This report contains the World Bank Group Boards' calendar for the period April to June 2014, specifying the Boards' engagements, such as meetings and briefings.
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This is a statement by Mr. Mohamed Boussaid, Minister of Economy and Finance of the Kingdom of Morocco, on behalf of the Constituency of Afghanistan, Algeria, Ghana, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Morocco, Pakistan, and Tunisia at the eighty-ninth meeting of the Development Committee held on April 12, 2014.
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The objective of the Second Port Cities Development Project for Yemen is to improve access to, and the efficiency of, select public infrastructure in the three port cities of Aden, Hodeidah, and Mukalla.
... See More + Despite the level two restructuring in February 2013 and the cancellation of US$5.86 million from the original International Development Association, or IDA grant of US$35 million equivalent, implementation pace is not adequate to ensure that the project (US$29.18 million equivalent) would be delivered satisfactorily by the planned closing date of July 25, 2015. For this reason, the team has rated the PDO, IP and safeguards as moderately unsatisfactory. The implementation delay is related to Yemen's 2011 crisis, which caused IDA to stop disbursement between July 2011 and January 2012; the overall price increase for local goods, works and services after the crisis, and the need to cancel the project's original round of bidding (for goods, works, services), which had been completed before the crisis, as after the crisis the winning bidders refused to sign contracts based on their original bid prices. Secondly, there is a lack of proactivity by the Aden-based project implementing unit to speed up project implementation. Through a letter dated February 23, 2014, the Government has requested to: 1) continue only with the three ongoing transport-focused works contracts as well as the related three supervision contracts (US$18.14 million) and cancel all other non-progressing activities (works, technical assistance), which had been allocated for investments in rehabilitating district markets in Aden and in upgrading Hodeida's Al Beidha AlShimaliah informal settlement. This will simplify the project and allow it to focus entirely on those activities where implementation is ongoing in order to advance their implementation progress; 2) reverse the canceled funds (US$6.96 million) back to the general grant pool for Yemen to be used according to new priorities of the Government of Yemen; and 3) adjust the results framework and move the closing date forward, based on the above changes.
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The development objectives of the Integrated Urban Development Project for Yemen are to: (i) improve access to basic services in select informal settlements in urban areas in Taiz; and (ii) strengthen dialogue on national framework for urban upgrading.
... See More + This restructuring will bring the following changes: (i) the project development objective (PDO) will be modified to reflect the project's reduced scope after the cancellation of investments and technical assistance in component one and two and the PDO indicators and intermediate results indicators will be revised; (ii) cancellation of: (a) in component one, the rehabilitation of the geography information system (GIS) building, and the social expertise for the ongoing infrastructure investments, (b) in component two, the development of a national framework for urban upgrading, and the support for accounting-based financial management information (AFMIS) in Taiz, and (c) from component three, the project management units (PMU) staff is reduced to the safeguards specialist with an assistant; and (iii) the project's closing date will be advanced to the last completion date of the ongoing three works contracts from September 30, 2015 to March 31, 2015.
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Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to natural hazards and has embarked on a comprehensive disaster risk management program to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change and to adapt the stock of infrastructure to extreme climate shocks.
... See More + To increase both short-term and long-term resilience, the government is engaged with the World Bank on several fronts. Physical investments will be financed to address short-term infrastructure weaknesses, coupled with a contingent line of credit to safeguard against the immediate fiscal impacts of a disaster. The program comprises (i) the Climate Resilience Improvement Project (CRIP) (US$110 million) to reduce the immediate physical risks and improve the understanding of disaster risks so that future investments are targeted to their best use, and (ii) a Development Policy Loan with a Catastrophe Deferred Draw Down Option (CAT-DDO) (US$102 million) to strengthen the country's fiscal resilience to events. Based on the results of the ongoing fiscal disaster risk assessment, recommendations will be made to strengthen the fiscal resilience of the country. These include (i) improving the administration and execution of budgets; (ii) developing an annual disaster fund to finance rehabilitation following small and medium events; (iii) managing the implicit fiscal liability to support vulnerable populations; (iv) developing sovereign risk transfer instruments; and (v) supporting the development of a private catastrophe risk insurance market.
