned firms, there is some indication of growth in gross profits and net sales.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8323 JAN 30, 2018
Akgunduz,Yusuf Emre; van den Berg,Marcel; Hassink,WolterDisclosed
Bangladesh has maintained an impressive track record on growth and development. However, even with a growing economy there is still widespread poverty and underemployment motivating many Bangladeshis to migrate in search of better opportunities.
... See More + As a result, almost half a million Bangladeshis migrate overseas annually for employment purposes, mostly to the Middle East. Unfortunately, Bangladeshi migrants face considerable challenges and risks such as fraud and deception by recruiters, physical abuse and exploitation from employers, squalid living conditions, poor access to health care and insufficient pay for long work hours in difficult physical conditions, and social marginalization in host countries. Many go into debt to pay for migration, remit most earnings, achieve minimal savings, and have limited assistance for re-integration upon return home. The current work of Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) comes at an opportune time to pilot innovations for supporting safe migration. In addition, there is considerable potential for scaling-up given the wide-spread nature of migration among the Bangladeshi population and increasing public awareness of its challenges and risks.
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Internal mobility is a critical component of economic growth and development, as it enables the reallocation of labor to more productive opportunities across sectors and regions.
... See More + Using detailed district-to-district migration data from the 2001 Census of India, the paper highlights the role of state borders as significant impediments to internal mobility. The analysis finds that average migration between neighboring districts in the same state is at least 50 percent larger than neighboring districts on different sides of a state border, even after accounting for linguistic differences. Although the impact of state borders differs by education, age, and reason for migration, it is always large and significant. The paper suggests that inter-state mobility is inhibited by state-level entitlement schemes, ranging from access to subsidized goods through the public distribution system to the bias for states' own residents in access to tertiary education and public sector employment.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8244 NOV 20, 2017
The development objective of Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Local Communities Project (MozDGM) for Mozambique is to strengthen the capacity of target communities and community-based organizations to participate in integrated landscape management.
... See More + The MozDGM also contributes significantly to the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Mozambique (FY17-FY21) which is organized around three pillars: (i) promoting diversified growth and enhancing productivity; (ii) investing in human capital; and (iii) enhancing sustainability. This project has three components. 1) The first component, Increasing Community and Community-Based Organizations (CBO) Participation in Integrated Landscape Management, aims to increase the participation of communities and CBOs in Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) at the national, landscape, provincial and local levels. 2) The second component, Strengthening Capacity for Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CNBRM), aims to increase the capacity of communities and CBOs for CBNRM through "Learning by doing” by implementing activities on the ground, and to pilot test the CBNRM approach. 3) The third component, Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, aims to support the management, coordination and monitoring of Project activities.
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International labor migration is an important sector of the Indonesian economy in its own right, requiring commensurate efforts to improve its professionalism as a sector and instill modernization across its various components to maximize its potential for the benefit of all stakeholders.This report aims to point towards the best policy mix for Indonesia’s various international migrant worker groups who face widely differing risks and gain diverse economic benefits from migration.
... See More + Following introduction, Section 2 of the report looks at the major profiles of Indonesian migrant workers and their reasons for migrating. Section 3 focuses on the discussion about female domestic workers. Section 4 delves into the issue of undocumented migration, including the government’s efforts to encourage documented migration. Section 5 then looks as how best to sustain the benefits of migration, with particular reference to a third profile of migrant workers, namely those who work in the more developed countries of East Asia and who generally earn the highest wages. Finally, Section 6 rounds off the report with broad policy recommendations
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The movement of people in Southeast Asia is an issue of increasing importance. Workers move throughout Southeast Asia in search of economic opportunities.
... See More + This book highlights how mobility affects the well-being of workers, the constraints workers face when migrating for better opportunities, and the solutions to ease these constraints. The diversity of economic development in Southeast Asia means that there are ample opportunities for workers to seek out better jobs that pay higher wages. The book documents why workers are not always able to take advantage of these opportunities, what is lost when they are not able to take advantage of them, and potential policies that will expand their access to them. The report is structured as follows: part one gives migration and regional integration in Southeast Asia; and part two presents migration policy in Southeast Asia.
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This Migration and Development Brief reports global trends in migration and remittance flows, major policy developments, and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators for reducing remittance costs and recruitment costs.
... See More + The Brief reports new data on recruitment costs, a potential indicator for the SDG of promoting safe and regular migration. The special focus of the Brief is return migration, currently a challenging issue globally following the increase in asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.
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Most Europe and Central Asia (ECA) economies are showing more rapid growth than previously expected, reflecting a strengthening of growth in industrial production and exports in recent months.
... See More + Export growth in the region continues to exceed that in the rest of the world. With the robust cyclical performance, countries are shifting their focus toward structural challenges that are part of the new normal after the financial crisis and the fall in commodity prices.Technological advancement, the globalization of production and work, and the challenges caused by lower commodity prices have contributed to a rise in public anxiety. It came to the surface as the number of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in the region rose, leading to concerns about immigration in general. Often lost in the current debate is the fact that the number of refugees in ECA is not unprecedented, that surges tend to be temporary, that refugees represent just a small share of the total number of migrants and that migration has long been vital to the region, with ECA economies reaping substantial benefits from cross-border labor mobility. Migration patterns are likely to change with technological progress and further cross border connectivity, and competition for high-quality jobs will become more intense. Reforms should help both migrants and non migrants cope with the inevitable increase in flexibility in labor markets—by, for example, ensuring the portability of benefits, increasing income security for workers, and better integrating migrants in host countries.
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The objective of the Floods Emergency Recovery Project of Malawi is to sustainably restore agricultural livelihoods, reconstruct critical public infrastructure to improved standards in the flood-affected districts, and improve the Government of Malawi's disaster response and recovery capacities.
