Suchergebnisse

Since its independence in 1991, the Kyrgyz Republic has taken steps to liberalize its economy and adopt political reforms with the aim of promoting sustained economic growth. The Kyrgyz Republic was one of the first former Soviet republics to implement economic reforms and to move toward a market-based economy. The multiple economic and political reforms that have been implemented, together with regional and global trends, have dramatically changed the structure of the economy in the Kyrgyz Republic. Immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union, the lack of jobs caused workers to shift toward employment in the agricultural sector. This report employs a simple framework to analyze the main constraints to jobs outcomes in the Kyrgyz Republic. There are three main categories of constraints, in order of their impact are: (i) labor demand constraints, (ii) labor supply constraints, and (iii) labor matching constraints. These constraints limit job creation, job productivity, job quality, and job inclusiveness. The Kyrgyz Republic has a large informal sector which means that policymakers need to understand the constraints to productivity growth in the informal as well as the formal sector. The framework adopted here does not distinguish between formal and informal sectors. The framework is fleshed out in more detail in Chapter III, but the introduction provides a brief outline to help structure the report.

To mitigate the impact of the 2008-2010 global financial crisis on vulnerable households, the Government of Latvia established Workplaces with Stipends, an emergency public works program that targeted registered unemployed people who were not receiving unemployment benefits. This paper evaluates the targeting performance and welfare impacts of the program. We exploit the over-subscription of Workplaces with Stipends to define a control group. The paper finds that the program was successful at targeting poor and vulnerable people, and that leakage to non-poor households was small. Using propensity score matching, the paper finds that the program's stipend mitigated the impact of job loss and, in the short term, raised participating household incomes by 37 percent relative to similar households not benefiting from the program. The paper also finds that the foregone income for this program was less than foregone incomes estimated in other countries. This suggests a dearth of income-generating opportunities in Latvia; thus the program provided temporary employment opportunities and helped the unemployed mitigate the impact of the crisis. However, relative to the depth of the crisis in Latvia, the Workplaces with Stipends program scale was small, which meant long waiting periods for program applicants.

This note assesses whether social protection programs are adequately financed in mainland Tanzania. We find that social protection programs are an important component of Government expenditures, and complements other Government social spending, including education and health spending. In recent years, the Government has strengthened social protection by: (i) increasing social protection expenditures; (ii) shifting social assistance from generally inefficient food and in-kind programs to more efficient cash-based programs; (iii) shifting social assistance from relatively untargeted programs to those which are targeted to poor people; and (iv) easing demand side constraints faced by households investing in human capital. Despite these positive developments, challenges to social protection remain: (i) social assistance and employment programs remain underfunded relative to the needs of the population; (ii) development partner financing remains crucial even though they are prone to external risks; (iii) little isknown about which social welfare services and employment programs work well; (iv) many pensionparameters are not in line with best-practice and therefore, sustainability can be improved; (v) generalized subsidies, which are notoriously bad instruments to target poor people, are absorbing Government resources in a tight fiscal environment.

The formation of human capital--the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lifetimes--is critical for the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Human capital contributes not only to□ human development and employment but also to the long-term sustainability of a diversified economic growth model that is knowledge based and private sector driven. This approach is critical, given that income from oil and gas will eventually decline and that the nature of work is evolving in response to rapid technological changes, in turn demanding new skill sets. The GCC governments have demonstrated their strong political will for □this shift: four of them are among the first countries to join the World □Bank's Human Capital Project—a global effort to improve investments in people as measured by the Human Capital Index. The GCC countries face four main challenges: Low levels of basic proficiency among schoolchildren; A mismatch between education and the labor market; A relatively high rate of adult mortality and morbidity; A unique labor market , in which wages in the public sector are more generous than in the private sector and government employment of nationals is virtually guaranteed To address these challenges, this report outlines four strategies in a "whole-of-government" approach: Investing in high-quality early childhood development; Preparing healthier, better educated, and skilled youth for the future; Enabling greater adult labor force participation; Creating an enabling environment for human capital formation These strategies are based on best practices in other countries and feature some of the GCC countries' plans, including their national "Visions," to take their economies and societies further into the twenty-first century. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the GCC countries face additional challenges that may worsen some preexisting vulnerabilities and erode human capital. In response, the GCC governments have taken multiple measures to protect their populations' health and their economies. Any□ country's decision to reopen its economy needs to closely consider public health consequences to avoid a resurgence of infections and any further erosion of its human capital. The COVID-19 crisis underscores that the need to accelerate and improve investment in human capital has never been greater. Once the GCC countries return to a "new normal," they will be in a position to achieve diversified and sustainable growth by adopting, and then tailoring, the strategies presented in this report.

The World Bank in collaboration with the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) conducted an assessment on the constraints and opportunities faced by non-farm household enterprise owners when starting and growing a business. The report highlights the findings from two applied methodologies namely a qualitative toolkit and a quantitative analysis. The toolkit included several qualitative techniques like focus groups, life stories, key informant interviews, and a community mapping exercise administered to 385 individuals from eight communities, among whom about a third were beneficiaries of the countrywide TASASF III - Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) program. The quantitative data had rich information on 7,400 Tanzanian households and included a specific section on household enterprises. The authors found that the major constraints household enterprise owners face when starting or growing a business are lack of access to financial resources, weak markets and high competition among themselves, and lack of skills. Participants also identified severe weather conditions (droughts and rainy season) as a risk for their businesses and their communities. The report concludes with recommendation for TASAF and the Tanzanian government as they move forward towards the next phase of the PSSN program.

Thirty eight percent of the urban population in Mozambique is poor and the latest political and economic developments are likely to increase their vulnerability. Moreover, a large share of the urban population that is close to the poverty line and that could worsen their poverty status through small variations in income. In addition to the political and economic context, urbanization in Mozambique has been a steady process over the last years and this urbanization dynamic is likely to continue in the next coming years transforming Mozambique into one of the most urbanized countries in the region. This process will potentially exacerbate the unemployment situation in the urban settings, enhancing the vulnerability of the urban poor and specially the urban youth. Motivated by the increasing urban vulnerability, this report is one of the first attempts to review programs, practices and expenditure on safety nets and activation interventions in urban settings in Mozambique. In particular, the report aims at enhancing government knowledge and understanding about existing safety nets and activation programs in urban areas in Mozambique, assess their efficiency and effectiveness, and identify emerging lessons and challenges. The report aims at informing government on how to enhance the implementation of safety nets and activation programs is response to the increased vulnerability in urban areas. It does so by reviewing existing programs, published literature, and analyzing needs and target populations with household survey and administrative data and qualitative information collected through field surveys. The report focusses only on the core urban safety net and activation initiatives. The report is divided into three main chapters: Chapter 1 explains about the Profile of Mozambique's poor urban population and urban safety nets beneficiaries; Chapter 2 describes Safety nets and activation programs assessment in urban Mozambique; and Chapter 3 concludes by Evaluating the readiness of Safety Nets and Activation initiatives in urban Mozambique.