Author(s)
World BankKeywords
OIL RESERVESCENTRAL PLANNING
AVERAGE LEVEL
INFANT MORTALITY
LABOR MARKETS
WORKERS
UNEMPLOYMENT
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
NEW ENTRANTS
ACCOUNTABILITY
EXPENDITURES
AQUIFERS
WATER POLLUTION
PRODUCTIVITY
GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES
IMPROVING GOVERNANCE
POLITICAL ECONOMY
CITIZENS
MACROECONOMIC STABILIZATION
MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRY
DEBT
GIRLS
GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES
WORKPLACE
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
INTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY
PROPERTY RIGHTS
URBAN AREAS
TRANSPORT
ECONOMIC POLICIES
OIL PRICES
DISCRIMINATION
PRIVATIZATION
BUDGET DEFICITS
DIRECT INVESTMENT
LABOR FORCE
DEMOGRAPHICS
SOCIAL SECURITY
AGING
SOCIAL GROUPS
EXCHANGE RATE
FAMILIES
COUNTRY AVERAGE
SOCIAL POLICIES
FINANCIAL SECTOR
GOVERNANCE PROCESSES
RULE OF LAW
LABOR SUPPLY
EMPLOYMENT
LIVING STANDARDS
OPPORTUNITY COSTS
ECONOMIC GROWTH
SOCIAL PROGRAMS
OIL
STREAMS
PUBLIC OFFICIALS
ECONOMIC INSTRUMENTS
TAXATION
WAGES
UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
HOUSING
SERVICE DELIVERY
INCOME INEQUALITY
ECONOMIC CHANGE
WORKING CONDITIONS
CIVIL SOCIETY
PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT
CONSOLIDATION
GOOD GOVERNANCE
HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT
PRODUCERS
MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE
PRIVATE SECTOR
DEFICITS
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
INCOME GROWTH
REAL PRICES
MIDDLE EAST
INVESTMENT CLIMATE
POPULATION GROWTH
GROWTH RATE
INCOME
TRANSPARENCY
FINANCIAL SYSTEMS
MIGRATION
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
WATER USE
HEALTH CARE
TAX REFORMS
HEALTH INDICATORS
WATER PRICING
OIL SECTOR
PUBLIC EXPENDITURES
SOCIAL POLICY
SUSTAINABLE WATER
WATER SUPPLY
POLITICAL STRUCTURES
GOVERNANCE QUALITY
INFLATION
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
SUBSIDIARY
ACCOUNTING
MACROECONOMIC STABILITY
GROWTH RATES
FINANCIAL SERVICES
SOCIAL SERVICES
FINANCIAL STABILITY
SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
NORTH AFRICA
INSTITUTIONAL REFORM
MACROECONOMIC IMBALANCES
INSURANCE
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
EXTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY
PUBLIC SERVICES
ILLITERACY
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
PER CAPITA INCOMES
PUBLIC HEALTH
YOUNG WORKERS
NATIONAL POLICIES
PUBLIC SECTOR
STATE ENTERPRISES
IMPORTS
DIVIDENDS
LIFE EXPECTANCY
Full record
Show full item recordOnline Access
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23981Abstract
This report identifies the following as
 the fundamental challenges and changes that the Middle East
 and Africa must meet and make in order to improve living
 standards over the next two decades: Between eighty and one
 hundred million new jobs to be created by 2020. Economic
 growth to be lifted from a sluggish 3.4 percent over the
 late 1990s to at least 6-7 percent a year. Governance to
 move from traditional autocracies to more inclusive
 governments, accountable to the people. Women to be more
 equitably included in economic activity and to harness the
 significant potential economic benefits from an increasingly
 educated and healthy female population. Public sectors to
 open the door to more private initiative. Economies
 dependent on oil and workers' remittances to diversify
 into manufacturing and services. Closed trading regimes to
 integrate with new trading partners in the region and the
 world. Impossible? No. Imperative? Yes. The political
 imperatives for such change and the stability of the old
 order are two opposing forces. The balance is shifting
 toward the need for reform as joblessness and slow growth
 make the old order increasingly costly and unsustainable.Date
2003Type
ReportIdentifier
oai:openknowledge.worldbank.org:10986/23981http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23981
Copyright/License
CC BY 3.0 IGORelated items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
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Challenges to MDG Achievement in Low Income Countries : Lessons from Ghana and HondurasMedvedev, Denis; Bussolo, Maurizio (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-11)This paper summarizes the policy lessons from applications of the Maquette for MDG Simulations (MAMS) model to two low income countries: Ghana and Honduras. Results show that costs of MDGs achievement could reach 10-13 percent of GDP by 2015, although, given the observed low productivity in the provision of social services, significant savings may be realized by improving efficiency. Sources of financing also matter: foreign aid inflows can reduce international competitiveness through real exchange appreciation, while domestic financing can crowd out the private sector and slow poverty reduction. Spending a large share of a fixed budget on growth-enhancing infrastructure may mean sacrificing some human development, even if higher growth is usually associated with lower costs of social services. The pursuit of MDGs increases demand for skills: while this encourages higher educational attainments, in the short term this could lead to increased income inequality and a lower poverty elasticity of growth.
