The Ethiopia Investment Climate Program, managed by the World Bank Group's Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice aims at streamlining and simplifying high priority regulatory practices and processes burdensome to the private sector and address investment climate issues that are holding back investment and productivity growth in Ethiopia. This report presents a summary of the major findings about the business registration and licensing regime in Ethiopia and develops recommendations for streamlining and improving it. The report is based on an in-depth review of the country's more than 1,300 licenses; a detailed analysis at a sector level is presented in Annex three. This report consists of two main parts: in Chapter two, we present an estimate of the costs which the registration and licensing regime in Ethiopia imposes on the business sector in the country. Chapter three then presents the key findings and recommendations based on the detailed analysis of Ethiopia's licensing regime and implementation practice, the details of which are presented in the Inventory of Business Licenses. A brief concluding chapter summarizes the recommendations and provides an estimate of the positive effects which they could have both for businesses and Government.
In face of growing concern related to climate change, green technology entrepreneurs are critically needed to develop the businesses and ideas behind climate mitigation in developing countries - but they frequently collide with challenges endemic to such environments. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the role that connections can play in helping green technology entrepreneurs innovate and scale up in developing countries, so as to inform the design of new public sector programs. Green technology entrepreneurs in developing countries need connection platforms for people, ideas, business models, transactions, as well as membership of expert communities. This study shows how cheaper, quicker, and more efficient connections can be created among stakeholders of green technology innovation in developing countries. This is done through drawing insights from a variety of public and private programs that seek to promote connections between entrepreneurs in green technology and other sectors. The report is based on 14 case studies of different programs spanning more than 80 countries. The general findings are presented in part one and insights from the individual case studies can be found in part two.
Sri Lanka needs to address new challenges if it is to sustain its strong record of economic growth and poverty reduction. The country has in many respects been a development success story, with average growth exceeding 6 percent and a threefold decline in poverty using the national poverty line over the past 10 years. However, low productivity, high reliance on non-tradable sectors and a stale export basket highlight the need to enhance private sector competitiveness as a way to create one million new jobs. The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has recognized the need to adopt a policy agenda that strengthens the competitiveness of the country's private sector in order to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth. The new Government has emphasized the need to realize Sri Lanka's trade potential as a way to accelerate the transformation of the economy and generate new and more attractive opportunities for Sri Lanka's labor force.Unleashing the competitiveness potential of Sri Lankan enterprises will require addressing a wide range of factors. this note focuses on opportunities to improve areas directly impacting the competitiveness of the private sector, including streamlining the regulations governing the activities of the private sector to reduce the cost of doing business; strengthening trade policies to eliminate biases against exports; enhancing trade facilitation to reduce the costs and time it takes to export; enhancing the ability of the country to attract, retain and integrate FDI; enhancing innovation and entrepreneurship and strengthening accessibility to financial services. It is important to note, that there are small islands of Research and Development (R&D) progress in Sri Lanka. Going forward, as Sri Lanka aspires to become a higher middle income economy driven by higher addedvalue exports, major reforms will be required in its investment climate; investment, innovation andtrade policies and the efficiency of the institutions governing the activities of domestic and foreign firms.This note summarizes the main findings of this work and outlines options forimplementation of reforms needed.
This policy note provides an overview of government health financing in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR), with an added focus on health center financing. The note summarizes overall trends in health outcomes and government health financing over 2000-2014 and analyzes trends in planned and realized government budgetary health spending data covering fiscal years (FYs) 2000/01 to 2013/14 and planned expenditures for FYs 2014/15, updating a previous assessment conducted in 2012.1 In addition, this note summarizes findings from health center financing data collected as part of the UFGE-CNP facility survey which collected information from a nationally-representative sample of 120 health centers in 2013-14. This policy note is one of a series designed to disseminate findings of the World Bank's program of analytic and advisory activities for health in Lao PDR.
