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.
... Vea más +Ver menos -
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.
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
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.
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
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.
... Vea más + It is updated as of February 2, 2015.
Ver menos -
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).
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
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.
... Vea más +Ver menos -
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).
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
Documento de trabajo sobre investigaciones relativas a políticas 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.
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
Documento de trabajo sobre investigaciones relativas a políticas 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).
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
Documento de trabajo (Serie Numerada) 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.
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
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.
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
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.
... Vea más + 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.
Ver menos -
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.
... Vea más + The purpose of this paper is to summarize the lending rates and spreads applicable to IBRD loans outstanding as of January 1, 2015.
Ver menos -
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) is one of five areas of focus of the World Banks Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010-2015 (RHAP), which recognizes the importance of addressing ASRH as a development issue with important implications for poverty reduction.
... Vea más + Delaying childbearing and preventing unintended pregnancies during adolescence has been shown to schooling, future employment, and earnings (Greene Merrick, 2005). Early marriage often marks the beginning of exposure to the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Research has shown that adolescent marriage is associated with unplanned pregnancy, rapid repeat childbirth, inadequate use of maternal health services, and poor birth outcomes, among other negative maternal and child health outcomes (Godha, Hotchkiss, and Gage, 2013; Raj Boehmer, 2013; Santhya, 2011). Furthermore, research in Ethiopia has found that adolescent females who marry before the age of 15 are at higher risk of intimate partner violence and coercive sex than those who marry between ages 15-18 (Erulkar, 2013). At the 65th World Health Assembly, representatives agreed that early marriage is a violation of the rights of children and adolescents. Early marriage is illegal in most of the places where it occurs. It limits young girls autonomy, knowledge, resources, and decision-making power (World Bank, 2014). Adolescent marriage is also much more likely to affect females than males: in the developing world, 16 percent of females are married in comparison to 3 percent of males (UNFPA, 2013).
Ver menos -