Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced remarkable gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the last decade. However, it lacks the highly skilled human capital needed to take this vibrant growth to the next level.
... See More + There is a critical need to equip the nearly 11 million graduates entering the continent’s job market every year with these skills. Countries must rely on their higher education institutions to train this workforce, and to strategize to meet this demand, there needs to be a way for government and institutional leaders to monitor the improvement in institutional performance and to analyze the factors explaining performance levels and potential gaps. However, they lack data, management information systems, and capacity in the use of data at both institutional and national levels to do so. Bridging this gap requires comprehensive data on indicators such as the institutions’ quality of learning and teaching, relevance of programs, labor market outcomes of graduates, financing, inclusion, research, governance and management, among others. To help tackle this need, the partnership for skills in the applied sciences, engineering, and technology (PASET) has launched its regional benchmarking initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa. The benchmarking initiative is in line with PASET’s approach to anchor all of its initiatives within Africa.
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Ratings for the E-Society and Innovation for Competitiveness (EIC) Project for Armenia were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, risk to global environment outcome was low, Bank performance was satisfactory, and Borrower's performance was satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: (i) Introduction of new and catalytic activities that have longer-term impacts rather than short-term is not usually a big sell but can have enormous impacts that go beyond the Project Development Objectives (PDO), and within the boundaries of the project or country; (ii) Both the Government of Armenia (GoA) and the World Bank teams noted that the World Bank’s operational policies and guidelines are not optimal for the fast-evolving dynamic Information Technology (IT) industry, and these need review; (iii) Establishing partnerships, not only in terms of mobilizing private sector resources but also collaborating with universities, industry associations, and research institutions, were fundamental for maximizing the impact and increasing sustainability of investments; and (iv) Finally, mainstreaming the project into existing institutions has ensured sustainability and continued buildup of project activities.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3928 DEC 27, 2016
Although many studies consider the spatial pattern of manufacturing plants in developing countries, the role of services as a driver of urbanization and structural transformation is still not well understood.
... See More + Using establishment level data from India, this paper helps narrow this gap by comparing and contrasting the spatial development of services with that in manufacturing. The study during the 2001-2010 period suggests that (i) services are more urbanized than manufacturing and are moving toward the urban and, by contrast, the organized manufacturing sector is moving away from urban cores to the rural periphery; (ii) manufacturing and services activities are highly correlated in spatial terms and exhibit a high degree of concentration in just a few states and industries; (iii) manufacturing in urban districts has a stronger tendency to locate closer to larger cities relative to services activity; (iv) infrastructure has a significant effect on manufacturing output, while human capital matters more for services activity; and lastly, (v) technology penetration, measured by the penetration of the Internet, is more strongly associated with services than manufacturing. Similar results hold when growth in activity is measured over the study period rather than levels. Manufacturing and services do not appear to crowd each other out of local areas.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7741 JUN 30, 2016
This paper examines the role of changes in sectoral productivity gaps over time in accounting for growth realized by countries over the past few decades.
... See More + To quantify the productivity impact of the sectoral gaps, a simple model of resource allocation is developed in which the gaps arise due to distortions in the form of asymmetrical taxes across sectors. The paper finds a limited role of changes in distortions over time in accounting for actual growth. Implied growth from changes in distortions accounts for less than 2.5 percent of actual growth for the median country. To check if the lower contribution of changes in distortions is because of unrealized gains suggested by high levels of present distortions, productivity gains are estimated when distortions across countries are reduced to the US levels. Barring a couple of cases, the gains in aggregate productivity are modest across the sample of countries.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7737 JUN 29, 2016
This Practical Note is part of a series of five how-to-guides that captures the evolution of Public-Private Dialogues (PPD) and the challenges faced by practitioners since the first PPD handbook was published in 2006.
... See More + It focuses on the life span of a PPD and the challenge of sustainability. Experience shows that among the three phases of a PPD life cycle entry or discovery phase, high-impact phase, and the transfer phase it is the final transitional phase that sanctions if a PPD has or has not been successful PPDs are often supported by a development sponsor, such as the government, the private sector or a development partner (DP), which initially helps to establish or run activities. This note guides practitioners in the development of a PPD transition strategy the process through which DPs move away from direct support to a PPD and toward a way that allows the partnership to function sustainably. If a PPD is government-driven, then the issues are concentrated around institutional alignment, political will and securing resources from the national budget. When a PPD is private-sector driven, then sustainability is closely linked to the sustainability of the business membership organizations (BMOs) themselves. In this instance, support work needs to take place at the BMO level. When a PPD is established with other types of sponsorship (e.g., development partners, foundations), at some point it will need to transition into a fully locally owned and self-sustainable platform. This Practical Note helps practitioners devise ways in which PPDs can achieve long-term operational, financial and mandate sustainability.
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This PowerPoint presentation provides background information for the informal meeting of the Executive Directors scheduled to be held on Tuesday, July 5, 2016.
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Climate change has considerably increased the likelihood of experiencing extreme weather events. Governments in developing countries have a limited capacity to smooth the losses created by extreme weather, and could potentially benefit from the introduction of disaster funds, that is, ex-ante budgeting allocations for post-disaster reconstruction.
... See More + So far the implementation of disaster funds has been limited, in part because it is still unclear whether disaster funds provide a cost-effective way of coping with these losses. By taking advantage of the sharp rules that govern the municipal-level eligibility for reconstruction funds in Mexico, this paper provides some of the first estimates of the impact of disaster funds on local economic activity. The main finding is that access to disaster funding boosts local economic activity between 2 and 4 percent in the year following the disaster. Another finding is that the positive impact of disaster funds on local economic recovery can persist for as long as a year and a half after the disaster. Consistent with these findings, we additionally show that access to disaster funding leads to a large and sustained 76 percent increase in the growth of local construction employment. This labor market impact slightly precedes the overall increase in local economic activity.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7714 JUN 21, 2016
De Janvry,Alain F.; del Valle,Alejandro; Sadoulet,Elisabeth Marie L.Disclosed
The Palestinian Authority is committed to improving state-citizen relations through various mechanisms including the complaints resolution. The objective of this technical assistance, which has been undertaken at the request of the DGC, is to strengthen the Complaint Handling Mechanisms (CHMs) in five Palestinian ministries/government entities that are supported by World Bank-financed projects, as well as the DGC.
... See More + This summary report synthesizes key findings that have emerged throughout the technical assistance and formulates Ministry-specific recommendations. It forms the basis of a possible phase II of the project, which would support the implementation of recommendations. The report presents the innovative methodology used to bring together the demand- and supply-side perspectives on CHMs in targeted ministries; the key findings from the survey and the ministry-by-ministry assessments; the key suggestions for improvement; and finally the next steps. The technical assistance has generated high client interest among the concerned Ministries, the DGC and development partners.The technical assistance has generated high client interest among the concerned Ministries, the DGC and development partners. This summary report synthesizes key findings that have emerged throughout the technical assistance and formulates Ministry-specific recommendations. It forms the basis of a possible phase II of the project which would support the implementation of recommendations. The technical assistance also aligns with the focus on strengthening the citizen-state compact specified in the WBG Assistance Strategy FY15-16 for the West Bank and Gaza. The report is structured as follows: Part two presents the context; Part three presents the methodology used to bring together the demand- and supply-side perspectives on CHMs in targeted ministries; Part four presents the key findings from the survey and the ministry-by-ministry assessments; Part five presents the key suggestions for improvement; and finally Part six presents the next steps.
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