As of February 18, 2015 Liberia has reported over 9,000 cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), and 3,900 deaths. Since the previous round of data collection, in December 2014, Liberia continues to show progress toward getting to zero cases, and in the 21 days leading up to January 28, there were only 20 confirmed cases nationally, down from 92 in the 21 days ending on December 31, 2014, and a high of 546 in late August and early September.
... Vea más + It is believed that all those currently infected are seeking care in Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs), some of which have begun to close in recent weeks as a result of declining need. The World Bank Group, with the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services and the Gallup Organization, has continued to monitor the socio-economic impacts of EVD on households through a series of mobile-phone surveys conducted in October, November, and December 2014, and January 2015. As the health crisis continues to abate in Liberia, it will be crucial to tackle the important medium- and long-term economic and welfare impacts of Ebola on households. As Liberia continues on the path to eradicating Ebola, it will be important to identify and support those who are most vulnerable to the sluggish economy and whose long-term welfare may be negatively impacted by coping decisions made in the name of immediate stability. As households send their children back to school in the next month, the World Bank Group and partners will continue to monitor the crisis and work to support the Liberian government and its people as they move into economic recovery.
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Parental involvement in matchmaking may distort the choice of spouse because parents are willing to substitute love for market and household production, which are more sharable between parents and their children.
... Vea más + This paper finds supportive evidence in a survey of Chinese couples. In both rural and urban areas, parent matchmaking is associated with less marital harmony between the couple, more submissive wives, and a stronger belief in old age support for the son. In contrast, its association with couple income differs by rural and urban regions, perhaps because of differences in earning opportunities and in the enforcement of the one-child policy. Moreover, parent matchmaking is associated with more children for the couple and lower schooling for wives only in rural areas. Thus, in places with a stronger need for old age support, parents tend to be involved in matchmaking and use it to select submissive daughters-in-law to ensure old age support. The results render support to Becker, Murphy and Spenckuch (2015), who imply that parents would meddle with children;s preferences to ensure their commitment to providing old age support.
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Documento de trabajo sobre investigaciones relativas a políticas WPS7188 FEB 01, 2015
The need for safety nets in Sub-Saharan Africa is vast. In addition to being the world?s poorest region, Sub-Saharan Africa is also one of the most unequal.
... Vea más + In this context, redistribution must be seen as a legitimate way to fight poverty and ensure shared prosperity, and all the more so in countries where growth is driven by extractive industries that are not labor-intensive and often employ very few poor people. Given that most African countries face difficult decisions about how to allocate limited resources among a number of social programs, evidence is important. Do Safety Net programs actually benefit the poorest people? This book demonstrates with empirical evidence that it is possible to reach the poorest and most vulnerable people with safety net programs, and provides lessons for the effective use of targeting methods to achieve this outcome in the region. The book's introduction presents the rationale for targeting safety net programs to households that are chronically food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity. A chapter on methods outlines the various ways that targeting can be carried out, along with providing technical details on proxy means test (PMT) and PMTplus methods. Seven case studies (Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, and Senegal) are then presented that document a variety of approaches and experiences in country targeting eff orts, taking into account country needs and existing programs. Each case study covers the extent of poverty and current safety net coverage, available data, targeting indicators chosen, procedures for long-term (and, in some cases, short-term) targeting, ex ante evaluation of targeting mechanisms, and key lessons learned. In the conclusion, the report discusses future challenges in regarding investments in data, procedures, and methods to improve program targeting. Particular emphasis is placed on the need for countries to invest in targeting methods and procedures to safeguard households against exposure to the negative short-term shocks that are prevalent in African countries.
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Publicación 94117 JAN 26, 2015
del Ninno, Carlo [editor]; Mills, Bradford [editor]
The objective of the Agricultural Development Support Project for Myanmar is to increase crop yields and cropping intensity in the target irrigated areas.
... Vea más + This will be achieved through improved provision of irrigation and farm advisory and technical services. Negative impacts include: air pollution, dust, water pollution, soil erosion, noise pollution, waste management, and loss of ecology. Mitigation measures include: good engineering practice and maintenance of vehicles would be required according Irrigation manual, occupational health safety instruction and World Banks guideline; dust from handling or transportation of aggregates, cement, etc., should be minimized by sprinkling or other appropriate method; i.e. limit of excessive truckload, use of cover sheet; restoration of borrow [its and disposal; raise people awareness through meeting and communication materials before boundary delineation between adjacent farmland and drainage system to avoid confusion and dispute; consult with farmers for identifying working zone of civil work (including damping site) and developing operational time schedules adjusting to farming seasons. Also, agree upon grievance procedures, compensation and communication channel as necessary; assess local access route and consult with villagers for arrangement of temporary path if required; use warning signboard, prior notice, and announcement whenever heavy traffic is to be occurred; and develop or implement health and safety guidelines.
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Panama has made significant progress in reducing poverty in recent years. Panamas progress in reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity compares positively with the Latin American region.
