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The aim of this report is to provide a broad overview of the current state of gender equality in Tajikistan. While the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region traditionally surpassed many other regions in terms of gender equality, this advantage has been eroding in recent decades. Particularly in Tajikistan, concerns have been raised that men and women have unequally born the consequences of economic, political, and social transitions after independence in 1991. The report examines several dimensions of gender equality both quantitatively and qualitatively. Tajikistan has set up a legal framework that enshrines principles of equality and non-discrimination, but better implementation results require continued efforts. Prevailing social norms and patriarchal systems of decision-making limit women s ability to make effective choices be it at home or at work. The paper is structured along the following lines. The first section introduces the idea of agency that will remain an important issue throughout the report. This is followed by an analysis of disparities in human capital endowment, including health and education. Gender gaps in the Tajik labor market and entrepreneurial activities of men and women are discussed in the fourth and fifth section. The final section concludes with some policy recommendations that might be beneficial for discussions among policy-makers, civil society actors, and development partners.

The Government of Jordan, the World Bank Group (WBG), and the international community are working towards a paradigm shift in their collective response to the refugee crisis - a holistic approach which stresses the continuum between the humanitarian response and the country’s development agenda. In parallel, Jordan’s implicit social contract by which the state provided citizens with jobs and heavily subsidized public services is evolving. strategic engagement, the WBG will adopt a two-pronged approach aimed at simultaneously addressing Jordan’s immediate needs in view of the fluid and worsening regional situation while keeping a medium and long-term development commitment built on reforming the economy to create the right environment for inclusive, job-creating growth. The first pillar of the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) aims to foster the conditions for stronger private-sector-led growth and better employment opportunities for all.The second pillar of the CPF aims to improve the quality and equity of service delivery, including through private sector solutions.The CPF will implement the new Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Strategy at the country level.The CPF aligns with the Government’s vision Jordan 2025, the Executive Development Plan 2016-2018 (EDP), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).The CPF’s principles of engagement will be selectivity, flexibility, adaptability and partnership. The outlook for 2016 forecasts growth at three percent on account of a growing mining and quarrying sector, some energy investments, and base effect of the tourism and construction sectors, although some downside risks have begun to materialize in early 2016.

The Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Montene gro covers the period from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2020 (fiscal years 2016-2020). This CPF builds on the results and lessons of the previous World Bank Group (WBG) Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), which originally covered the period July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2014, and was subsequently extended to June 30, 2015.The one-year CPS) extension was intended to provide greater clarity on the country’s medium-term macro-fiscal framework as a basis for the new CPF, and to give additional time to make progress on improving environmental management, a key pillar of the CPS. The new CPF seeks to address the top priorities identified by the recently completed Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) as those that Montenegro needs to most urgently tackle to advance in its path towards shared prosperity and sustainable development. The CPF will selectively support Montenegro’s development agenda outlined in the Montenegro Development Directions (MDD) 2015-2018, Economic Reform program (ERP) 2015-2017 and the Montenegro European Union (EU) Accession Program 2014-17. The WBG strategy will continue to support, and be aligned with, Montenegro’s EU accession and integration process. The formulation of the new CPF benefitted from extensive consultations held in October 2015 and in January and March 2016, and involving several line ministries, municipalities, civil society, academia, and private sector across various regions of the country, as well as representatives of the international development community. The resulting proposal for engagement under the FY16-20 CPF reflects a broad consensus of a wide range of stakeholders and a shared understanding of development priorities and challenges facing the country.

Haiti's economic development has been held back by a history of civil conflict and violence. With donor assistance declining from its exceptional levels following the 2010 earthquake, and concessional financing growing scarce, Haiti must learn to live with tighter budget constraints. At the same time, the United Nations forces that have provided security in the past decade are scaling down. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the conditions under which public spending can minimize violent conflict, and draws possible lessons for Haiti. Drawing on an empirical analysis of 148 countries over the period 1960-2009, simulations for Haiti suggest that increases in military spending would be associated with a higher risk of conflict, an observation in line with Haiti's own history. Greater welfare expenditure (education, health, and social assistance), by contrast, would be associated with lower risk of conflict.

This program document presents the World Bank Group (WBG) FY17-22 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Bulgaria. The timing of the new CPF follows the preparation of theSystematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) prepared in FY15, and informs the areas and objectives ofthe CPF in support of the WBG’s twin goals to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity1 for the bottom forty percent of the population. The CPF proposes to focus WBG support in selective areas aligned with the SCD, in response to clear Government demand, supporting and complementing Bulgaria’s European Union agenda, and reflecting the WBG’s comparative advantage. In addition, the CPF applies two key principles for engagement, including: (i) realism, recognizing that the WBG plays a selective role and that it will contribute most effectively by being strategic and catalytic in supporting key elements of Bulgaria’s development agenda, and (ii) scalability, creating opportunities to engage in dialogue and analytical work that may create space for broader engagement in areas where there is potential for transformational impact, including IFC investments in private sector development. Government demand is focused primarily on the agenda to strengthen public institutions, notably in the financial and energy sectors. The WBG will complement that focus by investing its own resources to stay engaged in the inclusion agenda, which is critical to the WBG twin goals. CPF proposes to cover a six year period, with Progress Learning Reviews (PLRs) will facilitate a more proactive approach to monitoring results and ensure close alignment with the country-led strategy.