While on-track for child health and maternal health MDGs, Lao PDR continues to have some of the worst maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes, both globally and in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region. Under-five and infant mortality rates are high relative to GDP per capita, and utilization of essential health services is low, given significant demand-side barriers including physical access, cultural, and financial barriers. Furthermore, about a third of all children under-five remain underweight and almost half are stunted. Lao PDR is hence off-track on the nutrition-related MDG. In addition to poor aggregate measures, there are significant economic, urban rural, geographic, and ethnic group-related inequalities in health and nutrition outcomes. This policy note provides a snapshot of human resources for health (HRH) in health centers in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) based on an analysis of a health facility survey (the UFGE-CNP health center survey) that collected information from a nationally-representative sample of 120 public health centers (HCs) from 2013 to 2014. This survey was conducted as a baseline for health sector reform plans, to inform policymaking as Lao PDR scales-up programs to attain health-related MDGs, expand basic health services, and attain universal health coverage (UHC). This note complements a related health financing note which includes health center financing data from the same survey. Key findings from that note include low government health spending, associated with a high reliance on out-of-pocket (OOP) spending and external financing, which translates to underfunding of HCs (especially non-wage recurrent expenditure) and dependence on OOP revenue from revolving drug funds (RDFs).
The World Bank has been supporting the Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE)program for India through its support to the flagship program of the Government of India, theSarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The Bank's ongoing support to SSA is a little over $ 1 billion.With reducing national level budgetary allocation and scarcity of resources for publicly-fundededucation, it is important to analyse the efficiency and effectiveness of the investments in thesector. It is critical that financial investments made have been used efficiently and yield a highreturn in terms of children's access to education and learning outcomes. With this objective, the World Bank as a part of its ongoing support to SSA, undertook a Value for Money (VFM) analysis that could assess the returns from public education expenditure. This paper attempts to calculate and benchmark the economic value of any increases in children's access to schooling and in students' learning levels that may result from increases in public education spending over time.
In 2015, Lao PDR is virtually unrecognizable from what it was just a decade ago. A more open, more outward trade landscape has transformed the country from a closed-off backwater into a fast-growing developing country, complete with coffee shops, restaurants, and billboards lining the streets of what is now a much busier and more lively Vientiane. Rural-urban migration is underway as non-agricultural opportunities are on the rise. Importers and exporters are experiencing an increasing level of government transparency. Customs operations are nearly fully automated and border clearance times have been drastically reduced. As a crowning achievement—and after 15 years of negotiations, Lao PDR is now a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), with its eyes set on establishing itself as an equal partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC). The situation has improved to such an extent that the country has become a model for other Least Developed Countries (LDCs) undertaking trade reform. Optimism is in the air, and reformers know that having come so far there is still a tremendous amount to be done. Within the context of a complex and largely incomplete transition from a planned to a market economy, the strides taken by the Lao government in the relatively niche area of trade policy reform and trade facilitation merit attention. The country still has many visceral challenges to overcome. Trade reform is much less visible, quite often not a front-page story, and rarely capable of changing people's fortunes overnight. Rather, it is a process of deliberate, subtle changes that over time provide the atmosphere for a country to bloom, and Lao PDR is blooming. Understanding the scope and scale of reform that has occurred in order for the country to reach this point is not always easy. Without looking back over the last few years, without peering deeper into the structures that have changed, it is possible to miss just how remarkable this story truly is.
This handbook has been developed to provide instruction on the design and implementation of incentives for resource-efficiency purposes. The target audience is World Bank staff and stakeholders who are supporting the implementation of a resource-efficiency program in a country on behalf of the government, development finance institution (DFI) or other institution. It is intended to be applicable to most, if not all, resource-efficiency issues and incentives. However, it has a particular focus on energy-efficiency issues as this is the particular focus of the World Bank's Climate Competitive Industries program, and is an area with a high level of interest from industry stakeholders. This handbook will help practitioners to understand: (i) why incentives should be used; (ii) the kinds of incentives that are available; (iii) how incentives can be combined; (iv) how to diagnose the resource-efficiency issues and potential for action in the country; (v) what the key considerations are in the selection and design on an incentive; and (vi) which institutional processes are required to support implementation of an incentive. It sets out the key considerations in designing and implementing an incentive for resource efficiency. Given the breadth of the potential areas of application, the handbook provides an introduction to each incentive type and sets out the skeleton approach to implementing an incentive. Further reading and support will be required at key stages to enable readers to undertake some of the technical aspects of implementation. For this reason, the handbook should be considered the entry point for any party considering an incentive scheme for resource efficiency. However, additional expertise may need to be sought when it comes to the actual design of a specific incentive.
