The development of a regulatory framework which meets international standards is a major concern in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as it is key not only to fostering economic development but also to ensuring the wellbeing of its citizens.
... See More + To achieve this goal, it is important to: create a sound institutional structure; employ staff qualified in law drafting; set up efficient procedures for co-ordination and consultation; and ensure that the possible impact of new legal instruments is assessed before adopted. The prime objective of the World Bank in supporting the KRG Shura Council remains an improved guide consistent with international standards that can be used by all relevant parties in charge of drafting all types of legislation in the KRG. In keeping with better regulation principles, the authority and impact of the guide are to be achieved more by the relevance of its contents and the quality of its practical advice than by the strength of the legal instrument that seeks to enforce it. This will help to maximize the benefits of the guide in the KRG. In this context, the official use of the guide to legislative drafting should become mandatory. This could be achieved either through making the guide an integral part of a new law on legislative drafting to be passed by the parliament in the KRG under penalty of 0ity of any draft law that violates this rule.
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The objective of the Second Energy Efficiency (EE) Financing Project is to scale-up commercial debt financing for EE investment across China through an EE debt financing mechanism.
... See More + Sub-projects to be financed by the project include: (a) adoption of energy saving industrial technologies such as more efficient industrial boilers, kilns, and heat exchange systems; (b) recovery and utilization of by-product gas, waste heat and pressure; (c) installation of highly efficient mechanical and electrical equipments, including motors, pumps, heating and ventilation equipments; and (d) reduce energy use. Generally these types of sub-project have either minor or no adverse environmental impacts and provide environmental benefits (reductions in local pollution such as dust and sulfur dioxide emissions or reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide). In order to insure that consultation, disclosure, and community engagement continues throughout the sub-project construction and operation phases, the sub-borrower will, consistent with the risks and adverse impacts of the project, establish a grievance mechanism as part of their environmental management system. This will allow the sub-borrower to receive and facilitate resolution of concerns and grievance about the sub-projects environmental performance raised by the affected communities or individuals. The sub-borrower will inform the affected communities during the public consultation and the mechanisms to ensure any concerns are addressed promptly and transparently.
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The objective of the Second Energy Efficiency (EE) Financing Project is to scale-up commercial debt financing for EE investment across China through an EE debt financing mechanism.
... See More + Sub-projects to be financed by the project include: (a) adoption of energy saving industrial technologies such as more efficient industrial boilers, kilns, and heat exchange systems; (b) recovery and utilization of by-product gas, waste heat and pressure; (c) installation of highly efficient mechanical and electrical equipments, including motors, pumps, heating and ventilation equipments; and (d) reduce energy use. Generally these types of sub-project have either minor or no adverse environmental impacts and provide environmental benefits (reductions in local pollution such as dust and sulfur dioxide emissions or reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide). In order to insure that consultation, disclosure, and community engagement continues throughout the sub-project construction and operation phases, the sub-borrower will, consistent with the risks and adverse impacts of the project, establish a grievance mechanism as part of their environmental management system. This will allow the sub-borrower to receive and facilitate resolution of concerns and grievance about the sub-projects environmental performance raised by the affected communities or individuals. The sub-borrower will inform the affected communities during the public consultation and the mechanisms to ensure any concerns are addressed promptly and transparently.
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The objective of the Long Term Finance Guarantee Project for Turkey is to enhance access to medium and long term finance for exporters and small and medium enterprises.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: since projects involving any type of land acquisition are not eligible for financing, Halkbank should be ensured that all civil construction works planned will be executed on existing land plots which are already in the possession of the respective factory/production buildings and/or industrial zones, and assessment of the investments will confirm that the locations are not occupied or being used for economic activities by any person. For cultural property issues, local municipality is responsible for application of Turkish laws and regulations, including those relating to cultural heritage. Consideration of such concerns is provided in the works contracts that will include requirements that the contractor is obliged to look for chance finds and immediately stop the construction work at the contested location and alert responsible authorities in case of chance finds. Since the national regulations on the conservation of cultural properties are strict, it is not anticipated that any additional requirements will arise from the World Bank safeguard policies.
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The Serving People Improving Health Project for Ukraine will improve the quality of health services in selected oblasts, with special focus in primary and secondary prevention of non-communicable diseases, and enhance efficiency and governance of the health care system.