The Malawi Urbanization Review aims to provide fresh perspectives on urbanization in Malawi, by analyzing the current and potential contribution of urbanization to long-term national development and the current institutional and financial capacity of local governments to manage the process. Analyses presented in this report are particularly timely as Malawi is planning for the coming half decade through the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III (2016-2020). Malawi is urbanizing at a moderate rate and has a good chance of proactively managing the urbanization process. Opportunities may arise from a positive structural change that Malawi’s economy is undergoing, whereby the driver of growth and job creation moves from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors. Faster urbanization, with strong linkages with rural areas, can contribute further to deepening such structural change. To unlock the potential of urbanization as a catalyst for long-term economic development, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of urban local governments to generate revenues and meet the key infrastructure and service needs in urban areas, which remain challenging even at the current rate of urbanization.

Studies on the link between financial development and poverty have been inconclusive. Some claim that deeper financial sectors should improve the allocation of capital by allowing entrepreneurs greater access to finance, which should particularly favor the poor. Others argue that improvements in the financial system primarily benefit the rich and politically connected. The literature has also been ambiguous about the channels through which finance may be associated with lower poverty (deposits versus credit). Looking at a sample of 37 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1992 through 2006, the paper suggests that financial deepening is associated with lower poverty through different channels depending on the strength of property rights. In the absence of well-defined and enforced property rights, wider access to saving and risk-sharing instruments is accompanied by a reduction in poverty. Only once property rights grow stronger is credit associated with lower poverty.

In Latin America, labor markets have been the main channel through which growth has reduced poverty, with higher labor income accounting for 49 percent of the reduction in poverty in 2008–13. Understanding labor markets is critical to designing policies and programs aimed at reducing poverty. With close to 70 percent of the population under age 30 years, labor markets are bound to be central to defining Haiti's future. Yet, labor analysis in Haiti has been constrained by the dearth of data and the focus on measuring the impact of the 2010 earthquake. This present paper contributes to filling this gap by providing an overview of Haiti's labor markets and the determinants of labor income over a decade, focusing on growing urban areas. The paper also contributes to the research on Haiti in general, as well as labor markets in fragile countries such as Haiti, in particular through an unprecedented effort to harmonize three household surveys conducted between 2001 and 2012. Building on this exercise, the study provides new insights into the development of labor markets in a particularly turbulent decade for Haiti, one that was marked by the political crisis of 2004 and the earthquake of 2010. In spite of the earthquake, the analysis shows that Haiti’s labor markets are characterized by continuity over the period. Somewhat surprisingly, the defining features remain overall unchanged in spite of the shock, pointing to heavy forces shaping economic and labor dynamics.

In recent years, Turkey has been host to more than two million Syrians seeking refuge. Initially concentrated in the southeastern regions, these refugees now reside throughout the country. There are many questions from policy makers regarding the impact of the population of Syrians Under Temporary Protection on the host community. This paper examines the impact of migrants on regional host communities from a poverty perspective. The paper does not find any negative impacts on poverty for the host community from the increasing population of Syrians Under Temporary Protection as of 2013, despite the high poverty rates experienced among the recent migrants.

This study examines the determinants of adolescent sexual behavior and fertility in Nigeria, with a special focus on knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of adolescents aged 10-19 years old in Karu Local Government Authority (LGA), a peri-urban area near the capital city of Abuja. Using the last three waves of Demographic and Health Surveys (2003, 2008, 2013), focus group discussions, stakeholder interviews, and a specialized survey of 643 girls and boys aged 10-19 years old in Karu LGA, the study narrows in on key challenges to and opportunities for improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes. The national median age at sexual debut for adolescent girls and boys is between 15 and 16 years of age. This is closely emulated in Karu LGA with a median age of 14.8 years for girls and 15.3 years for boys. While data on pregnancies was limited in the Karu sample, DHS data show that for girls, sexual debut is closely associated with marriage or cohabitation, which in turn is a strong predictor of adolescent fertility. Poverty is another strong predictor, with the odds of becoming pregnant being twice as high for adolescents in the lower wealth quintiles compared to their counterparts in the richest quintile in the country. While adolescents’ knowledge of contraception has increased from under 10 percent to over 30 percent, use of health services among adolescents for SRH (and contraception) is limited due to factors such as fear of stigma, embarrassment, and poor access to services, something also emphasized in focus group discussions. Challenges for improving adolescent SRH outcomes relate to: (i) the paucity of data, especially on the 10-14 year olds; (ii) availability and access to youth-friendly services and the Family Life and HIV Education (FLHE); (iii) reaching out-of-school adolescents with SRH information; and (iv) addressing ambiguities and gaps in Federal law and customs on age at marriage, and generating support for the legal age at marriage of at least 18 years old. Addressing these barriers at the State and sub-regional levels is going to be critical in improving adolescent well-being.

