This report contains the World Bank Group Boards calendar for the period of January 2015 to March 2015, specifying the Boards engagements, such as meetings, briefings, and other Bank happenings.
... See More + It is updated as of March 2, 2015. See Less -
Over 150 countries maintain mandatory civil registration systems. The number and variety of registration and identification systems has increased with the rise of the Internet (World Bank 2015).
... See More + The functionality of these systems has also expanded over this time period, with delivery mechanisms for services and benefits increasingly tied to registration. Attracted by the promise of new technology, countries and development partners alike have invested heavily in identification systems, in terms of both development dollars and strategy. Regarding strategy, identification systems have found their way onto no less preeminent a platform than the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which include the proposed target, by 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration, under the broader goal of peaceful and inclusive societies. This article will explore the prospects, challenges and risks of pinning inclusive development outcomes on identification systems. Much of the current discourse on identification- and registry- related issues3 is framed from a state-centered perspective; that is, improving the functioning of government agencies and enhancing the collection of data for planning and policy. The authors suggest complementing this with a stronger focus on the impacts of identification systems on the poorest and most marginalized. In many circumstances, identification systems risk not serving the development needs of such people. In developing global and country-specific identification strategies, there is a need to more clearly and critically articulate the implied benefits, costs and risks of alternative approaches.
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In the past two years alone, at least six systematic reviews or meta-analyses have examined the interventions that improve learning outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.
... See More + However, these reviews have sometimes reached starkly different conclusions: reviews, in turn, recommend information technology, interventions that provide information about school quality, or even basic infrastructure (such as desks) to achieve the greatest improvements in student learning. This paper demonstrates that these divergent conclusions are largely driven by differences in the samples of research incorporated by each review. The top recommendations in a given review are often driven by the results of evaluations not included in other reviews. Of 227 studies with student learning results, the most inclusive review incorporates less than half of the total studies. Variance in classification also plays a role. Across the reviews, the three classes of programs that are recommended with some consistency (albeit under different names) are pedagogical interventions (including computer-assisted learning) that tailor teaching to student skills; repeated teacher training interventions, often linked to another pedagogical intervention; and improving accountability through contracts or performance incentives, at least in certain contexts. Future reviews will be most useful if they combine narrative review with meta-analysis, conduct more exhaustive searches, and maintain low aggregation of intervention categories.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7203 FEB 26, 2015
This is the Executive Directors Strategic Engagements Work Program and papers to be circulated from March 2015. Included in the report are checklists of action items.
... See More + The lists are separated by FY15 QIII, FY15 QIV and FY16 Q1.
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This report contains the World Bank Group Boards' calendar for the period of February to April 2015, specifying the Boards' engagements, such as meetings and briefings.
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The unanticipated spike in international food prices in 2007-08 hit many developing countries hard. International prices for food and other agricultural products increased by more than 100 percent between early 2007 and mid-2008.
... See More + Prices for food cereals more than doubled; and those for rice doubled in the space of just a few months. The food price increases were particularly hard on the poor and near-poor in developing countries, many of whom spend a large share of their income on food and have limited means to cope with price shocks. An estimated 1.29 billion people in 2008 lived on less than $1.25 a day, equivalent to 22.4 percent of the developing world population. In addition, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 923 million people were undernourished in 2007. Simulation models suggested that poverty rose by 100-200 million people and the undernourished increased by 63 million in 2008. The World Bank organized rapidly for short-term support in the crisis, launching a fast-track program of loans and grants, the Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP). The GFRP mainly targeted low-income countries, and provided detailed policy advice to governments and its own staff on how to respond to the crisis. The Bank also scaled up lending for agriculture and social protection to support the building of medium-term resilience to future food price shocks. The International Finance Corporation responded by sharply increasing access to liquidity for agribusinesses and agricultural traders in the short and medium term, as well as new programs to improve incentives for agricultural market participants. This evaluation assesses the effectiveness of the World Bank Group response in addressing the short-term impacts of the food price crisis and in enhancing the resilience of countries to future shocks.
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These are the meeting minutes of the Executive Directors of the Bank and IDA and the Boards of Directors of IFC and MIGA on February 5, 2015. The bulk of the minutes discuss approval and project related topics given by the various boards to projects.
... See More + The minutes are divided chronologically by meeting time, which also coincides with the order the different WBG divisions presented. There are three separate meetings within these minutes and each lists the extent of the meeting and who was in attendance.
