Bureaucratic complexity in citizen-government interactions can be an obstacle to accessing basic services and exercising civil rights. This paper presents a new methodology to collect contributor-based data on the regulatory framework and compliance burden of six key citizen-government interactions: (i) civil registration and identification, (ii) voting, (iii) paying taxes, (iv) access to health care, (v) access to education, and (vi) access to utilities.
... See More + The methodology was tested in Chile, Ghana, India, and Vietnam, and it provided an overview of the legal and regulatory frameworks. In addition, the study offers some interesting observations: (i) two of the four economies moved toward including digital components to civil registration and identification systems, making it easier to register births/deaths and obtain an identification document; (ii) three of the four economies require a specific voter ID to cast a ballot, which can discourage citizens from engaging in elections; (iii) patients accessing certain services at primary health care facilities may experience longer waits for treatment than those seeking access to the same services in hospitals; and (iv) a student's ability to access quality education can be limited by school placement based on residential address in two of the four economies. The lessons learned suggest that future studies should use survey data collection to investigate the practical experience of citizens beyond procedures and legal requirements. In addition, focusing on fewer areas and including a larger set of countries could generate greater variability and more robust conclusions.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8610 OCT 10, 2018
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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Dominica continues to be at high risk of debt distress. However, hurricane Maria in September 2017 caused severe social hardship and deterioration of fiscal and external balances, weakening sustainability.
... See More + In addition, Dominica’s debt carrying capacity as measured by the three-year CPIA average declined. Thus, setting public and publicly guaranteed total and external debt on a declining path would require prudent and efficient fiscal policies that safeguard fiscal space for social relief and reconstruction investment. A fiscal consolidation plan is needed after recovery takes hold to sustain reconstruction investment. Donor grant mobilization is key to minimize the debt burden. Main risks to the debt sustainability outlook include sudden stop in citizenship-by-investment (CBI) program revenues, financial instability from weakened balance sheets, and recurrent natural disasters.
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Togo’s risk of external debt distress continues to be moderate with heightened overall risk of debt distress—unchanged from the previous Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) published in April 2017.
... See More + Alternative scenarios and stress tests suggest, however, that external public debt could accumulate rapidly, pushing Togo above the external debt-distress threshold for the present value (PV) of public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) debt-to-GDP. Togo’s domestic public debt burden remains high and reflects among others, persistently high deficits, materialized contingent liabilities and arrears accumulation. Baseline projections show that Togo’s PV of total PPG debt (external plus domestic) -to-GDP ratio will reach the 38 percent benchmark by 2025, down from 73.1 percent in 2017 -with the bulk constituting domestic debt obligations. This analysis highlights the need for sustained fiscal consolidation, improved debt management, and macroeconomic policies to reduce the level of public debt to prudent levels over the medium term.
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A burgeoning area of social science research examines how state capabilities and bureaucratic effectiveness shape economic development. This paper studies how the management practices of civil service bureaucrats correlate to the delivery of public projects, using novel data from the Ghanaian Civil Service.
... See More + This paper combines hand-coded progress reports on 3,600 projects with a management survey in the government ministries and departments responsible for these projects. The analysis finds that management matters: practices related to autonomy are positively associated with project completion, yet practices related to incentives/monitoring of bureaucrats are negatively associated with project completion. The negative impact of incentives/monitoring practices is partly explained by bureaucrats having to multi-task, interactions with their intrinsic motivation, their engagement in influence activities, and project characteristics such as the clarity of targets and deliverable outputs. The paper discusses the interplay between management practices and corruption, alternative methods by which to measure management practices in organizations, and the external validity of the results. The findings suggest that the focus of many civil service reform programs on introducing stronger incentives and monitoring may backfire in some organizations, and that even countries with low levels of state capability may benefit by providing public servants with greater autonomy in some spheres.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8595 SEP 19, 2018
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) Regional Capacity Building Project had a satisfactory overall outcome, a moderately satisfactory performance by the Bank and the monitoring and evaluation quality was substantial.
... See More + Some of the lessons learned were: (1) Over-dependence on a single donor can hurt substantially. (2) It will be desirable for the ACBF to not jettison its hard-won core business strengths built up over decades – especially on macroeconomic management, monitoring and think tank-based knowledge-sharing. (3) ACBF’s business model must reflect – and adapt swiftly to – its often – swiftly changing operating environment. (4) It is desirable to avoid disconnects between the regional and the national. (5) Introducing Bank-like processes and controls in bodies where they may not be appropriate may generate adverse consequences.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR4380 AUG 31, 2018
Ratings for the Second Municipal Development Project for West Bank and Gaza were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, the risk to development outcome was satisfactory, the Bank performance was satisfactory, and the monitoring and evaluation quality was substantial.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: successful reform of the local government sector requires long-term engagement, especially in a fragile environment. Strengthening donor funding coordination could enhance the benefits from pooling donor support. Incorporating a contingent component into project design would be useful in future West Bank and Gaza operations. Awareness among citizens of project activities and mechanisms for grievance and redress are very important and should be explicitly tracked. The influence of the grant mechanism on the nature of funded subprojects should be carefully considered when determining the timing, frequency and size of allocations. Better targeting of capacity enhancement packages with the requirements of the program can facilitate achievement of municipal performance targets. In West Bank and Gaza, the conditions are ripe for a shift in focus of support to local governments - from institutional strengthening to concentrating on improving service delivery.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR2908 AUG 27, 2018
The objectives of the Strengthening Public Resource Management Project are to improving transparency and efficiency in public resources management by: (i) automating government personnel and payroll information; and (ii) enhancing MOF's capacity in management of public financial information.
... See More + The extension will also allow sufficient time for procurement of consulting services to develop functional and technical requirements for the budget planning module upgrade under the Project’s Part B. It is expected that this activity’s implementation will going beyond the current Closing Date and be completed by the end of 2019. Progress towards the project development objective (PDO) remains satisfactory and according to the agreed time-bound implementation plan all the project activities will be completed before the proposed new Closing Date. The recipient, through its implementing agencies, shall finalize all envisaged project activities within the extended period, as agreed with the donor and reflected in the amended Administration Agreement. Specifically, NCSA, under project`s Part A shall implement first phase of HRMIS/Payroll system for core functions in up to 22 central executive bodies by July 2020, and MoF shall complete all activities under the project`s Part B by the end of 2019. The extension will constitute the first extension of the project closing date.
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