This paper analyzes the effects of land market restrictions on the rural labor market outcomes for women. The existing literature emphasizes two mechanisms through which land restrictions can affect the economic outcomes: the collateral value of land, and (in) security of property rights. Analysis of this paper focuses on an alternative mechanism where land restrictions increase costs of migration out of villages. The testable prediction of collateral effect is that both wages and labor force participation move in the same direction, and insecurity of property rights reduces labor force participation and increases wages. In contrast, if land restrictions work primarily through higher migration costs, labor force participation increases, while wages decline. For identification, this paper exploits a natural experiment in Sri Lanka where historical malaria played a unique role in land policy. This paper provides robust evidence of a positive effect of land restrictions on womens labor force participation, but a negative effect on female wages. The empirical results thus contradict a collateral or insecure property rights effect, but support migration costs as the primary mechanism.

A range of reasons is cited to explain gender differences in business performance in Africa. Within those, the sector of operations is consistently identified as a major issue. This paper uses a mixed methods approach to assess how women entrepreneurs in Uganda start (and strive) operating firms in male-dominated sectors, and what hinders other women from doing so. The study finds that women who cross over into male-dominated sectors make as much as men, and three times more than women who stay in female-dominated sectors. The paper examines a set of factors to explain the differences in sector choices, and finds that there is a problem of information about opportunities in male-dominated industries. The analysis also concludes that psychosocial factors, particularly the influence of male role models and exposure to the sector from family and friends, are critical in helping women circumvent or overcome the norms that undergird occupational segregation.

Despite progress in economic and social development in the 2000s, there was an increasing dissatisfaction with life among the population of many developing Arab countries. At the end of the decade, these countries ranked among the least happy economies in the world—a situation that fits the so-called “unhappy development” paradox. The paradox is defined as declining levels of happiness at a time of moderate-to-rapid economic development. This paper empirically tests the strength of association of a range of objective and subjective factors with life evaluation in the Middle East and North Africa region in the years immediately preceding the Arab Spring uprisings (2009–10). The findings suggest a significant, negative association between life satisfaction levels in the region during this period and each of the main perceived reasons for the 2011 uprisings—dissatisfaction with the standard of living, poor labor market conditions, and corruption.

Although women’s police centers have been gaining popularity as a measure to address domestic violence, to date no quantitative evaluations of their impacts on the incidence of domestic violence or any other manifestations of gender equality have been done. This paper estimates the effects of women’s police stations in Brazil on female homicides, as a measure of the most severe form of domestic violence. Given that a high fraction of female deaths among women ages 15 to 49 years can be attributed to aggression by an intimate partner, female homicides appear the best available proxy for severe domestic violence considering the scarcity of data on domestic violence. The paper uses a panel of 2,074 municipalities and takes advantage of the gradual rollout of women’s police stations from 2004 to 2009, to estimate the effect of establishing a women’s police station on the municipal female homicide rate. Although the analysis does not find an association on average, women’s police stations appear to be highly effective among some groups of women: women living in metropolitan areas and younger women. Establishing a women’s police station in a metropolitan municipality is associated with a reduction in the homicide rate by 1.23 deaths per 100,000 women (which roughly amounts to a 17 percent reduction in the average homicide rate in metropolitan municipalities). The reduction in the homicide rate of women ages 15 to 24 is even higher: 5.57 deaths per 100,000 women. Qualitative work suggests that better economic opportunities and less traditional social norms in metropolitan areas may explain the heterogeneous impacts of women’s police stations in metropolitan areas and outside them.

This study examines the long-term impacts of international migration by comparing immigrants who had successful ballot entries in a migration lottery program, and first moved almost a decade ago, with people who had unsuccessful entries into those same ballots. The long-term gain in income is found to be similar in magnitude to the gain in the first year, despite migrants upgrading their education and changing their locations and occupations. This results in large, sustained benefits to the migrants’ immediate family, who have substantially higher consumption, durable asset ownership, savings, and dietary diversity. In contrast, the study finds no measureable impact on extended family.

New qualitative fieldwork in eight countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) indicates that the dramatic declines in poverty in much of the region over the last decade do not appear to be registering very favorably with men and women on the ground. This paper provides a gender analysis of findings from equal numbers of sex-specific focus groups with employed and jobless individuals. The methodology featured a standardized package of semi-structured data collection tools, which enabled systematic comparative analysis of the datasets from 37 urban and rural communities across eight countries in the region. While lack of jobs and the rising cost of living are central concerns for both women and men across the sample, the qualitative data highlights important gender differences in how men and women are responding to these challenges that quantitative survey approaches appear to miss. Throughout the sample, women are widely reported to be doing everything they can to pull their households out of poverty or to maintain their families in the middle class, while men voice deep frustration with their weak economic opportunities and the need for additional household members to contribute economically. Women’s increased economic participation in the face of men’s hardships with breadwinning - and the stress on gender roles and relations that this entails - are crucial for making sense of frustrations on the ground despite the region’s significant social and economic development.