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Fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS) have become an important focus of World Bank Group assistance in recent years as recognition of the linkages between fragility, conflict, violence, and poverty has grown.
... See More + Addressing issues of recurring conflict and political violence and helping build legitimate and accountable state institutions are central to the Bank Group's poverty reduction mission. This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of World Bank Group country strategies and assistance programs to FCS. The operationalization of the World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development (2011 WDR) is also assessed, to see how the framework has been reflected in subsequent analytical work, country assistance strategies, and the assistance programs. The evaluation framework was derived from the concepts and priorities articulated in recent WDRs, policy papers, and progress reports issued by Bank Group management, to draw lessons from FCS. The framework is organized around the three major themes emerging from the 2011 WDR: building state capacity, building capacity of citizens, and promoting inclusive growth and jobs. The evaluation focuses on International Development Association (IDA)-only countries, which are deemed to have certain characteristics such as very low average income and no access to private finance, making them eligible for special finance tools and programs. As the benchmark for measuring results, Bank Group performance is evaluated in 33 fragile and conflict-affected states against that of 31 IDA-only countries that have never been on the FCS list. Six new country case studies; analyses of Bank Group portfolios; human resources and budget data; secondary analysis of IEG evaluations; background studies including those on aid flows, gender, private sector development, and jobs; and surveys of Bank Group staffs and stakeholders are also included in the evaluation.
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This report contains the World Bank Group Boards calendar for the period of January 2015 to March 2015, specifying the Boards engagements, such as meetings, briefings, and other Bank happenings.
... See More + It is updated as of February 2, 2015.
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The World Bank monthly operational summary reports on the status of projects in the World Bank's pipeline from the time the operation is identified to the signing of the loan, credit, or grant agreement.
... See More + It is detailed accountings of the projects included in the country lending programs that are actively being prepared for implementation. Each issue of the summary contains a list of projects being reported for the first time and a list of projects for which financing agreements have been signed or that have been dropped from the current program. The information contained in The World Bank monthly operational summary is intended to enable companies to assess their interest in supplying Bank-financed projects. Further information should be requested from the country's project implementing agency. The likelihood of a timely response is greater if the queries are brief and to the point. When possible, travel to the country and direct contact with relevant agency officials is recommended.
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The Global Leasing Toolkit (the Toolkit) has three objectives: To provide a practical guide for managers of leasing entities, especially bank-affiliated lessors, with an emphasis on leasing entities offering lease products to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
... See More + To provide a practical guide to financial institutions, businesses such as equipment suppliers and vehicle dealers, and other entities considering entering into or engaging in the business of leasing equipment to SMEs. To provide an efficient means for IFCs SME Advisory Services, as well as IFC leasing projects globally, to engage with the management of leasing entities and other stakeholders including those considering entering into leasing or investing in leasing entities. The Toolkit is designed to be a working manual. Making extensive use of case studies, it has been written and devised by leasing professionals with extensive experience in founding and operating leasing entities, both non-bank and bank affiliated. The information in this Toolkit is the result of years of practical experience of leasing professionals both inside and outside of IFC.
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This Executive Directors' strategic engagements work program covers FY15 Q3, FY15 Q4, FY16 Q1, and also updated reports and other documents to be circulated for information.
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This paper uses firm-level data to assess whether telecommunication services are general-purpose technologies (technologies that benefit a large segment of the economy and have long-lasting effect).
... See More + It finds that only Internet services are so: firm growth and productivity are much higher when Internet access is greater and when firms use the Internet more intensively; and Internet access benefits firms in high- and low-tech industries, firms of all sizes, and exporter and non-exporter firms. Small firms appear to benefit more from the Internet than large firms do. In contrast, fixed-line and cellular services are not robustly linked to firm performance.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7192 FEB 01, 2015
Clarke, George R.G.; Qiang, Christine Zhenwei; Xu, Lixin Colin
One of the most fruitful advances in modern economics has been the introduction of psychological realism into the model of "economic man." The World Development Report 2015 organizes the evidence about how humans actually think and make decisions into a coherent framework useful for designing development policy.