In the last decades, slow growth and job creation have encouraged emigration, further dampening domestic sources of growth in Nepal. Tepid growth over the past decade, the slowest in the region, has resulted in few jobs being created, leading to more Nepalese workers seeking opportunities abroad. Their remittances have helped reduce poverty in the country and finance increasingly large trade deficits. Like other inflows of foreign exchange, remittances have led to an appreciation of the real exchange rate. This has adversely affected export competitiveness and has had no positive effects on productivity (unlike foreign direct investment). This report attempts to determine the extent to which these obstacles can be alleviated by policy decisions, as well as exactly which policy decisions should be prioritized. The policy notes included in this report aim at supporting the National Trade and Integration Strategy (NTIS) through an evidence-based approach. To do so, these notes combine the following elements: (i) existing analysis on Nepal's competitiveness from different angles (including existing competitiveness assessments on transport, access to finance, the tourism sector, previous trade competitiveness reports, and so forth); (ii) international experience from comparator countries on good practices for trade policy reforms; (iii) new analysis for Nepal, applying cutting-edge methods on a wide set of databases; and (iv) field-level interviews with the private sector, and consultations with donors and the Government of Nepal.
Identification schemes are key enablers for the effective delivery of services and more broadly for the quality of engagement between a country's government and its citizens. Legal identity is now recognized as an essential element of development; target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) refers to the provision of universal legal identity, including through birth registration, by 2030. Legal identity is central to the rights set out, for example, in the Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, effective identification is important for at least ten of the other SDGs. This assessment of Kenya's ID system was undertaken under the umbrella of the World Bank Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative. Its general objective is to map out the system, identify its ID assets and suggest areas where they can be strengthened. More specifically, the Bank is engaged in supporting a number of transfer and similar programs that place particular demands on identification systems through the National Safety Net Program for Results and is also financing the Kenya Transparency and Communications Infrastructure (KTCIP) project to scale up digital inclusion and e-Government. This project includes the digitization of registration data. In order to address these issues a World Bank mission visited Kenya May 18–28. Its broad objective was to better understand the nature and capabilities of Kenya's ID system, its role in development and how best to work with the country to strengthen this. The mission also sought to assess the ID system from the perspectives of the identification needs of the operational engagements and their current and potential role in strengthening the system of civil registration and identification. The mission met with stakeholders from both the supply and demand sides of the ID system and thanks the Government of Kenya for facilitating open and comprehensive discussions.
In the last four years Myanmar's economy has seen a slight shift away from agriculture toward industry and services. This may mark the beginning of a structural transformation away from a rural, agricultural economy toward a more urban, industrial and service-based economy. Urbanization and job creation in urban areas have the potential to have a significant impact on labor and mobility patterns, especially for the landless and land-poor workers that account for a large part of the rural workforce. Domestic migration has been a critical component of the way many other countries in the region, including South Korea, China, and Vietnam, have managed to reduce poverty and support resilient livelihoods. However, pursuing these opportunities often entails significant risk for poor migrant households, who often have little capacity to absorb the shocks of failed migration attempts. Developing access to a knowledge base that enables them to manage risk more easily and make more informed choices around migration is critical to supporting their livelihoods. Migration flows can also have long-term social and economic consequences in rural areas as members of the labor force, particularly young people, move into cities and towns. This entails major public policy choices around areas such as spatial development, urbanization, service delivery, and poverty reduction. The government will need information on anticipated migrant flows in order to make the right policy choices and to plan for and provide services to people arriving from rural areas into urban settings. Within this evolving context, understanding the motivations, patterns, and dynamics of existing migration practices is critical in order to assist balanced and inclusive development in Myanmar by supporting safe and informed migration. The primary objective of this study is to collect detailed evidence and provide an objective assessment of how, and to what extent, migration within and from particular regions of Myanmar affects the livelihoods of rural households and the social and economic environment of villages. It seeks to understand how migration decisions take place, the key obstacles and risks faced by migrants, and the individual and household strategies that evolve to manage them. It also seeks to capture broader changes over time in sending communities, and how the departure and return of migrants affects social and economic dynamics at home and within the village. The study focuses on the Ayeyarwady Region and the Magway Region of Myanmar, which are home to large numbers of Myanmar's rural poor and are also close to two of the major centers of growth and job creation in the country, Yangon and Mandalay respectively. In these areas, the study applies a mixed-methods approach to the four key questions outlined.
