Despite sustained economic growth over the past two decades, Sub-Saharan Africa faces massive challenges and significant gaps in many development outcomes.
... See More + Although poverty has been declining, a recent report estimates that over two-fifths of the African population was poor in 2012. Nearly two-thirds of Africans do not have electricity. Less than one quarter of African enterprises have loans or lines of credit; the corresponding share among firms in non-African developing countries is almost half. The use of formal financial services is concentrated among the richest 20 percent of the population. Most African countries have made significant gains in access to education, but learning remains weak. The agriculture sector, which employs a large share of the labor force, exhibits low productivity. Technological change and levels, which are the drivers of productivity, are much lower compared to other parts of the world. Even simple productivity-enhancing factors like the use of fertilizers has remained flat for decades. Africa’s large infrastructure, technology, and policy gaps require disruptive solutions and thinking outside of the box. Yet, development policies have often been primarily programmatic and mostly incremental. This book argues that it is time to go back to basics of development, think big, and foster the environment for more innovation and technology adoption, to provide the chance for Africa to experience major positive transformations. This is not a new idea; to the contrary, it is what economic theory and history teach. While it has become customary in the development practice to highlight and quantify constraints to investing in Africa, this book argues that those constraints must be and transformed into investment opportunities. Several factors, such as skills, service delivery, access to finance, energy, to name the few, are often pointed out as constraints to investment. Treating those constraints as investment opportunities, attracting the private sector, both domestic and foreign, and creating a conducive environment for technological diffusion is precisely how Africa will harness innovation toward its prosperity.
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Mediation is one of the most frequently used alternative dispute resolution processes worldwide. Mediation provides faster, cheaper, and better solutions than a traditional court decision can.
... See More + Benefits are important for individuals as well as for disputing businesses from the private sector and for public sector institutions. Understanding the principles, process, and skills of mediation is essential for anyone whose professional role involves managing disputes of any kind. Mediation Essentials comprises five chapters as follows: 1) Chapter 1 is about How to Manage and Control Disputes and Alternative Dispute Resolution; Chapter 2 describes on How to Make the Most of Mediation; Chapter 3 discusses on How Professional Advisors Can Add Value to Mediation; Chapter 4 explains on How to Use Guiding Principles and Ethics to Ensure the Integrity of Mediation; and Chapter 5 concludes with How to Draft Contractual Documents for Mediation.
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Global growth is picking up and the growth in the South Asia region continues to remain strong. A recovery in industrial activity has coincided with a pickup in global trade, after two years of marked weakness.
... See More + Growth in South Asia remains strong, with regional output projected to grow by 6.8 percent in 2017 and an average of 7.2 percent in 2018–19. Economic activity in Nepal, which rebounded strongly in FY2017, reaching 7.5 percent (year-over-year [y/y]) following two challenging years, has again been impacted by severe flood affecting more than one-third of the country. High inflation in the last two years induced by disruptions moderated sharply by early 2017 and further slowed, reaching decade-low inflation by the end of FY2017, due to moderating inflation in India.
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This report contains the World Bank Group Boards' calendar for the period of August to October 2017, specifying the Boards' engagements, such as meetings and briefings.
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This report provides an overview of current pension challenges and opportunities formembers of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF)1. There is an urgent need to address pensionissues in the region to address fiscal, macroeconomic, sustainability, equity and welfarechallenges.
... See More + The report sets out potential solutions and proposals that countries could adopt toimprove their pension outcomes. The analysis and the reforms grew out of the high-levelconference: “Arab Pension Reforms,” that took place on January 25th, and 26th, 2017, in AbuDhabi. The conference was co-hosted by the AMF and the World Bank Group (WBG).
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Some of the headings included in this issue of the Development Economics Prospects Group (DECPG) weekly global economic newsletters are as follows: taking stock; major data releases; activity and inflation; financial markets; and commodity prices.
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This paper proposes a new Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA), which will allow Bank clients to structure a long, large, or complex engagement as a set of smaller linked operations (or phases), under one Program.