... Vea más + Poverty reduction in the country was greater than the Latin American and Caribbean average. Only Bolivia saw greater improvement in shared prosperity, as measured by the growth of the income of the bottom forty percent of the population, than Panama. The rise in the middle class, seen in many countries in the region, was particularly marked in Panama and there has been an overall decline in inequality. This report takes stock of this progress, and reflects on the constraints and opportunities that Panama faces in continuing on its path of shared prosperity and poverty reduction. Following a detailed analysis of poverty; recent trends, drivers of poverty reduction, and demographic factors; the report provides elements to answer three main questions. First, what has driven growth in Panama in recent years? Second, to what extent has this growth been, or not been, inclusive? And, finally, how sustainable is the growth and more generally, the development model of Panama? The report identifies a select list of policy priorities for poverty reduction and shared prosperity in Panama. While reducing poverty in Panama will require attention to all deprived groups, the concentration of the poor in Comarcas suggests that this would be a priority area. The need to pay attention to issues of (i) culturally appropriate economic opportunities, (ii) social assistance, and (iii) infrastructure provision is highlighted. On the social front, the countrys cohesion is threatened by existing inequalities, the crime and violence linked to Panamas strategic position as a drug corridor, and weak protection of land rights. In the process of reviewing, analyzing and synthesizing the existing data and research on Panama, a series of knowledge gaps were discovered. By discovering and describing these gaps, this report outlines a roadmap for further research on Panama that will benefit the design of specific policies in the priority areas identified in this report and generate information that can lead to the identification of new priority areas.
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Documento de estrategia de asistencia al país 94706 JAN 16, 2015
The economic impact of Ebola survey is a high frequency cell phone survey designed to monitor the socio-economic impacts of the ongoing Ebola crisis in Liberia.
... Vea más + The survey has been conducted in three rounds from October to December 2014. The sample is based on the nationally representative household income and expenditure survey (HIES) implemented from February to August 2014 by the Liberia institute of statistics and geo-information services (LISGIS). This effort was designed to provide rapid indicators of well-being from households across the country at a time when conducting a traditional face-to-face survey is extremely challenging. The survey was conducted by phone, and attempted to contact all households that participated in the HIES and for which cell phone numbers were recorded. As in the previous two rounds, low response rates hinder the representativeness of the survey. The report begins with an update of the situation in Liberia with regards to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) crisis and response at the time of the third round of data collection (December 2 - 8, 2014). This was followed by updates on employment, prices, food security, and migration. About three-quarters of households indicated that they were worried at some point in the previous week that they will not have enough to eat. Around two-thirds of households responded that they were not able to purchase enough rice to meet their needs in the previous two weeks, and nearly 80 percent of those cited a lack of money as the main reason.
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Papua New Guinea has experienced strong, resource-led, economic growth over the past 10 years, yet basic development outcomes have remained the same or improved only marginally over the same period.
... Vea más + Efforts from the government and key partners to improve systems and capabilities are helpful but are yet to reach the local-level government (LLG) and ward levels where the most basic services are needed. Often the lowest levels of government do not have the resources or staff to provide regular or adequate social and economic services to the community.
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The majority of Papua New Guinea's population lives in rural areas, largely dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Coffee and cocoa are the main cash crops, with half of the country's total workforce involved in their production, processing, and sale.
... Vea más + Despite its importance, the quality and productivity of Papua New Guinea's coffee has been declining, largely due to a lack of replanting, limited incentives for smallholder farmers, and poor access to markets. The cocoa industry has been experiencing similar issues in addition to the threat posed by the cocoa pod borer. The Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP) aims to combat these problems in order to improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa and coffee producers, and promote rural development and poverty reduction more broadly.
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This brief describes a small pilot designed to leverage the women's self-help group platform of a World Bank-supported livelihoods project (that is, a non-health sector project) to: (a) promote positive nutrition and health behaviors; and (b) improve, especially amongst poor and vulnerable households, the demand for and utilization of public services across many sectors to improve nutrition outcomes.
... Vea más + This pilot is based on using a Bank-supported project platform in a non-health and nutrition sector to leverage entry points and opportunities to improve nutrition. The pilot provides a unique opportunity to build the capacity of community institutions of poor rural women to improve maternal and child nutrition. It promotes behavior change to adopt positive maternal and child health and nutrition, health, hygiene and sanitation practices, improve food security, and leverage public services to generate demand and utilize services that will ultimately improve nutrition outcomes through a community based, gender sensitive approach. Lessons learned from the full implementation of the pilot will need to be incorporated before the effort can be scaled up.
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Malnutrition is one of India's most serious and persistent problems. While nutrition outcomes across India are poor, they are typically worse in tribal and backward areas.
... Vea más + The South Asia food and nutrition security initiative (SAFANSI) has provided funding to the national rural livelihoods mission (NRLM) to strengthen the capacity of government and or communities to deliver effective food and nutrition security interventions in tribal and conflict-affected areas. This study seeks to examine how the NRLM can enhance the effectiveness of the program's core livelihoods focus, while strengthening the capacity of the Government of India (GoI) to deliver (or support) effective food and nutrition security (FNS) interventions in tribal and backward areas. In order to make sustainable and positive changes going forward, it will be critical to support FNS as a core approach for tribal areas. Empowered self-help groups can bridge service delivery gaps, increase awareness and utilization of programs, or advocate for improved coverage and service quality.