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Water Management in Agriculture : Ten Years of World Bank Assistance, 1994-2004Independent Evaluation Group (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-06-01)The purpose of this study is to update the review of World Bank experience in Irrigation (IEG 1994) and to broaden the scope of evaluation to include all water lending for agricultural development. Since that first study, the proportion of World Bank lending for agricultural water management continued to decline, a trend that started in the late 1970s when the sub-sector received 11 percent of the lending, is falling to less than 2 percent in 2001-03. It has since staged a strong recovery and reached over 4 percent in 2005. Commitments for agricultural water management account for a quarter of all lending for agriculture and rural development more recently, this amount increased to one-half. The study is primarily based on the analysis of a wide range of World Bank data and reports, including 131 project appraisal documents, 129 country assistance strategies, and 71 implementation completion reports, covering the Bank's experience in 56 countries. In addition, it draws upon the detailed findings from Independent Evaluation Group's (IEG's) project performance reports, country assistance evaluations, and several special sector and thematic evaluations.
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More, Better, or Different Spending? Trends in Public Expenditure on Water and Sanitation in Sub-Saharan AfricaBennett, Anthony; van Ginneken, Meike; Netterstrom, Ulrik (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12)This overview paper tests current public
 spending patterns against the economic rationale for such
 spending, including reducing disparities in service delivery
 and overcoming market failures. Reducing the disparities in
 access to basic water supply and sanitation (WSS) is a
 responsibility of government. Individuals have little
 incentive to build and maintain extensive WSS
 infrastructure, but communities and societies do. Targeted
 public spending benefitting households that otherwise would
 be unable to afford those services can be a component of a
 broader social policy agenda to redistribute resources to
 the poor. Several market features call for government
 intervention in the WSS sector. This review mines the rich
 data of 15 Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) conducted in
 Sub-Saharan Africa and funded by the World Bank over the
 past years. From 2003 the World Bank has funded more than 40
 PERs that contain an analysis of the water supply and
 sanitation (WSS) sector. In most of these, the WSS sector is
 discussed alongside other sectors. A set of stand-alone PERs
 specifically addressing the WSS sector have also been
 carried out in African countries. The scope of the present
 review includes expenditures by public institutions (at the
 central and local government levels) on domestic resources
 and grants or loans provided by external funding agencies.
 The review does not include off-budget spending by water
 utilities. In other words, while the numbers in this review
 include public subsidies to utilities, they do not include
 expenditure by utilities, thus disregarding expenditures
 paid for by consumer cost-recovery. The public expenditure
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 reports also discuss water resources management. Almost all
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 water resources management and irrigation issues from the
 analyses. The reviewed PERs did not use standard
 definitions, which has led to some data limitations
 described later. This review is a data mining exercise of
 country PERs that were written to serve in the political
 dialogue on the challenges in achieving the Millennium
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 enhancing public finance management performance.