Using a new and representative data set of Chinese household finance, this paper documents household access to and costs of finance, along with their correlates. As in most developing countries, informal finance is a crucial element of household finance, and wealth tends to be associated with better access to formal and informal finance. Better financial knowledge shifts loan portfolios toward formal sources relative to informal ones. Connections to the Communist Party are associated with significantly better access to finance in rural areas but not in urban areas. A larger social network is positively associated with access to informal finance. Controlling for household characteristics, rural residents pay interest rates on loans similar to urban residents. Younger residents pay higher rates, while households on firmer economic footing face lower rates. Taking financial classes and college education is associated with higher interest rates for urban residents, suggesting perhaps that financial knowledge coincides with greater demand for credit in areas with more economic opportunity. Overall, the findings suggest that Chinese residents face dual credit markets, with the poor, young, those with poor financial knowledge, and those with larger family sizes relying much more on informal finance, while others are better able to access formal finance.

In July 2013, the World Bank Group launched its Strategy, outlining how it will partner more effectively with clients to help them achieve the ambitious goals of eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity through economic growth, inclusion, sustainability and resilience. In April 2014, the World Bank Group Corporate Scorecard was launched for the first time and the World Bank Scorecard revised to monitor the implementation of the strategy. The World Bank Group Scorecard provides view of the results and performance indicators of the three World Bank Group institutions: the World Bank (WB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). This brochure presents the scorecards, updated with the latest data available in fiscal year 2015. The scorecards are structured in three tiers. A tier one and two presents indicators monitoring aspects of growth, inclusiveness, and sustainability and resilience. Tier three captures the progress in implementing the World Bank Group strategy and includes measures of both operational and organizational effectiveness.

The six countries of South East Europe (SEE6) are aging fast and catching up with developed economies that are already far advanced in the aging process. Low fertility rates are reducing working-age populations across the SEE6. The adverse SEE6 demographic dynamic is aggravated by emigration. In the absence of any policy and behavioral responses or changes in labor productivity, and where population aging reflects solely declining overall labor force participation rates, aging itself would be expected to negatively impact economic growth. Boosts in productivity are one of the key ways to counterbalance potential negative effects of aging on economic growth. Changes in both individual and business behavior supported by policies that increase quality of human capital and encourage labor force participation can help seize the opportunities and mitigate the adverse effects of an aging population.

This snapshot provides an overview of financial inclusion trends and challenges in Tunisia. It follows the recent expiration of the Coordinated Vision for the Development of Microfinance in Tunisia 2011-2014, national strategy published in 2011.

Five years into Haiti’s reconstruction following the devastating earthquake of 2010, the country is experiencing an economic and a political transition. Although many challenges brought by the earthquake remain to be fully addressed, Haiti’s focus has shifted from reconstruction to longer term development and to securing a more prosperous future for its people. This World Bank Group (WBG) Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for FY2016-2019 proposes to support Haiti’s efforts to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity, in line with the priorities of the Government of Haiti. This CPF follows two Interim Strategy Notes (ISNs), which framed the WBG’s significant post-earthquake response over the FY2012-2015 period, financed by an exceptional allocation from the IDA 16 Crisis Response Window (US$500M equivalent). Over this period a substantially expanded WBG program supported reconstruction. However, the program was also designed to continue to help the country address its long term development challenges and capitalize on new opportunities as Haiti gradually transitioned out of the reconstruction phase. Today, a CPF aimed at long-term objectives is appropriate.

Civil war in Syria has resulted in more than four million refugees fleeing the country, of which 1.8 million have found refuge in Turkey, making it the largest refugee-hosting country worldwide. This paper combines newly available data on the 2014 distribution of Syrian refugees across subregions of Turkey with the Turkish Labour Force Survey, to assess the impact on Turkish labor market conditions. Using a novel instrument, the analysis finds that the refugees, who overwhelmingly do not have work permits, result in the large-scale displacement of informal, low-educated, female Turkish workers, especially in agriculture. While there is net displacement, the inflow of refugees also creates higher-wage formal jobs, allowing for occupational upgrading of Turkish workers. Average Turkish wages have increased primarily as the composition of the employed has changed because of the inflow of refugees.

Myanmar is a country in transition with great regional diversity. It is still a relatively young country with the highest share of its population at active working age. Myanmar’s more pressing needs are the following: a) reducing the incidence of poverty and improving human development outcomes, with a particular emphasis on reaching the poor and vulnerable. Children from poor families fare worse when it comes to nutrition, and education outcomes; and b) addressing the insecurity of incomes and developing mechanisms to reduce exposure to risks and ability to cope with ill-health, disasters and other shocks. This suggests a critical role for social protectionpolicies and programs in Myanmar’s strategy for poverty reduction and people-centered development.