... See More + Three sub-projects in three oblasts (Dnipropetrovska, Volynska and Rivnenska) plan small-scale reconstruction and renovation works of existing buildings on a number of sites, in many rayons, cities, towns and villages. The sub-projects to be supported under the project (construction and reconstruction activities) might cause some environmental impacts that can be summarized as follows: soil and air pollution; acoustic, aesthetics impacts, etc. Overall, all these impacts will be site-specific and mostly temporary, and can be easily mitigated through good project design and implementation practices. Positive social impacts can be summarized as follows: better access to primary health care facilities; higher level of satisfaction with the provided services due to better ventilation, sanitary and heating conditions; higher level of services provided with modern equipment. Negative social impacts can be summarized as follows: change of intended purpose of building may be opposed by some groups of local people; inhabitants who live nearby new ambulatories may feel discomfort due to additional traffic, permanent movement of people and potential contacts with ill people; during potentially long period of reconstruction people will have no access to locally provided health care. All sub-projects to be supported under the project will be subject to environmental screening, which will be conducted by implementing agencies (MOH and oblast State Administrations). Most of the sub-projects will require a simple environmental assessment and/or preparation of a simple environmental management plan (EMP) checklist. In order to address safeguard issues, the Borrower (Ministry of Health) has developed the framework. In accordance with this environmental management framework, three participating oblasts (Dnipropetrovska, Volynska, and Rivnenska) will develop site-specific EMP checklists for every micro-project to be implemented in each oblast. These EMP and EMP checklists will specify potential adverse environmental and social impacts and mitigation measures. Within the EMP and EMP-checklists, the environmental monitoring plans will be prepared for each sub-project, where monitoring indicators, timing, methods, and institutional responsibilities will be specified.
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An Enterprise Survey is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economys private sector. The surveys cover a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, competition, corruption, crime, gender, infrastructure, innovation, labor, performance measures, and trade.
... See More + The World Bank has collected this data from face-to-face interviews with top managers and business owners in over 130,000 companies in more than 135 economies.
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Ratings for the Government's Central Public Administration Reform (CPAR) Project for Moldova were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, risk to development outcome was substantial, Bank performance was satisfactory, and Grantee performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: strong government ownership and commitment to CPAR proved to be essential for achieving results in the institutional reform project. Institutional reform such as CPAR depends on staff capacity to absorb and implement innovations: the importance of a capacity building strategy supporting implementation of CPAR reforms should not be underestimated. Long-term commitment in supporting government's reforms implementation process in the areas of institutional reorganization and capacity building bear fruit and have a greater chance to lead to more sustainable results. Linking government policies with the budget proves to be a challenging area and it is hard to make progress in environment, where demand for evidenced based policy making and budgeting is lacking. Advisory assistance in the design of public administration reforms and implementation planning is crucial when undertaking complex administrative reforms. Effective donor coordination increases the impact of the development assistance on the institutional reform and reduces administrative burden on the government. Transparency in institutional reforms implementation is crucial for building consensus on new policies among government and non-government stakeholders. Flexibility in implementation has contributed to successful completion of CPAR, but required a significant administrative effort by the Bank team constrained by a modest supervision budget.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR2444 JUN 30, 2014
The paper argues that to achieve compliance of firms with regulations such as product quality or environmental or health standards it is better to have industries with a few large corporations than numerous small firms.
... See More + A model is constructed to show that limited liability constraints bind more easily in competitive industries, making it harder to impose sufficiently severe penalties and costlier to send sufficient monitors. Having large corporations allows the government effectively to delegate some of its monitoring functions to the managers of the corporation. The tradeoff between this issue and the usual argument in favor of competition is considered.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6860 MAY 01, 2014
The development objective of the Frontier Finance Project for Turkey is to improve access to long term Islamic finance and export factoring for small and medium enterprises and export oriented mid-cap enterprises.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: installation of new buildings and extension of existing buildings are generally treated as no annex projects according to Turkish environmental impact assessment (EIA) system but can be classified as category B by the World Bank (WB). In such cases, no environmental documentation is required under Turkish law but a simple environmental management plan (EMP) must be prepared in order to meet the requirements of operational directive OP 4.01. For the renovation works which include only machinery and equipment replacement works are also treated as no annex under Turkish EIA system and can be treated as category C under WB safeguard policies, if the types of wastes generated, emissions released, wastewater discharged, etc. are not significantly changing as a result of renovation process. It is important to conduct the environmental due-diligence studies of the existing facilities which are applying to participating financial institutions (PFIs). If the type of the industry has air emissions which are falling under regulation on air pollution control sourced from industry, then there should be a valid air emission permit, if the industry is producing any type of wastewater (domestic and or industrial) then they are subjected to water pollution control regulation and there should be a valid discharge permit (or a sewer connection permit), if there's a hazardous waste storage in the industry then relevant permits should be in place regarding waste storage. Sub-projects, which include supply and discharge operations within the following river basins, shall be eligible for finance.