... See More + Negative impacts include: loss of land acquisition, loss of asset, loss of structures, loss of income, loss of trees and crops, and loss of livelihood. Mitigation measures include: (i) all titled landowners, customary landowners, encroachers, persons affected by loss of access to sources of income and persons affected by loss of access to natural resources (water, wood, grazing areas etc.), as affected persons; (ii) cash compensation for affected land equivalent to replacement value, taking into account market values for the land; (iii) cash compensation for the harvest or product from the affected land or asset, equivalent to average market value or market value of the crop for the remaining period of tenancy/ lease agreement, whichever is greater; (iv) compensation in cash according to affected people’s choice, taking into account market values for materials; (v) cash compensation for affected land equal to replacement value, taking into account market values for the land; (vi) land for land replacement or compensation in cash according to affected people’s choice based on replacement value, taking into account market values for the land; (vii) cash compensation for affected building and other fixed assets based on its replacement value without including depreciation, and taking into account market values for the structures and materials; (viii) cash compensation equivalent to average of last 3 years market value for the mature and harvested crop; (ix) Cash compensation based on type, age and productive value of affected trees plus 10 percent premium. For fruit trees it is the value of production lost until replacement seedlings mature.
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This is a background paper to the Pacific Possible report. The paper proposes a series reforms to enhance labor mobility opportunities for Pacific Island countries.
... See More + Such reforms would result in a triple win benefitting migrants, labor sending, and labor receiving countries.
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Publication 119105 FEB 01, 2017
Curtain,Richard Leigh; Dornan,Matthew Selwyn; Doyle,Jesse Jon Gerome; Howes,StephenDisclosed
Romania is the fastest growing economy in the European Union (EU), and Bucharest and Romania’s secondary cities have been its main growth engines.
... See More + However, while Bucharest has reached productivity levels comparable to those of other EU capitals, secondary cities in Romania still have some ways to go before competing on equal footing with secondary cities in the EU. Without strengthening these secondary cities, the Romanian economy cannot sustain growth in the coming years. The most competitive secondary cities are those that are most astute at attracting people, investments, and tourists. This report looks at the cities that have been most successful at attracting migrants and commuters, and proposes a number of recommendations aimed at making secondary cities more attractive and competitive. The report is primarily addressed to policy makers and to a lay audience interested in urban development issues.This report is structured along four main sections: 1) An analysis of development dynamics, with a particular focus on the importance of cities in driving growth and development; 2) An analysis of migration and commuter patterns in Romania; 3) An analysis of the cities and areas that have been most successful at attracting people, and an analysis of the urban areas that will likely attract most people in the future. 4) Recommendations on how EU, national, and local policies and investments can help make secondary cities more competitive.
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This paper studies how migration from a poor to a rich country affects key economic beliefs, preference parameters, and transnational household decision-making efficiency.
... See More + The setting is the migration of Tongans to New Zealand through a migration lottery program. In a 10-year follow-up survey of individuals applying for this program, the study elicited risk and time preferences and pro-market beliefs. It also linked migrants and potential migrants to a partner household consisting of family members who would stay behind if the migrants moved. Survey participants played lab-in-the-field games designed to measure the degree of intra-family trust and the efficiency of intra-family decision-making. Migration provides a large and permanent positive shock to income, a large change in economic institutions, and a reduction in interactions with partner household members. Despite these changes, the study finds no significant impacts of migration on risk and time preferences, pro-market beliefs, or the decision-making efficiency of transnational households. This stability in the face of such a large and life-changing event lends credence to economic models of migration that treat these determinants of decision-making as time-invariant, and contrasts with recent evidence on preference changes after negative shocks.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7848 OCT 03, 2016
The number of migrants has risen rapidly in the past few years for various reasons: job opportunities, labor shortages resulting from falling birth rates, internal conflict and war, natural disasters, climate change, and improved access to information through phone and the Internet.
... See More + The migration and remittances fact book 2016 provides a comprehensive picture of emigration, immigration, and remittance flows for 214 countries and territories and 15 country groups, drawing on authoritative, publicly available data. The current edition of the fact book updates the information in the 2011 edition with data collected from various sources, including national censuses, labor force surveys, and population registers. In addition, for each country and regional grouping from the World Bank’s world development indicators, it provides selected socioeconomic characteristics such as population, labor force, age-dependency ratio, gross national income per capita, and poverty headcount.
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International migration offers individuals and their families the potential to experience immediate and large gains in their incomes and offers a number of other positive benefits to the sending communities and countries.
... See More + However, there are also concerns about the potential costs of migration, including concerns about trafficking and human rights, a desire for remittances to be used more effectively, and concerns about a loss of externalities from skilled workers. As a result, there is increasing interest in policies that can enhance the development benefits of international migration and mitigate these potential costs. The authors provide a critical review of recent research on the effectiveness of these policies at three stages of the migration process: pre-departure, during migration, and directed towards possible return. The existing evidence base suggests some areas of policy success: bilateral migration agreements for countries whose workers have few other migration options, developing new savings and remittance products that allow migrants more control over how their money is used, and efforts to provide financial education to migrants and their families. Suggestive evidence, together with theory, offers support for a number of other policies, such as lowering the cost of remittances, reducing passport costs, offering dual citizenship, and removing exit barriers to migration. Research offers reasons to be cautious about some policies, including policies enforcing strong rights for migrants, such as high minimum wages. Nevertheless, the authors find the evidence base to be weak for many policies, with no reliable research on the impact of most return migration programs or whether countries should attempt to induce communal remitting through matching funds.
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