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May 2016

How can we improve the lives of Africa's displaced populations?

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez's picture
Forced displacement is a global crisis that requires urgent humanitarian action. But as displacement tends to last many years – with long-term impacts on the lives of both displaced and host communities, it’s also a serious development challenge.
 
In Africa, which hosts 25% of all forcibly displaced people, some countries have been home for large refugee populations for over 20 years. To address the development impacts of forced displacement throughout the region, the World Bank has been scaling up assistance with 3 new projects covering 5 African countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Uganda.
 
In this video, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez and Jo de Berry explain how the Bank will work with these countries to support host communities while promoting the integration and self-reliance of displaced persons.

If you want to learn more about this topic, we invite you to discover our latest Sustainable Communities podcast.

Government procurement – a path to SME growth?

Simon Bell's picture
A tile factory in Ghana. Photo: © Arne Hoel/The World Bank


In many countries Government is the biggest procurer of goods and services, which makes them an attractive client for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) seeking to get a leg up in business.

Recognizing the important role that the public sector plays as a purchaser of goods and services, as well as the critical role SMEs have for the economy, Governments frequently use Public Procurement to incentivize, support and otherwise sustain local SMEs.

Also, as in many of our client countries, where the vast majority of SMEs are informal, the lure of a significant Government contract can serve as a strong motivator to register and formalize – bringing these companies in from the shadows.

But there is also a significant downside in many countries. Cash-strapped governments frequently don't pay their bills on time and, in some countries, payment delays of 12 months or even two years are not uncommon. Such delays can seriously compromise the position of a small scale enterprise which – with limited access to formal bank financing – relies critically on cash flow from its clients to sustain its business. A six month delay in receiving payment on a contract can easily put a small firm out of business.

Managing sudden stops

Poonam Gupta's picture

The recent reversal of capital flows to emerging markets has pointed to the continuing relevance of the sudden stop problem when capital inflows dry up abruptly.

In a recent paper  as well as a  Vox column, we analyze these episodes in emerging markets over the past quarter century. We contrast their incidence, impact, correlates, and policy response before and after 2002, and establish similarities as well as differences.

Blog post of the month: What is the serious conservative approach to politics?

Sina Odugbemi's picture

Each month People, Spaces, Deliberation shares the blog post that generated the most interest and discussion. In May 2016, the featured blog post is "What is the serious conservative approach to politics?" by Sina Odugbemi.

The word ‘conservative’ has lost all meaning these days, which is both sad and depressing. It is now used as short hand for all manner of romantic reactionaries (who want to go back to some Golden Age), bigots, racists, obscurantists, buffoons, and carnival barkers. Yet modern conservatism is a serious and intelligent approach to politics espoused by some of the finest and deepest minds in the history of political thought. I always say that when I studied political philosophy in graduate school I went into my studies as a political liberal, and while a came out more convinced of the justness and soundness of liberal constitutional democracy, the thinkers that had impressed me the most were mainly conservative political philosophers, particularly David Hume, Edmund Burke, Joseph de Maistre and James Madison. An encounter with these minds is a bracing experience. You do not survive it without your mental architecture being somewhat rearranged.

In what follows, I will attempt a restatement of modern (because it is also, like liberalism, a product of the Enlightenment) conservative political thought as I understand it, and try to indicate why I deeply respect this approach to social and political challenges even if I don’t always agree with it.

Healthy living for healthy societies and stronger economies

Bassam Sebti's picture

The cigarette puffs surrounded the 18-month-old boy as he stood next to his chain-smoking grandparents in the living room, while a 3-year-old girl fetched a can of Pepsi-Cola from the fridge in the kitchen. Just across in the dining area, a 7-month-old boy was being fed a creamy, sugary, chocolate cake, while a bunch of other kids were playing “house” in the front yard by actually eating unlimited number of chocolate bars, cake, and chips while drinking soda.

I could not believe my eyes. Observing these behaviors as a parent myself, it seemed like I was watching the slow death and diseases haunting these children for the rest of their lives.

It has always been like this, but I had never noticed it until I moved out of Iraq and became a parent. I grew up in a place where the unhealthy lifestyle was not a major concern. There are many other, more pressing concerns people there tend to worry about — and rightfully so — than what they eat and drink.

However, what people in my war-torn home country may not realize is that it’s not only car bombs that can kill them. Cigarettes, junk food, and soda can too.

Plain packaging & tobacco taxes: an antidote for manipulation and deception

Patricio V. Marquez's picture


For 2016's World No Tobacco Day, celebrated today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) are calling on countries to get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products.  Why, may you ask? 

Three must-haves to improve services for the bottom 40 percent

Hana Brixi's picture
Community at discussion of water supply and sanitation. Kaski, Nepal.
Photo: © Simone D. McCourtie / World Bank

Improving services for the bottom 40 percent of the population requires more than policy reforms and capacity building. The Inclusive Growth conference suggested that Bank operations may need to further encourage transparency of state performance, help internalize citizen feedback in the public sector, and empower local leaders to experiment and inspire others.
 
What will it take to engage citizens as a force toward improving services for the bottom 40 percent? 

In the session, “How to Make Services Work for the Bottom 40 Percent ”, Robin Burgess, Stuti Khemani, Jakob Svensson, drawing on their recent research, showed that quality services and prosperity requires citizen action to incentivize politicians and public servants.

Real-time data as an early warning signal

Fida Rana's picture

The risks inherent in public-private partnerships (PPPs) are real. These long-term projects require substantial investment: typically, PPP project funding structures constitute 70 to 80 percent debt, with the remaining coming from equity sources. Because of the nature of these projects, their loan repayment profile demands a longer tenor. In a practical sense, once lenders start disbursing funds to a PPP, the loans could remain on their balance sheet for around 20 years. This is a typical scenario.

For such prolonged engagement in PPP projects, lenders’ ability to monitor the project during the construction and operation phase becomes critical. The approach to monitoring we’ve been offered so far serves its purpose up to a point, but promising developments in real-time data monitoring have the potential to serve as effective early warning signals—assuring the success of a PPP in ways that could revolutionize certain sectors.


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