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The development objective of the Frontier Finance Project for Turkey is to improve access to long term Islamic finance and export factoring for small and medium enterprises and export oriented mid-cap enterprises.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: installation of new buildings and extension of existing buildings are generally treated as no annex projects according to Turkish environmental impact assessment (EIA) system but can be classified as category B by the World Bank (WB). In such cases, no environmental documentation is required under Turkish law but a simple environmental management plan (EMP) must be prepared in order to meet the requirements of operational directive OP 4.01. For the renovation works which include only machinery and equipment replacement works are also treated as no annex under Turkish EIA system and can be treated as category C under WB safeguard policies, if the types of wastes generated, emissions released, wastewater discharged, etc. are not significantly changing as a result of renovation process. It is important to conduct the environmental due-diligence studies of the existing facilities which are applying to participating financial institutions (PFIs). If the type of the industry has air emissions which are falling under regulation on air pollution control sourced from industry, then there should be a valid air emission permit, if the industry is producing any type of wastewater (domestic and or industrial) then they are subjected to water pollution control regulation and there should be a valid discharge permit (or a sewer connection permit), if there's a hazardous waste storage in the industry then relevant permits should be in place regarding waste storage. Sub-projects, which include supply and discharge operations within the following river basins, shall be eligible for finance.
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The development objective of the Power Recovery Project for Albania is to improve reliability of supply and financial viability of the power sector.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) in case of coinciding with any cultural asset, the construction will be stopped immediately and the cultural and natural assets protection committee will be informed; (2) loading and unloading will be carried out with care and without scattering. In order not to lead to scattering, loading and unloading works will be performed in an area allocated for loading and unloading and water sprays will be used in loading and unloading area; (3) the continuous work-site noise (day times) will be ensured to be under 70 decibel (dba) (according to the Albanian regulation on assessment and management of environmental noise; (4) wastewaters due to work-site will be given to the sewerage system of the province by the connection to the sewerage system; (5) excavation wastes will be deposited to the excavation waste disposal area licensed by the relevant municipality; (6) proper notification signs will be placed to maintain the security of the public and local people; (7) signposting, warning signs, barriers, and traffic diversions: site will be clearly visible and the public warned of all potential hazards; and (8) all equipment's will be tested according to the national and international standards against arc and sparks.
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The development objective of the Power Recovery Project for Albania is to improve reliability of supply and financial viability of the power sector.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) in case of coinciding with any cultural asset, the construction will be stopped immediately and the cultural and natural assets protection committee will be informed; (2) loading and unloading will be carried out with care and without scattering. In order not to lead to scattering, loading and unloading works will be performed in an area allocated for loading and unloading and water sprays will be used in loading and unloading area; (3) the continuous work-site noise (day times) will be ensured to be under 70 decibel (dba) (according to the Albanian regulation on assessment and management of environmental noise; (4) wastewaters due to work-site will be given to the sewerage system of the province by the connection to the sewerage system; (5) excavation wastes will be deposited to the excavation waste disposal area licensed by the relevant municipality; (6) proper notification signs will be placed to maintain the security of the public and local people; (7) signposting, warning signs, barriers, and traffic diversions: site will be clearly visible and the public warned of all potential hazards; and (8) all equipment's will be tested according to the national and international standards against arc and sparks.
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The development objective of the Vietnam Industrial Pollution Management Project (VIPMP) is to improve environmental compliance of industrial zones (IZs) on a pilot basis.
