Bøger udgivet af World Bank Publications

"The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has the undesirable distinction of being the world's most violent region, with 24.7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The magnitude of the problem is staggering and persistent. Of the top 50 most violent cities in the world, 42 are in LAC. In 2010 alone, 142,302 people in LAC fell victim to homicide, representing 390 homicides per day and 4.06 homicides every 15 minutes. Crime disproportionately affects young men aged 20 to 24, whose homicide rate of 92 per 100,000 nearly quadruples that of the region. The focus of Crime Prevention in Latin America and the Caribbean is to identify policy interventions that, whether by design or indirect effect, have been shown to affect antisocial behavior early in life and patterns of criminal offending in youth and adults. Particular attention is devoted to recent studies that rigorously establish a causal link between the interventions in question and outcomes. This publication adopts a lifecycle perspective and argues that as individuals progress through different stages of the lifecycle, not only do different sets of risk factors arise and take more prominence, but their interactions and interdependencies shape human behavior. These interactions and the relative importance of different sets of risk factors identify relevant margins that can effectively be targeted by prevention policies, not only early in life, but throughout the lifecycle. Indeed prevention can never start too early, nor start too late, nor be too comprehensive."--Publisher's description

Moving towards universal access to financial services is within reach - thanks to new technologies, transformative business models and ambitious reforms. Such instruments as e-money accounts, along with debit cards and low-cost regular bank accounts, can significantly increase financial access for those who are now excluded. The purpose of this publication is to learn the lessons of success from 4 country case studies of "Gazelles" - Kenya, Thailand, Sri Lanka and South Africa - that have transformed the landscape of financial access to the poor by successfully enabling the deployment of e-money technology. 2 country case studies (Philippines and Maldives) yield lessons learned from constraints that stalled e-money deployments. Because Technology is not a silver bullet, the case studies explore "What are the other strategic elements that need to be in place in order for a country to guide increased financial access through digital technology?"

Eruptions of Popular Anger: The Economics of the Arab Spring and Its Aftermath sets out to answer three puzzles--the "Arab inequality" puzzle of civil uprisings in countries with low-to-moderate and stagnant economic inequality, the "unhappy development" paradox of increasing dissatisfaction at a time of moderate-to-rapid development, and the paradox of political violence in middle-income countries. The book's empirical investigation rules out high and rising inequality as a reason for the Arab Spring uprisings. It shows that the real problem was the erosion in middle-class incomes and the growing dissatisfaction with the quality of life, the shortage of formal sector jobs, and corruption. Frustration was particularly high among the young, educated, middle-class residents in urban areas. The old social contract, which had delivered development results in the past and under which Arab governments provided public-sector jobs and subsidized services in return for subdued voice, was unsustainable and malfunctioning. The public sector could no longer be the employer of choice, but the private sector did not generate enough formal sector jobs, because of distortions that constrained its growth and policies that offered advantages to a few firms with political connections, limiting competition and private investment. The breakdown in the social contract increased the premium on freedom and created impetus for political change. This report shows that the Arab Spring revolutions and the subsequent spread of violence and civil wars in the post-Arab Spring Middle East and North Africa region can be traced to the broken social contract, institutional weaknesses, and regional divisions in societies polarized along ethnic and sectarian lines. The Arab Spring and its aftermath indicate the need for a new social contract under which governments promote private-sector job creation, design public services in a way that holds providers accountable to beneficiaries, and promote inclusion and good governance.

II faudra, pour atteindre les cibles de nutrition fixees par l' Asssemblee mondiale de la sante en matiere de retard de croissance, danemie chez la femme, d'allaitement matemel exclusif et d'emaciation, proceder a des financ.ements mondiaux de 70 milliards de dollars sur lOans dans des interventions specifiques a la nutrition a fort impact.

Do current stylized facts about African agriculture and rural livelihoods reflect reality? In rapidly-changing and data-scarce environments they risk being outdated and misleading. This report re-examines conventional wisdom about African farmers, from the bottom up and recognising the complexities involved.

Urbanization in East Asia and the Pacific has created enormous opportunity for many. Yet the rapid growth of cities can also create challenges as national and local governments try to keep up with the needs of their growing populations. Among these challenges is a lack of affordable housing, resulting in increasing slums, deficits in basic service provision, and widening inequality for urban dwellers. This study aims to better understand urban poverty and inequality in East Asian cities, recognizing that many countries of the region, particularly those of middle-income status, are at a critical juncture in their urbanization and growth process where potential social divisions in cities could harm prospects for future poverty reduction. The study uses a multidimensional approach to understand urban poverty and inclusion and draws on examples of programs and policies that have been successfully implemented in the East Asia region to develop a set of guiding principles for policy makers.