Poverty estimates based on enumeration from a single point in time form the cornerstone for much of the literature on poverty. Households are typically interviewed once about their consumption or income, and their wellbeing is assessed from their responses. Global estimates of poverty that aggregate poverty counts from all countries implicitly assume that the counts are comparable. This paper illustrates that this assumption of comparability is potentially invalid when households are interviewed multiple times with repeat visits throughout the year. The paper provides an example from Jordan, where the internationally comparable approach of handling the data from repeat visits yields a poverty rate that is 26 percent greater than the rate that is currently reported as the official estimate. The paper also explores alternative definitions of poverty, informed in part by the psychological and biophysical literature on the long-run effects of short-term exposure to poverty or generally adverse environments. This alternative concept of poverty suggests that the prevalence of those who have been affected by poverty in Jordan during 2010 is more than twice as large as the official 2010 estimate of poverty.

The Government of Colombia (GoC) has identified teenage pregnancy as a priority issue. The current strategic framework to address teenage pregnancy in Colombia is outlined in the CONPES 147, effective from February 2012 until March 2014. The CONPES 147 establishes a multi-sectoral framework that aims to address the determining factors of teenage pregnancy within Colombia (Box 1). The national strategy outlined in the CONPES 147 was piloted in 192 municipalities for youth ages 10 through 19. Building on this strategy, the Commission for the Guarantee of Sexual and Reproductive Rights is developing a new framework to guide the government’s policy and activities to address this important policy issue in the coming years. Parallel to its work on teenage pregnancy, the GoC released a national strategic framework to generate opportunities for Colombian youth in July 2014. The note includes an overview of the WDR 2012 gender equality framework and World Bank regional study on teenage pregnancy; outlines the Colombian country context with regard to gender equality and youth labor market outcomes; reviews interventions that develop life skills; and highlights how these interventions might be relevant to the GoC policies and programs related to teenage pregnancy prevention (CONPES 147) and youth labor (CONPES 173).

This paper defines economic inclusion as the ability of all people, including the disadvantaged, to share in economic gains, that is, the conditions that allow for broadly shared prosperity. Beyond the “right” to access consumption in cities, and beyond relatively standardized safety net policies that support economic security, inclusion demands intentional, flexible, context-appropriate strategies aimed at shifting the dynamics of local land and labor markets, public education, and other institutions. The paper analyzes the varied contexts for designing and supporting such strategies in a rapidly changing society, where urban regions have long been critical to incorporating a broad cross-section of people, including immigrant newcomers. Four dimensions are particularly crucial: an urban area’s level of economic growth, the quality of its jobs, its demographic profile, and its geography of opportunity (degree and form of spatial inequality). Economic inclusion is particularly urgent in America’s strongest local markets, which are pricing out the lowest-wage workers and showing a disturbing tendency to import rather than grow the talent needed for the emerging, innovation-driven economy. But weak-market regions face important challenges—and a range of options for leveraging demographic and other changes—as well. And for now, in all types of cities, innovative and promising strategies remain small in scale, in part because they are competing for support with entrenched, underperforming systems.

China has used two main spatial policies to shape its geographic patterns of development: restricted labor mobility through the Hukou residential registration system and massive infrastructure investment, notably a 96,000 kilometer national expressway network. This paper develops a structural new economic geography model to examine the impacts of these policies. Fitting the model to available data allows simulating counterfactual scenarios comparing each policy’s respective impact on regional economic development and urbanization patterns across China. The results suggest large overall economic benefits from constructing the national expressway network and abolishing the Hukou system. Yet, the spatial impacts of the two policies are very different. The construction of the national expressway network reinforced existing urbanization patterns. The initially lagging regions not connected to the network have not benefitted much from its construction. By contrast, removal of the Hukou restrictions, which Chinese policy makers are considering, would result in much more widespread welfare gains, allowing everyone to gain by moving to where he or she is most productive. Removal of the Hukou restrictions would also promote urbanization in currently lagging (inland) regions, mostly by stimulating rural to urban migration.

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and one of the most densely populated in the world. El Salvador is among the countries most affected by weather-related events and other hazards, incurring annual losses of around 2.5 percent of GDP. Worldwide, it ranks second highest for risk exposure to two or more hazards and highest for the total population at a relatively high risk of mortality. Furthermore, climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of weather, related events. The new Administration is committed to making El Salvador more ‘productive, educated, and safe’ by promoting inclusive growth and resilience. The World Bank Group’s (WBG) proposed new CPF intends to promote inclusive growth and to foster resilience, with a focus on policy levers that could contribute to break the vicious circles in a sustainable manner. The proposed CPF is aligned with the Government’s priorities and informed by the WBG’s recent SCD. To strengthen the mutually-reinforcing foundations of inclusive growth, the proposed WBG engagement would support objectives which seek to: (i) build capacity to create safer communities for economic development; (ii) improve secondary-school attainment; (iii) enhance youth employability and skills; and (iv) increase access to finance. To foster sustainability and resilience, the proposed CPF seeks to: (v) promote the efficiency of public spending; and (vi) build capacity to manage disasters and environmental challenges. Taking into account the challenges faced by El Salvador, the WBG wishes to provide a modest but catalytic role through the implementation of these six objectives.

