Yemen has been experiencing political instability since 2011 and open conflict since late 2014. As a result, the social and institutional fabric in Yemen has witnessed increasing disintegration.
... See More + Although official statistics are no longer available, anecdotal evidence suggests that Yemen's GDP contracted by an accumulated 40 percent since the end of 2014. The conflict has caused widespread disruption of economic activities and has dramatically diminished employment and income opportunities in the private and public sector. In the current conflict situation and the given political uncertainty, it is not possible to provide a detailed, sound economic outlook. However, Yemen's medium-term outlook will depend ultimately on whether an end to the on-going conflict can be found and the rebuilding of the Yemen economy and social fabric is facilitated. In the short-term, there is no substitute for external financial support for initial macroeconomic stabilization given the interdependency of external financing, the fiscal expenditure program, and early stabilization. Finally, if violence can be contained before the end of 2018, GDP is predicted to begin its recovery in 2019 (i.e., via the gradual resumption of hydrocarbon export). However, little of the economic recovery is estimated to translate into a meaningful reduction of the high poverty rate in Yemen (approximately 80 percent in 2018).
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Adoption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a clean cooking solution is lagging behind Kenya's 2030 development goal, despite several government initiatives along the LPG value chain.
... See More + Until now, the government's strategy focused on reducing the cost of LPG and increasing its use among lower-income Kenyans. Sustainable uptake may be accelerated by taking vigorous regulatory steps to reduce the consumer price and minimize unlicensed LPG sales. Some measures include reviewing the economics underpinning the intervention, creating an enabling environment for LPG adoption by upper- and middle-income groups, developing annual uptake targets, and devising a better metric to measure progress.
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Ratings for the Oil and Gas Capacity Building Project for Ghana were as follows: outcome was satisfactory, Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation (M and E) quality was modest.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: complex, multiple-beneficiary technical assistance (TA) projects are highly supervision intensive, and a standard supervision budget allocation is unlikely to be sufficient. Therefore, Bank teams supervising such projects will need to be involved in more than one activity in the country in order to spread costs for travel, etc. across multiple activities. In designing future oil and gas TA operations, teams should attempt to streamline project design, prioritizing interventions and resisting the temptation to address all of the possible impacts that come from oil and gas. Teams encountering similar short-comings should address this during project design and implementation by hiring project managers within the project. Inadequate specification of the major equipment purchases resulted in major implementation challenges. The high quality of the project coordination unit (PCU), particularly the project coordinator, was critical to overcoming the implementation challenges encountered during the project. Norway through its Oil for Development, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (OfD) program brings unique experience and expertise that is complementary to the support that World Bank (WB) can provide to emerging oil and gas producers. Whenever possible it will thus be advisable to engage Norway and leverage its value added to maximize the impact of WB support and financing towards enhanced oil and gas sector regulation, management, and oversight.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR4443 AUG 23, 2018