... See More + Some of the negative and mitigation measures include: (i) for loss of agricultural land, affected households were offered cash compensation; (ii) for affected structures, losses were paid at replacement cost; (iii) for affected residential land, households were offered one of two options, cash compensation or land-for-land in the resettlement site. The households requiring relocation were provided with rental housing costs, until the finalization of the resettlement site construction scheduled for the end of 2012; and (iv) affected households have been provided with support, assistance and allowances as part of the compensation plans, according to the Government of Vietnam (GoV) norms and regulations, consisting of transport allowances, living stabilization allowance, vocational training allowance, house renting allowance, and special allowances for those who fall under the category of poor and vulnerable affected people.
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This paper reviews the published work on the governance of regulatory authorities in order to identify the basic governance standards that apply and some of the factors that affect the implementation of good governance.
... See More + There are four pillars of good regulatory governance: independence, accountability, transparency, and integrity. The regulator should be operationally independent from commercial and political influences in the exercise of its functions and powers. Accountability is the means whereby a regulatory authority is held responsible for the actions it takes. Transparency refers to the publication of relevant information designed to demonstrate consistency and openness. The fourth governance pillar, integrity, refers to the internal processes that the authority adopts to ensure there is discipline and consistency in its operations and to limit the risks of regulatory staff acting in their own self-interest as opposed to that of the authority and the market. These four elements are mutually reinforcing, in that accountability is necessary to provide legitimacy to independence, transparency is necessary to demonstrate that independence does not lead to abuse or improper behavior, and integrity is necessary to provide the discipline to control the exercise of independent powers. Available evidence suggests that independence and accountability are far from being universally applied in practice. The paper concludes with some practical suggestions that experience indicates are likely to enhance the effectiveness of the governance of securities regulators. Good governance of the securities regulator is necessary for effective regulation. It is also of importance in setting an example to encourage good corporate governance in the private sector.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6800 MAR 01, 2014
The Dasu Hydropower Project (DHP) for Pakistan seeks to modernize and expand the energy sector of the country, while shifting from thermal generated electricity to low cost and high reward, clean generation of hydropower.
... See More + This environmental and social assessment report describes the potential environmental and social impacts of the project, and provides a framework with which to review and address these impacts. Significant potential impacts identified are: changes in physiography and landform; loss of natural vegetation and trees; impact of increased traffic and transportation; loss of bridges and access roads connecting villages on right bank; effects of land acquisition; impacts on river habitat due to construction activities and drying of river section between two coffer dams; fish entrapment and mortality; potential risk of pollution of air, noise, soil and water resources by construction works; risk of pollution from solid waste and waste effluents; increased risk of landslides; noise pollution; and impacts from increased human activities on flora and fauna. Appropriate mitigation measures such as developing and implementing a landscape plan in the project footprint areas; planting of native trees near resettlement villages and along roads and promotion of use of alternatives for fuel; traffic management plan, including awareness raising and safety measures; implementing resettlement action plan and providing adequate compensation; controlling waste water and sediment releases to river and implementing water quality management protocols; protection measures at inlets of tunnels to deter movement of fish; and pollution prevention plans to be prepared and implemented by contractors, are suggested to help minimize or avoid these adversities.
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The government of Argentina and the World Bank desire to improve the efficiency and results of the environmental and social outcomes of jointly financed development projects.
... See More + As part of a workshop in November 2010 attended by officials of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance of Argentina, World Bank staff, and representatives of implementing units of projects being co-financed by the Bank, several issues with regard to the implementation of the World Bank safeguard policies and the existing Argentine environmental and social management regulatory frameworks were identified. The workshop agreed to conduct a technical study of the regulatory consistency between the Bank safeguard policies and Argentinas environmental and social legislation to serve as a vehicle for dialogue between the Bank and the government of Argentina in order to strengthen joint strategies that address environmental and social issues in development projects. The technical study involved the following (and the corresponding report section): comparison between the principles of eight of the World Bank safeguard Operational Policies (OPs) and the national and provincial regulatory frameworks in force, using the framework for equivalence analysis contained in Bank OP 4.02 as a guideline for the assessment (section two); identification of some representative key issues or lessons learned related to the operational principles of Bank safeguard policies in Argentine projects based on the experience of the Argentine implementing units and the Bank (section three); development of strategies to move forward more effectively and efficiently in Bank-financed projects in Argentina related to environmental and social management and more broadly to non-Bank-financed projects and also projects in other countries (section four); synthesis or conclusions on opportunities to promote more effective and efficient environmental and social management in development projects (section five).