This note presents an overview of the Albanian labor market, and initial insights into the challenges for inclusive and better quality jobs. The note does not intend to be comprehensive, but rather aims at compiling – under an integrative jobs umbrella and the regional framework on jobs – some of the available data and evidence on the Albanian jobs challenge, part of which was prepared for the Albania Systematic Country Diagnostic of the World Bank. By employing the regional report’s framework, the note can guide the Government, development partners, civil society and other stakeholders in identifying the many knowledge gaps that remain for a comprehensive jobs agenda and the work needed towards completing the picture.

The Country Partnership Framework (CPF) will succeed the Myanmar interim strategy note (FY13-14) and be the first full country strategy for Myanmar since 1984. This CPF comes at a time of great opportunity for Myanmar; over the three year period covered in this CPF, the reforms initiated in 2011 have the potential to bring Myanmar into a new era of peace and prosperity. Myanmar s history, ethnic diversity, and geography combine into a unique set of development challenges and opportunities, including (i) emergence from a long period of international isolation; (ii) widespread poverty, despite rich land, water, and mineral resource endowments; (iii) a strategic location in the fastest-growing region in the world; (iv) the role of the military and associated groups in the economy; and (v) long standing armed conflict and ethnic and religious tensions. Myanmar is on a path of fundamental transformation, seeking to address all these challenges and opportunities simultaneously. Along with unique opportunities, the CPF supported program will also face substantial risks. Political risks associated with the elections in late 2015 include a polarization among stakeholders, policy discontinuity, and a slow-down of reforms. The national peace process to resolve decades-old conflicts remains fragile. On the economic front, risks include vulnerability to volatile oil and gas prices, spending pressures, an underdeveloped financial sector, and a weak regulatory framework, while overall capacity constraints may limit the country s ability to effectively manage macro-financial shocks. The design of the WBG program will help manage and mitigate these risks, and the WBG will regularly review risks and opportunities and adapt the CPF during implementation as warranted. A performance and learning review planned for late FY16 will facilitate the adaptation of the WBG program to country developments as needed.

Panama's economic growth has been at the top of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region in recent years. The country s rapid growth has been largely pro-poor and translated into significant poverty reduction. The new Administration is well placed to tackle these challenges, with its commitment to maintaining an open and diversified economy and redressing social imbalances. Looking ahead, the country s main challenges are to maintain the current growth performance and ensure that its benefits are extended to all. The World Bank Group s (WBG) new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) seeks to support Panama s continued high growth, while ensuring inclusion and opportunities for marginalized groups, and bolstering resilience and sustainability. These themes are highlighted as priorities in the Government s 2014-2019 Strategic Development Plan (SDP) and in the WBG s Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD). The CPF seeks to maximize over a six-year period, the comparative advantages of the WBG, through packages of innovative public and private financing options based on cutting edge global knowledge and experience.

This report presents to the Government of Georgia (GoG) an analysis of the implications of potential policy changes to internally displaced person (IDP) assistance. A pressing question for policy makers in Georgia is the sustainability of status-based IDP assistance and what efforts can be made to tailor this assistance to favor the poor and vulnerable. Elimination of the IDP benefit has been subject to debate among policymakers. The World Bank has worked with the government to support improvements to the socioeconomic situation of IDPs in Georgia since 2008. The IDP Community Development Project, implemented between 2009-2012 improved service delivery, infrastructure, and livelihoods in over 40 IDP communities. Evidence on the socio-economic needs of IDPs has been collected by both government and donors; yet no comprehensive research has been conducted to critically compare their situation to that of the overall population. The objective of this research is to generate more evidence on the significance of the IDP benefit, and consequences that may be expected if this benefit is removed, in order to inform future policy decisions of the GoG in this regard. The report examines: (i) the policy and institutional framework and considerations that may support or obstruct a shift in IDP assistance; (ii) quantitative evidence on the socio-economic situation of IDPs as compared to non-IDPs in Georgia; and (iii) qualitative evidence on the significance of the IDP benefit, attitudes towards the benefit program, and vulnerabilities that may arise from its potential elimination. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for mitigating negative poverty and social impacts, should the government pursue a decision to remove the IDP benefit program.

This Fifth Edition of the Uganda Economic Update presents evidence that if the urbanization process is well managed, it has the potential to stimulate economic growth and to provide productive jobs for a greater proportion of Uganda s young and rapidly expanding population. In many countries across the world, the growth of cities has stimulated the establishment and expansion of productive businesses by reducing the distance between suppliers and customers. The growth of cities has also facilitated provision of social services and infrastructure through economies of scale. These positive effects from urbanization are already visible in Uganda since the poverty rate is seven percentage points lower in urban areas than in rural areas. Most of the recent job creation is found in cities, and social indicators are also better in urban areas, especially in education and health. This report conveys the following key messages: (1) over the past 12 years, the number of people living in Uganda s urban areas has been increasing by an average of 300,000 people per year, (2) during the past few decades, similarly rapid rates of urbanization have been recorded in many emerging countries, (3) as is the case in many other developing countries, the prospects of good jobs, higher incomes and better living conditions in the cities continue to attract Ugandans from rural areas, (4) currently, the opportunity presents itself for Uganda to leverage urbanization to benefit a large proportion of the population, and (5) through the implementation of smart policies, Uganda can ensure that its cities are both competitive and livable.