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This report contains the World Bank Group Boards' calendar for the period April to June 2014, specifying the Boards' engagements, such as meetings and briefings, for the aforementioned time period.
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The Emergency Recovery and Disaster Management Project for Bolivia had a satisfactory outcome with moderate risk to development outcome, and moderately satisfactory performances by both the Bank and borrower.
... See More + The lessons learned were: (1) Bundling of infrastructure subprojects can produce catalytic effects. (2) A national DRM strategy should respond to the particular needs and conditions prevailing in the country in question. (3) DRM awareness at community level contributes to ownership and sustainability of results. (4) Development of monitoring and evaluation systems is critical to accurate assessment of results and balanced inference of lessons. (5) The importance of the Bank's GFDRR grants in providing highly qualified and intensive technical assistance to enhance and help build national capacities and hazard-monitoring systems. (6) The frequent supervision and presence of an on-site team composed of specialists in DRM was indispensable to successful implementation and wide variety of beneficial outcomes. (7) Institutionalization of DRM priorities. Collaboration with the ERDMP contributed to FPS' developing a set of guidelines and standards for subproject maintenance and repair. This signals ownership of DRM concepts and is a positive indicator of sustainability of the new or rehabilitated infrastructure. (8) Multiple restructurings may create high transaction costs. Multiple restructurings may create high transaction costs for small operations like the ERDMP and can divert both Government and Bank resources away from implementation, especially in a context in which inter-agency coordination is already difficult. (9) Undertaking a large amount of small-scale reconstruction works may not be a viable model in this type of context.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR1384 MAR 30, 2014
This report contains the World Bank Group Boards' calendar for the period March to May 2014, specifying the Boards' engagements, such as meetings and briefings, for the aforementioned time period.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Foreign direct investment (FDI) remains one of the most important forms of cross-border capital flow into developing countries.
... See More + In Sub-Saharan Africa, where countries tend to have liberal policies favouring inward flows, FDI has grown nearly sixfold over the past decade. 2) However, just 15 countries accounted for over 80 percent of total FDI flows into Africa in 2012. Further, the largest inflows are either in sectors in which the region has a comparative advantage (such as natural resources and agriculture) or where there is need for investment and returns are high, such as construction. 3) Five emerging countries, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and, conspicuously, Malaysia, are becoming an important source of FDI into Africa, particularly as traditional OECD sources of FDI are shrinking, and South-South transfer of technology tends to be lower cost and more adaptable. 4) There is a positive correlation between FDI and Human Development Indicator (non-income HDI); quality human capital can better help absorb the benefits of FDI. But FDI data by origin, destination and sector is not readily available; this constrains policy coordination across economic and social ministries.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Foreign direct investment (FDI) remains one of the most important forms of cross-border capital flow into developing countries.
... See More + In Sub-Saharan Africa, where countries tend to have liberal policies favouring inward flows, FDI has grown nearly sixfold over the past decade. 2) However, just 15 countries accounted for over 80 percent of total FDI flows into Africa in 2012. Further, the largest inflows are either in sectors in which the region has a comparative advantage (such as natural resources and agriculture) or where there is need for investment and returns are high, such as construction. 3) Five emerging countries, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and, conspicuously, Malaysia, are becoming an important source of FDI into Africa, particularly as traditional OECD sources of FDI are shrinking, and South-South transfer of technology tends to be lower cost and more adaptable. 4) There is a positive correlation between FDI and Human Development Indicator (non-income HDI); quality human capital can better help absorb the benefits of FDI. But FDI data by origin, destination and sector is not readily available; this constrains policy coordination across economic and social ministries.
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This report contains the World Bank Group Boards' calendar for the period February - April 2014, specifying the Boards' engagements, such as meetings and briefings, for the aforementioned time period.
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This report contains the World Bank Group Boards' calendar for the period February - April 2014, specifying the Boards' engagements, such as meetings and briefings, for the aforementioned time period.
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Governments invest billions of dollars annually in long-term projects. Yet deep uncertainties pose formidable challenges to making near-term decisions that make long-term sense.