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The Integrating Nutrition Promotion and Rural Development (INPARD) Project aims to implement and evaluate nutrition promotion activities through the on-going World Bank financed Community Livelihoods in Conflict Affected Areas Project - popularly known as Reawakening Project (RaP) - in two districts of Sri Lanka.
... Vea más + The project focuses on identifying the pathways to promote nutrition with multiple stakeholders. This project also aims to explore the pathways and quantifying their relative contributions on food security and nutrition related outcomes. It is believed that rural development programs have an impact on multiple health related behaviors and outcomes. The study focuses primarily on nutritional outcomes, but includes several others. In addition, this project aims to provide evidence on understanding the best ways to operationalize multi-sectoral approaches and innovative multi-sectoral delivery strategies. Generating this new evidence could attract more local and national level policy makers to consider health impacts when they make decisions. The output of this study will solidify the call for inter-sectoral collaborations and whole of government approaches to improve nutrition and health, in particular in developing countries.
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In this paper the authors analyze the evolution and the determinants of in-work poverty in Poland, according to three poverty lines: relative, absolute, and the 1998-adjusted poverty line.
... Vea más + The authors find that behind moderately high in-work poverty incidence in Poland there is very high in-work poverty in agriculture and modest in-work poverty in all other sectors. Workers are much less likely to be poor than jobless individuals, especially the unemployed. In fact, the share of adults out of employment is a much stronger predictor of households' risk of poverty than the level of wages at which they work. Moreover, the share of jobless adults or of agricultural workers has become an increasing determinant of in-work poverty over time. The risk of in-work poverty is also inversely related to the educational attainment and the stability of employment of an individual, which is especially important considering that the incidence of temporary contracts in Poland is the highest across both European Union (EU) and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Existing fiscal and benefit policies have not been sufficient to address in-work poverty and some of its underlying causes in the labor market: the author presents four policy recommendations aimed at tackling in-work and total poverty, and at increasing labor market participation and employment.
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Himachal Pradesh has the reputation of being stable, inclusive, cohesive and well-governed and it stands apart in many respects from its neighbors in northern India.
... Vea más + It has additionally, achieved remarkable growth, especially in the last two decades, which has been accompanied by very good human development outcomes. Despite being a predominantly rural society, educational attainment in Himachal Pradesh for instance, is among the best in the country; poverty headcount is nearly one-third of the national average; life expectancy is 3.4 years longer than the number of years an average Indian expects to live; and, per capita income is the second highest in India. Underlying its strong economic and social development outcomes is Himachal Pradeshs commitment to expand access to public services to the remotest areas, across tough, hilly terrain and its strong institutional foundations. Inter-group disparities are low in a state where traditionally disadvantaged groups such as the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) make up a solid 30 percent of the population.
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Documento de trabajo 93729 JAN 01, 2015
Bordia Das, Maitreyi; Kapoor-Mehta, Soumya; Oktay Tas, Emcet; Zumbyte, Ieva
Social policy in Mexico has focused on identifying and supporting chronically poor households. Yet, Mexico has a significant number of households that are just above the poverty line who are not eligible, by definition, for antipoverty programs and are at risk of falling back into poverty in the event of an economic crisis or shocks like loss of employment and natural disasters.
... Vea más + These shocks can have serious negative effects on welfare in the absence of social safety nets targeted to these households. This study uses household survey data to better understand these "vulnerable" households, including their profile and risk exposure and, more importantly, to document the extent to which these households are covered by public transfers and insurance mechanisms. The analysis shows that until 2010 most social programs, including the few with productive components, such as vocational training and productive investment grants, barely covered the vulnerable. The study concludes that public policies need to pay attention to the vulnerable households and find the right policy mix between targeted interventions and universal insurance schemes to serve this economic group.
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Documento de trabajo sobre investigaciones relativas a políticas WPS7165 JAN 01, 2015
de la Fuente, Alejandro; Ortiz-Juarez, Eduardo; Rodriguez-Castelan, Carlos
During the early 2000s, Moldova experienced strong economic growth and poverty and inequality reductions. This paper aims at uncovering the patterns behind these poverty trends by looking at economic mobility and its associated factors in Moldova.
... Vea más + The findings build on the synthetic panel approach and allow for a non-anonymous view of the process of poverty reduction. The data used for this country study on Moldova come from the Household Budget Survey, which is conducted on a yearly basis. The paper presents transition matrices to look at the patterns of economic mobility across selected consumption thresholds, as well as descriptive statistics and a linear probability model aimed at identifying correlates of economic mobility. The findings show that the observed poverty reductions happened with little churning, and highlight the importance of education and employment on upward economic mobility in Moldova in the 2000s, as well as the role of public and private transfers.
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Documento de trabajo sobre investigaciones relativas a políticas WPS7167 JAN 01, 2015