... See More + This paper elaborates on the three principles of human thinking that constitute the report's intellectual framework: Human thinking is dual process -- automatic as well as deliberative (thinking automatically); it is conditioned by social context and the salience of social identities (thinking socially); and it is shaped by mental models that are socially constructed (thinking with mental models). Behavioral insights create scope for policy interventions that produce "miracles" from the perspective of traditional economics.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7197 FEB 01, 2015
This report specifically deals with air pollution, which was reported, by the World Health Organization (WHO), as the single largest environmental health risk globally in 2012 (WHO, 2014a).
... See More + Air pollution from outdoor and household sources jointly account for more than 7 million deaths (3.7 million from ambient air pollution and 4.3 million from household air pollution). The following sections of this chapter present the objectives of, and key aspects of the institutional context for, this report followed by an examination of some of the major drivers of deteriorating ambient air quality in developing countries; air pollution sources and impacts; and the status of air quality management in developing countries. Chapter two presents the results of a desk-based portfolio review of World Bank projects that are relevant to reduction of air pollution. This is followed, in chapter three, by an examination of case studies of World Bank projects whose objectives include addressing ambient air pollution, highlighting good practices and lessons for future work of the Bank in supporting clients. Chapter four presents possible approaches for enhancing future Bank support in helping clients to improve air quality and reduce the associated adverse health outcomes. Chapter five presents overall conclusions and recommendations.
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Working Paper (Numbered Series) ACS9035 FEB 01, 2015
When client countries ask World Bank Task Team Leaders (TTLs), in charge of Bank-client relations how top-performing countries tackle different issues related to teacher policies (e.g., teacher training, incentives or accountability), TTLs have to respond to such requests on a case-by-case basis either by using Bank publications and databases or taking the initiative to find out more about policies in top performing education systems.
... See More + This approach has the advantage of being tailored to the specific needs of each country, but it has the drawbacks of being time-consuming, duplicating work, lacking comparability and including few countries. This brief consists of three form activities for teachers to engage in to mitigate some of these drawbacks. There are three prime activities of SABER teachers and they are: 1. Collecting information about teacher policies by administering a set of questionnaires to key informants and gathering quantitative data and legal documents; 2. Analyzing this information by classifying countries according to how they fare on eight core teacher policy goals to which all school systems should aim; 3. Disseminating this information through this website, print materials and workshops. We also hope that cross-national comparisons on teacher policies will shed light on what policy-makers can do to improve the quality of teaching.
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This report comprises case studies with three companies: Royal Dutch Shell, Rio Tinto, and Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE), capturing their experiences and lessons learned preparing for and operating under policies that price carbon emissions.
... See More + These companies operate in one or several jurisdictions where emissions trading has been implemented and therefore provide useful insights for other companies facing similar circumstances. The lessons learned can also serve as a valuable resource for policy makers designing new systems to reduce emissions. These case studies illustrate the benefits of incorporating climate change policies into corporate strategies; analyzing risks and opportunities in an environment of new public policies; and engaging effectively with relevant stakeholders, including governments. These case studies also show how carbon assets are traded and what systems are being constructed to monitor, report, and verify company level GHG emissions. While these case studies are primarily meant to guide private companies facing carbon pricing regulation, they also provide lessons for policy makers.
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This paper documents a mapping exercise that outlines the key elements and design features of offset programs. It was prepared with the intent to provide an overview of the key features of selected offset programs and to draw out similarities and differences.
... See More + It discusses the essential differences and similarities between programs. It identifies the main elements and design features of 11 different offset programs and discusses how these programs address key issues including efficiency, environmental integrity, applicability, and transaction costs. It does not evaluate the implications of the different design features. The considered offset programs build on many common elements in terms of governance structure, methodologies, and processes. All offset programs aim to balance the goal of quality assurance (i.e. safeguarding environmental integrity) with the need to keep costs and risks for programs and project developers minimal and to provide clear and predictable rules and guidance. Learning from existing programs may be beneficial for emerging offset programs to avoid reinventing the wheel, as well as to ensure optimum program design and attractiveness to the market. Aiming for a certain level of consistency and comparability in the design between the different programs may also be beneficial to enable potential future linking between systems. This note may be useful for countries that are contemplating different designs of carbon offset programs and other crediting mechanisms.
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IBRD offers various financial products to meet the financing and risk management needs of development programs. Semi-annually, IBRD provides an update of the lending rates and spreads applicable to its financing products as set out in the terms of each product.
... See More + The purpose of this paper is to summarize the lending rates and spreads applicable to IBRD loans outstanding as of January 1, 2015.
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