Water is an essential component of Turkey's economy and environment. Water resources are under strong pressure in terms of both quantity and quality.Freshwater productivity in Turkey is low compared to that of high-income countries,and of some upper middle-income countries of the region, such as Belarus, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, (World Bank, 2016). As the largest user of water, agriculture has extensive irrigation systems, however the existing irrigation practices are not very efficient.The Turkish government is considering a set of policy issues related to water resource management (WRM), including estimating the economic value of water and incorporating this into strategic decision-making on water allocation and pricing. There is a request for developing a tool for water valuation and accounting.The identification of water goods and services is based on the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework, which includes use and non-use values.The economic valuation of water benefits can be based on a wide range of valuation methods.The study presented in this report focused on water valuation with the objectives of introducing the concept and methods of water valuation, and demonstrating their use through actual application of valuation methods to Turkey's water resources.A case study was quickly carried out in Beysehir Lake sub catchment, the largest freshwater lake in Turkey.The study further identified the need for the following actions: Nurture the political will and institutional arrangements to support the incorporation of valuation into decision-making.Adopt natural capital valuation and accounting as supporting tools in implementing the 2030 Agenda and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Carry out in-depth valuation studies, covering a wider range of water values and river basins.Improve the valuation of water benefits in Beysehir Lake subcatchment through extended data collection and site-specific studies concerning the economic value of water uses (i.e. agricultural, municipal, recreational, and biodiversity).Develop national guidelines on water valuation and accounting to facilitate future studies and scale/implement existing efforts nationwide.The report contains six chapters. Following this introduction, Chapter two provides an overview of Turkey's current water sector. Chapter three introduces the concept of total economic value, and Chapter four further discusses the valuation methods for each type of water use. To demonstrate the applicability of valuation in Turkey, Chapter five applies these methods to Beysehir Lake subcatchment in Konya Closed Basin, based on readily available information. Finally, Chapter six provides some conclusions and recommendations.
Kenya is one of the bright spots in Sub-Saharan Africa. With economic growth rates sustained at above 5 percent, Kenya has outperformed the regional average, for 8 consecutive years. Robust domestic demand emanating from private consumption and government investment are the key drivers of growth, underpinned by a stable macroeconomic environment, lower oil prices, diversification, improved security perceptions, and ongoing structural reforms. Medium term economic prospects for Kenya remain robust. Ongoing public infrastructure investments will continue to play a 'crowding-in' role, easing transport and energy costs, and supporting economic expansion in construction andindustry. Private consumption will drive service sector growth, while agricultural sector will remain largely dependent on favorable weather conditions and timely availability of inputs. Though oil prices are expected to pick-up over the forecast horizon, Kenya's external sector account will remain healthy on account of a steady increase in remittances, a rebound in tourism and a rise in foreign direct Investment (FDI). Nonetheless, there exist downside risks that can dent future growth prospects. Risks to Kenya's future growth prospects that are not included in our baseline outlook emanate from both external and domestic sources. On the external front, these include weaker than expected growth in the global economy, volatility in global financial markets and a spike in oil prices. On the domestic front, these include delays to fiscal consolidation, adverse weather developments, and potential uncertainties associated with the run-up to 2017 elections that could lead to a wait-and-see attitude by investors, thereby dampening short-term growth prospects.
The Myanmar Economic Monitor (MEM) periodically takes stock of economic developments anddiscusses economic prospects and policy priorities in Myanmar. The MEM draws on available datareported by the Government of Myanmar and additional information collected as part of the WorldBank Group's regular economic monitoring and policy dialogue. The government has carefully navigated a difficult economic and security environment in its first six months in office. In early April 2016, the economy was still recovering from a flood induced supply shock, which, together with low commodity prices, contributed to widening current account and fiscal deficits. In response the government has taken steps to try and maintain fiscal prudence, which have helped ease pressure on monetary growth and import demand.
The first part of the Economic Update analyzes recent macroeconomic trends and presents an assessment of the country's short- and medium-term outlook. The Kyrgyz economy has remained resilient to the adverse regional environment, but growth prospects are modest and adjustments needed.Overall, the macroeconomic situation improved slightly since the shock stemming from Russia's recession hit in [late 2014]. In the medium term, growth prospects should improve as remittances and the external demand environment recover.However, although risks have moderated, they remain elevated. The main sources of risk relate to possible adverse developments in neighboring economies, principally related to oil prices and exchange rate dynamics. This implies the need to rebuild fiscal buffers over the next 2-3 years through a mix of expenditure consolidation and revenue mobilization. The Special Focus Section discusses tax revenue reforms, presenting the findings of a recent World Bank Tax Administration Diagnostics Assessment (TADAT).