Gender inequality and related issues remain a major global challenge, particularly for developing countries. Despite considerable progress on gender equality over recent decades, key gender gaps remain in endowments (health and education), in access to jobs and economic opportunities, and in voice and agency. Lack of data limits ability to assess gender gaps and measure progress toward eliminating them. Successfully addressing the incompleteness of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems can help fill some of these vital data gaps. In addition, having official personal identification (ID) is an important stepping-stone for women and girls - enabling them to access services, claim their entitlements as citizens, and increase their voice and agency through participation in voting and other politics. Global initiatives such as identification for development (ID4D) promote opportunities to provide women with access to foundational documentation such as birth certificates and expansion of other ways to establish their legal identity. In addition, better data resulting from personal identity registration will advance gender equality policy discussions and planning. This paper examines rates of male and female registration for national identities globally to identify key registration constraints and gaps. The authors find no systematic evidence of gender-based gaps in birth registration; rather, evidence suggests that poverty, social exclusion, and geography may constrain birth registration of both males and females. Drawing on case studies and national-level data, the authors next examine outcomes in specific policy areas: access to financial services, access to social protection schemes, and inclusion in electoral roles and voting. Here, the evidence suggests, adult women face gender-specific barriers in getting ID, sometimes related to inability to obtain foundational documentation such as birth certificates.

The year 2015 is pivotal in international development. In the lead-up to 2000, the global community came together at various conferences to agree on, for the first time in known history, shared development goals. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set 18 targets that were aimed at significantly reducing disease, illiteracy, gender inequality, hunger, and poverty, and improving access to water and sanitation by 2015. Leading up to this point where the era of the MDGs concludes, progress has been monitored and discussions started well ahead of this momentous year to define and meet the more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), building on and bringing to fruition what has been started under the MDG agenda. Much progress has been made toward achieving the MDGs. The world reached the poverty reduction target five years ahead of schedule, and progress has been reported in a number of other areas. However, considerable challenges remain: even while declaring success on MDG1, roughly a billion people remained in poverty. A large number of MDG targets will not be met by the end of 2015, and progress remains uneven among the different countries. Moreover, new challenges to progress are emerging deriving from natural and manmade calamities. To deliver on the twin goals and the post-2015 agenda, the Bank Group would benefit from a clearly articulated role, approach, and expected contribution to the SDGs, both externally for enhancing partnerships and internally to facilitate prioritization and synergies. As this paper has shown, the World Bank Group works actively in many areas relevant to the SDGs, actually many more than covered here, but various evaluations have pointed to the importance of multi-sector integrated approaches that challenge countries and their partners to find new ways of working. The challenges that the SDGs aim to address, and the SDGs themselves, are complex, and solutions will have to be tailored to context, bring together multiple actors, and benefit from dynamic, constantly adjusted planning and execution that is informed by ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

Internal displacement, rapid growth of urban areas and proliferation of informal settlements are in the spotlight of public policy debate in Afghanistan at present. This pamphlet discusses characteristics, livelihood strategies and vulnerabilities of households living in informal settlements in three urban centers in Afghanistan. These findings summarize the analysis from a joint World Bank-UNHCR ‘research study on IDPs in urban settings’, which illustrates the complexities of displacement and of urban informal settlement growth. Motivated by an existing knowledge gap on these issues, the analysis provides a starting point for discussion among actors directly or indirectly involved with management of problems related to displacement and urban informal settlements, including departments in the Government of Afghanistan, international institutions and stakeholders from civil society. The study documents the significance of displacement as a factor underlying vulnerabilities observed in informal settlements, and identifies IDPs as an extremely deprived segment of the population, even in comparison to the profile of urban poverty in the recent national risk and vulnerability assessment.

Africa’s population is young and growing at twice the pace of other continents. A youth bulge presents a series of development policy opportunities and challenges. In this context, simplistic linkages between the youth bulge, high unemployment, and fragility have gained traction and given rise to a youth policy agenda that targets urban male youth as the problem and emphasizes formal sector development as the solution. This paper questions some of the core assumptions that underpin mainstream perceptions of the linkages between youth, employment, and fragility in West Africa, and presents an alternative analysis. The study will use the language of livelihoods to reflect on youth employment experiences, as livelihoods take into account the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources), and activities required for a means of living beyond traditional ideas of employment, and thus enable a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of the realities of many young West Africans. The paper argues that a nuanced understanding of specific groups of young people and their livelihood activities in their specific social, cultural, political, and economic context is necessary to understand how young peoples’ lives intersect with fragility dynamics. The paper aims to highlight that the relationship between youth, unemployment, underemployment, livelihoods, and fragility is far more complex than is often recognized and should not be exaggerated or taken out of context.