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Ratings for the Reducing Technical Barriers for Entrepreneurship and Trade Project for Kyrgyz Republic were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, risk to development outcome was substantial, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and Borrower performance was moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: continuity of Bank staff in charge of project supervision is critical to the success of projects that operate in a challenging environment. The linkage between project components, outputs, and outcomes needs to be clearly identified at project design stage to arrive at more realistic project development objectives (PDOs). PDOs need to be supported by project components that are consistent with the results framework. An effective mechanism to jump-start institutional development of newly-formed entities and to speed up the learning curve is to organize twinning arrangements with well-known institutions that are committed to the sponsorship of best practices. Projects with complex technical components should be allowed more time for implementation or its principal components structured as separate consecutive projects.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR2731 SEP 30, 2013
This sectoral environmental assessment for the Yemen Rural Access Improvement Program identifies expected negative environmental impacts from the project and recommends measures to mitigate them.
... See More + Included among these are the following: locate and select sites so as to minimize environmental damage or disruption to current agricultural or other activities. Minimize permanent land taking. Stabilize slopes or use protective measures such as retaining walls, protection barriers, terracing or mesh gabion works. Provide adequate living and sanitation facilities for the workers, including an approved plan for solid and liquid waste disposal. Have an approved management and safety plan for storage of equipment, petroleum products, paving materials, etc., so as to minimize risk of spillage or leakage, as well as safety and emergency response procedures. At the end or the contract period, leave the site compound in a clean and rehabilitated condition. Dispose of excavated materials, removed debris and demolished structural materials and transport to dumping locations. Recover borrow pits and quarry areas. Obtain access authorization for use of water resources and address any local concerns for excessive draw-down on the water table or surface water supplies. Avoid pollution to ground or surface water supplies by providing sedimentation/septic tanks, water-incepting ditches and drains to prevent contamination of water resources; garbage separation at the source and use of organic material as compost; storage of non-biodegradable materials; temporary drains to dispose of eroded sediments; Limitation of works near wells, or covering them to prevent pollution; waste water management, including use of wastewater to irrigate camp-site plantation; not dumping chemicals, coal tar, asphalt or anything which may pollute the aquifers; refueling of plants or transfer of materials far water courses; pursuing collection and recycling; installing anti-spillage devices in storehouses, workshops and vehicle parks; locating fuel, oil and grease interceptors with impervious bed underneath the parking areas to drain the runoff into the oil interceptors and prevent contaminated discharges; and collecting used lubricants for safe disposal or recycling; building riparian buffers along the edges of ponds to prevent water contamination; and constructing bridges and culverts in the dry season.
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This sectoral environmental assessment for the Yemen Rural Access Improvement Program identifies expected negative environmental impacts from the project and recommends measures to mitigate them.
... See More + Included among these are the following: locate and select sites so as to minimize environmental damage or disruption to current agricultural or other activities. Minimize permanent land taking. Stabilize slopes or use protective measures such as retaining walls, protection barriers, terracing or mesh gabion works. Provide adequate living and sanitation facilities for the workers, including an approved plan for solid and liquid waste disposal. Have an approved management and safety plan for storage of equipment, petroleum products, paving materials, etc., so as to minimize risk of spillage or leakage, as well as safety and emergency response procedures. At the end or the contract period, leave the site compound in a clean and rehabilitated condition. Dispose of excavated materials, removed debris and demolished structural materials and transport to dumping locations. Recover borrow pits and quarry areas. Obtain access authorization for use of water resources and address any local concerns for excessive draw-down on the water table or surface water supplies. Avoid pollution to ground or surface water supplies by providing sedimentation/septic tanks, water-incepting ditches and drains to prevent contamination of water resources; garbage separation at the source and use of organic material as compost; storage of non-biodegradable materials; temporary drains to dispose of eroded sediments; Limitation of works near wells, or covering them to prevent pollution; waste water management, including use of wastewater to irrigate camp-site plantation; not dumping chemicals, coal tar, asphalt or anything which may pollute the aquifers; refueling of plants or transfer of materials far water courses; pursuing collection and recycling; installing anti-spillage devices in storehouses, workshops and vehicle parks; locating fuel, oil and grease interceptors with impervious bed underneath the parking areas to drain the runoff into the oil interceptors and prevent contaminated discharges; and collecting used lubricants for safe disposal or recycling; building riparian buffers along the edges of ponds to prevent water contamination; and constructing bridges and culverts in the dry season.
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