... See More + Methods that identify robust decisions have been recommended for investment lending but are not widely used. This paper seeks to help bridge this gap and, with a demonstration, motivate and equip analysts better to manage uncertainty in investment decisions. The paper first reviews the economic analysis of ten World Bank projects. It finds that analysts seek to manage uncertainty but use traditional approaches that do not evaluate options over the full range of possible futures. Second, the paper applies a different approach, Robust Decision Making, to the economic analysis of a 2006 World Bank project, the Electricity Generation Rehabilitation and Restructuring Project, which sought to improve Turkey's energy security. The analysis shows that Robust Decision Making can help decision makers answer specific and useful questions: How do options perform across a wide range of potential future conditions? Under what specific conditions does the leading option fail to meet decision makers' goals? Are those conditions sufficiently likely that decision makers should choose a different option? Such knowledge informs rather than replaces decision makers' deliberations. It can help them systematically, rigorously, and transparently compare their options and select one that is robust. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that analysts can use the same data and models for Robust Decision Making as are typically used in economic analyses. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges in applying such methods and how they can be overcome.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6765 FEB 01, 2014
Sovereign wealth funds represent a large and growing pool of savings. An increasing number of these funds are owned by natural resourceexporting countries and have a variety of objectives, including intergenerational equity and macroeconomic stabilization.
... See More + Traditionally, these funds have invested in external assets, especially securities traded in major markets. But the persistent infrastructure financing gap in developing countries has motivated some governments to encourage their sovereign wealth funds to invest domestically. This paper proposes some basic elements of a conceptual framework to create a system of checks and balances to help ensure that the sovereign wealth funds do not undermine macroeconomic management or become a vehicle for politically driven "investments." First, the risks and opportunities of domestic investment by sovereign wealth funds are analyzed. Central issues are the relationship of sovereign wealth fund financing to the budget process and to the procurement systems of sector ministries, as well as the establishment of appropriate benchmarks and safeguards to ensure the integrity of investment decisions. The paper argues that a well-governed sovereign wealth fund, with a sound mandate and professional management and staffing, can possibly improve the quality of the public investment program. But its mandate should not duplicate that of other government institutions with investment mandates, such as the budget, the national development bank, the investment authority, and state-owned enterprises. Establishing rules on the type of investment (for example, commercial and/or quasi-commercial) and its modalities (for example, no controlling stakes, leveraging private investment) is one way to ensure separation between the activities of the sovereign wealth fund and those of other institutions. The critical issue remains that of limiting the sovereign wealth fund's investment scope to that appropriate for a wealth fund. If investments that generate quasi-market returns are permitted, the size of the home bias should be clearly stipulated and these investments should be reported separately.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6776 FEB 01, 2014
The link between infrastructure and economic growth is widely acknowledged -- as is the infrastructure gap, which can act as a break on growth in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).
... See More + Since the global economic and financial crisis, the challenges of raising financing for infrastructure projects in EMDEs are also well known. The challenges come from stretched government finances and restrictions on global bank lending. Hence much attention has been focused on the potential for institutional investors as a growing potential source of financing. This paper argues that infrastructure projects can potentially deliver long-term returns, but investments, particularly in EMDEs need to be carefully structured to meet the needs of both sides. The paper first considers the existing types of institutional investors and their potential for filling the infrastructure financing gap. The challenges of adjusting asset allocations, particularly toward EMDE infrastructure, are discussed and examples of projects where institutional investors have been involved are given. Finally, the paper considers a range of models for the involvement of institutional investors in EMDEs and makes initial proposals for how to determine which model fits best in a particular country context.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6780 FEB 01, 2014
This paper estimates the effect of government investment on private investment in a sample of 39 low-income countries. Fluctuations in a predetermined component of disbursements on loans from official creditors to developing country governments are used as an instrument for fluctuations in public investment.
... See More + The analysis finds evidence of "crowding in": an extra dollar of government investment raises private investment by roughly two dollars, and output by 1.5 dollars. To understand the implications for the return to public investment, a CES production function with public and private capital as inputs is calibrated. For most countries in the sample, the returns to government investment exceed the world interest rate. However, for some countries that already have high government investment rates, the return to further investment is below the world interest rate.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6781 FEB 01, 2014