The development community is increasingly accepting the importance of evidence, feedback, and learning. Some of which is generated through research, monitoring, and self-evaluation during policy-making, program design, and implementation. Others come from feedback from people directly affected by interventions who have gained a greater voice, be it through third-party feedback mechanisms, social media, beneficiary surveys, or otherwise. And, there is independent evaluation. At the World Bank Group, the independent evaluation group (IEG) has over the past years deepened the evidence that can help development finance succeed in translating the sustainable development goals (SDGs) into actions and results. This paper brings together insights from a cross-section of relevant evaluations that cover various aspects of the large, multifaceted agenda of the SDGs and their financing needs.

This note aims to provide information and analysis as a basis for a better understanding of the challenges and constraints of achieving gender equality in Bolivia, with a special focus on the intersectionality between gender and ethnicity. Combining and analyzing existing evidence and new data, it seeks to document gender-specific disparities in development outcomes, highlight opportunities and constraints to women’s empowerment, and identify areas in which continuing knowledge gaps are particularly important to understand and address gender inequalities. The analysis in this note suggests that: there is important progress in development outcomes for women, in their access to services and to decision-making spaces; the intersection of gender and ethnicity deepens the gaps in some development outcomes in Bolivia; women feel discriminated against in different aspects of their lives, in particular indigenous women. Not having access to economic opportunities limit women’s agency; and while women with higher levels of agency are able to more fully take advantage of existing opportunities.

Myanmar is going through a critical transformation in its development path - from isolation and fragmentation to openness and integration; and from pervasive state control, exclusion, and individual disengagement, to inclusion, participation, and empowerment. This dual shift is happening against a backdrop of broader political reforms that started in 2011 when a new administration took office. The country’s transition after the planned elections in 2015 will be a major test of the progress on political reforms. There remain risks of political instability, policy discontinuity, and stalled reforms due to vested interests.

This report is structured in three parts. Part one is a summary document, including: (i) an executive summary (ii) an introduction; (iii) a review of core concepts of reintegration that will be referred to in this study; (iv) a meta-analysis of reintegration process¬es in the Great Lakes Region (GLR) vis-à-vis the conceptual discussion; and (v) conclusions to the summary document. Part two (annex one) comprises an in-depth review and analysis of data on the reintegration process-es of ex-combatants across the GLR. Part three (annex two) is an in-depth analysis of community dynamics across the GLR. In brief, part one of the study is a meta-analytical and knowledge-focused piece that reflects more broadly on the detailed analysis of the datasets presented in annexes one and two, therefore, this part can be read as a freestanding report. However, it’s worth noting that any reading will benefit significantly from exploring the detailed findings in annexes one and two.

Starting from the aggregate, this report first describes how Pernambuco has fared with respect to the rest of Brazil, both in terms of economic and social welfare performance, over the last decade (2001-2012). In a context of widespread economic growth, Pernambuco has done particularly well in recent years, similar to or above the national average. A key challenge concerns the longer-term, where – notwithstanding the positive performance of recent years-the same level of growth may not be as easily sustained. The solid economic performance has been reflected in an improvement of social indicators, also associated with the governments interiorizacao strategy, a policy developed explicitly to increase the coverage of public services in underserved areas, with a focus on the interior of the state. The decline in poverty rates displays a trajectory towards convergence with Brazil and recently, a faster than national decline of the Gini has brought Pernambucos income inequality below the national and Northeast level.

The Country Opinion Survey in Macedonia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Macedonia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Macedonia on: 1) their views regarding the general environment in Macedonia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Macedonia; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Macedonia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Macedonia.

Since the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s and through the Global Financial Crisis of the last decade, commendable progress has been made by the member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in improving economic and human development outcomes both within each country and across countries. Since 1997, the economies of the poorest countries in the ASEAN, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, have generally grown faster than the richer economies, which has reduced gaps in per capita incomes. Overall, child mortality rates have been cut by two-thirds across the ASEAN. And significant reductions have occurred even in some of the poorer member countries such as Cambodia and Lao PDR. However, this report The ASEAN Equitable Development Monitor (henceforth referred to as The Monitor), also shows that much remains to be done to ensure that the poorest members of the ASEAN community, within countries and across countries, are not left behind as the countries of the ASEAN integrate further. In both policies and development outcomes, differences across the countries of the ASEAN remain large. In this context, the monitor is designed to facilitate further discussion on policies and programs that can promote inclusive growth within ASEAN member countries and across the ASEAN community. It presents a number of indicators that are intended to provide a summary of development outcomes across and within the ten ASEAN countries and over time. On this basis, the monitor is intended to help policymakers in ASEAN member states to identify areas of concerns and prioritize national and regional interventions. The monitor tracks indicators across two broad sets of development outcomes and policies: (i) economic development; and (ii) human development.