La Republica Dominicana se destaca por ser una economia en rapido crecimiento que no le ha sido posible generar una reduccion proporcional en la pobreza. Tres razones han sido planteadas anteriormente para explicar esta paradoja: (i) un mercado laboral que no traduce el aumento de la productividad en aumentos salariales; (ii) una economia interna con debiles encadenamientos intersectoriales; (iii) y un sector publico que ni gasta lo suficiente, ni particularmente bien, para reducir la pobreza. Ademas, el pais permanece mayormente expuesto a desastres naturales y choques exogenos que, si no se mitigan adecuadamente, pueden afectar la sostenibilidad del crecimiento a largo y mediano plazos. Esta obra conjuga varios analisis empiricos que exploran tres hipotesis complementarias que podrian ayudar a entender porque la Republica Dominicana, aun hoy, sigue experimentando altas tasas de crecimiento economico con reduccion limitada de la pobreza. La primera hipotesis trata de probar si el patron de rapido crecimiento economico con la pobreza persistente que se observa en la RD lo impulsa en parte una metodologia de la pobreza que no toma en cuenta la variacion de precios que claramente afecta los patrones de consumo de los hogares de ingresos bajo y aquellos de mejor posicion economica. Si se sostiene esa hipotesis, la RD puede enfrentar una situacion en la cual se subestiman los ingresos del hogar con respecto a los hogares en el extremo inferior de la distribucion. La segunda hipotesis intenta validar si el patron de especializacion en la RD podria ser tal que no favorece la mano de obra no calificada. Si se sostiene esa hipotesis, entonces el rendimiento del capital probablemente es mucho mayor que el rendimiento de la mano de obra lo que podria ser un indicio de que la RD ha tenido una ventaja comparativa en productos que son de uso intensivo de capital. La tercera hipotesis investiga si la pobreza y la desigualdad salarial en la RD se ven afectadas no solo por la inmigracion, sino tambien por la emigracion. El aporte del volumen, por tanto, descansa precisamente en ofrecer una exploracion mas cuidadosa de los asuntos especificos que giran en torno a explicaciones comunes para las deficiencias de la RD en reducir la pobreza de manera mas rapida.

Shedding Light on Electricity Utilities in the Middle East and North Africa

Presents new evidence to advance understanding on how rainfall shocks coupled with water scarcity, impacts farms, firms, and families. A key message of this report is that water has multiple economic attributes, each of which entail distinct policy responses.

Despues de casi un cuarto de siglo de implementar reformas de cobertura universal, ha llegado el momenta para hacer un balance de las logros en la region. Este volumen analiza el progreso en la reducci6n de las desigualdades en los resultados de salud, la utilizaci6n de los servicios y la protecci6n financiera.

Electricity shortages are among the biggest barriers to South Asia's development. Some 255 million people--more than a quarter of the world's off-grid population--live in South Asia, and millions of households and firms that are connected experience frequent and long hours of blackouts. Inefficiencies originating in every link of the electricity supply chain contribute significantly to the power deficit. Three types of distortions lead to most of the inefficiencies: institutional distortions caused by state ownership and weak governance; regulatory distortions resulting from price regulation, subsidies, and cross-subsidies; and social distortions (externalities) causing excessive environmental and health damages from energy use. Using a common analytical framework and covering all stages of power supply, In the Dark identifies and estimates how policy-induced distortions have affected South Asian economies. The book introduces two innovations. First, it goes beyond fiscal costs, evaluating the impact of distortions from a welfare perspective by measuring the impact on consumer wellbeing, producer surplus, and environmental costs. And second, the book adopts a broader definition of the sector that covers the entire power supply chain, including upstream fuel supply and downstream access and reliability. The book finds that the full cost of distortions in the power sector is far greater than previously estimated based on fiscal cost alone: The estimated total economic cost is 4-7 percent of the gross domestic product in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Some of the largest costs are upstream and downstream. Few other reforms could quickly yield the huge economic gains that power sector reform would produce. By expanding access to electricity and improving the quality of supply, power sector reform would also directly benefit poor households. The highest payoffs are likely to come from institutional reforms, expansion of reliable access, and the appropriate pricing of carbon and local air pollution emissions.

Provides developing countries with a technical understanding and practical options around oil, gas, and mining sector development issues. A central premise of the Sourcebook is that good technical knowledge can better inform political, economic, and social choices with respect to sector development and the related risks and opportunities.

"This step-by-step guide describes how to systematically capture knowledge gained from operational experiences and use it to inform decision making and support professional learening. It shows how to assemble the captured lessons and takeaways in the form of knowledge assets--discrete and consistently formatted documents that present answers to one specific question or challenge. The guide assumes that the enabling work discussed in the World Bank handbook, Becoming a Knowledge-Sharing Organization, has already taken place. The intended audience for Capturing Solutions for Learning and Scaling Up includes professionals, mid-level managers, knowledge and learning experts, and IT specialists, particularly those in the public sector of developing countries"--Back cover.