... See More + The paper also explains the rationale for the policy modifications based on the growing importance of adaptable design and learning from implementation, as well as other benefits of ‘phased borrowing’ to both the Bank and clients. This proposal responds to Management’s commitment under the forward look to become more agile allowing the Bank to tailor approaches to program complexity, size, and risk. The MPA builds on the experiences of the Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks in this type of phased lending approach. The paper is organized in five sections. Section two presents the development context for the MPA; section three discusses MPA structure, as well as lessons learned from the design of previous instruments used by the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs); section four presents policy modifications; and section five sets out Management’s recommendations for approval by the Executive Directors and next steps.
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This paper looks at the impact of members' ability to switch pension fund provider and /or portfolio on the allocation of pension funds to long-term investments.
... See More + The level of annual turnover in pension fund portfolios was compared with the amount of short-term investments (using government treasury bills and bank deposits as proxy). The investment regulations around switching and other market conduct were then considered. The paper finds that greater movements between pension fund providers and between portfolios is linked to increased holdings of short-term and more liquid assets. Switching appears to be driven by competition, market structure, and investment advice, and, unfortunately, frequently results in poor investment returns for members. The paper makes six recommends for regulators. First, use administrative controls to prevent fraudulent switching between pension providers. Second, provide clear performance and cost comparisons to inform members' choice of provider/fund and encourage informed decision making, which is beneficial for members and the system. Third, supervise and control advertising and marketing (including reporting of performance periods) carefully, to avoid switches based on misleading advice. Fourth, control financial incentives for sales agents, so that switching advice is given in members' interest and not for commercial gain. Fifth, concentrate issuance in government securities, to create more liquid instruments. And sixth, conduct further research on the concept of a central liquidity pool to manage unexpected outflows.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8143 JUL 11, 2017
The potential for pension funds to contribute to capital markets and thereby economic growth has been argued on a theoretical basis and demonstrated empirically.
... See More + However, reforms fostering the development of funded pension systems have not had the economic impact hoped for in some countries. Pension fund portfolios in some cases have remained highly exposed to shorter-term assets, such as bank deposits and shorter-term government bonds. This, in turn, has led to relatively low investment returns, thereby potentially affecting income adequacy in retirement. This paper looks at the potential regulatory hurdles to long-term investment by pension funds, while also proposing international diversification and the creation of domestic investment opportunities to help portfolio diversification and ultimately improve the delivery of secure, adequate pensions.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8136 JUL 05, 2017
Social pensions - non-contributory provisions for old age, mostly means-tested—have mushroomed in the global South since the 1990s, and have also been advocated by international organizations.
... See More + Using the data base FLOORCASH constructed by the authors and their research team, they cover all countries of the global South, to go beyond existing case studies and selective comparisons. The authors investigate the contribution of social pensions to rights-based social protection and seek to explain their spread across the global South. While in Northern welfare states universal social services and social insurance are seen as the hallmarks of social citizenship as conceived by T.H. Marshall, measured by indices such as Esping-Andersen’s decommodification index, this paper advances a conceptualization of social rights that includes means-tested benefits, in order to recognize the bigger role of non-contributory transfers in developing countries. Applying a new measure of the social quality of social pensions, the authors detect considerable differences between countries, which are not reducible to the common distinction universal vs. means-tested benefits. Combing the social quality measure with the dimension of scale (population covered), the authors identify four normative models of old-age security. One of these models might herald a new social model for the South. Finally the paper applies event history analysis to explain the spread of social pensions across the global South, finding that standard domestic variables, subscription to international norms, and pension reform events were central drivers of social pension expansion.
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The planning and analysis of infrastructure investments is complex as it is both strategic and long-term in nature, involves large capital expenditures, and affects multiple stakeholders.
... See More + The prioritization of investments in transport infrastructure investments, requires the explicit consideration of multiple and often conflicting and incommensurate perspectives and criteria. Compounding the challenges of prioritizing transport infrastructure investments is the present and future impact of climate. As a result, innovative and participatory tools are required to identify and prioritize key transport infrastructure investments that efficiently utilize available resources and engage multiple stakeholders with the goal of developing climate resilience.
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