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This report responds to a request from the Government of Timor-Leste (GoTL) and Dr. Mari Alkatiri. The request was for World Bank assistance to collaborate on a range of studies relating to opportunities in the special economic zone, including community development, trade and competitiveness, and regional integration. The analysis builds on a situation analysis prepared by the Zona Especial de Economia Social de Mercado (ZEESM) authority in March 2014. The transfer of significant responsibility for Oecusse’s development to the ZEESM authority, reflects a political rapprochement and collaboration between Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and Dr. Alkatiri. The report is in two volumes. Volume one presents an overview of Oecusse’s current state in chapter one with analysis of living standards, economic activity including trade, and current constraints. Chapter two analyzes Oecusse’s phased economic potential through a range of phase one development interventions focusing on agriculture, and considers the pre-requisites for developing an SEZ in Oecusse. Volume two contains more comprehensive background chapters with full analysis of living standards in chapter three, agriculture in chapter four, transport corridor in chapter five, and migration in chapter six.

This report responds to a request from the Government of Timor-Leste (GoTL) and Dr. Mari Alkatiri. The request was for World Bank assistance to collaborate on a range of studies relating to opportunities in the special economic zone, including community development, trade and competitiveness, and regional integration. The analysis builds on a situation analysis prepared by the Zona Especial de Economia Social de Mercado (ZEESM) authority in March 2014. The transfer of significant responsibility for Oecusse’s development to the ZEESM authority, reflects a political rapprochement and collaboration between Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and Dr. Alkatiri. The report is in two volumes. Volume one presents an overview of Oecusse’s current state in chapter one with analysis of living standards, economic activity including trade, and current constraints. Chapter two analyzes Oecusse’s phased economic potential through a range of phase one development interventions focusing on agriculture, and considers the pre-requisites for developing an SEZ in Oecusse. Volume two contains more comprehensive background chapters with full analysis of living standards in chapter three, agriculture in chapter four, transport corridor in chapter five, and migration in chapter six.

This paper examines the spatial organization of jobs in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, and applies the Lucas and Rossi-Hansberg (2002) model to explain the observed patterns in terms of the agglomeration forces and the commuting costs of workers. The paper suggests that: (i) Economic activities are concentrated in the downtown -- beyond which employment is spatially dispersed. (ii) Geographically weighted regressions identify five potential subcenters in 2011; however, none of these contribute significantly to employment. When explaining the variation in employment density across localities in Kampala, the research highlights that (i) density falls by 23.5 percent per kilometer increase in distance from the nearest potential subcenter; (ii) an increase in local production externalities of 10 percent increases density by 3.7 percent; and (iii) production externalities in Kampala's potential subcenters are extremely weak to have any significant impact even on nearby tracts.

This paper examines the effects of market integration on household consumption using data on seven food and two energy markets across South Sudan. The analysis reveals that markets in South Sudan are highly segmented. Price differences for narrowly defined products, across cities exceed in some cases 100 percent. In addition, price volatility increased substantially following the imposition of the trade restrictions with Sudan. This increase tends to hurt disproportionately the poor, who cannot smooth purchasing decisions over time because of liquidity constraints. Transportation costs explain almost half of the variation in food prices across space, and improving the quality of roads has a large potential to reduce prices in the most expensive towns. On the basis of this price effect, the simulations suggest that bringing all road quality across states to that of primary roads can yield a reduction in poverty from the rate of 51.7 percent in 2009 to between 42.8 and 46.9 percent. These estimates have to be interpreted as conservative, as they do not take into account the second-order effects of road construction from increased trade that will result from better road connectivity.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate several techniques which can be used to evaluate pathways to sustainable growth in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) via infrastructure improvement. Decades of conflict and neglect have left the DRC’s transport infrastructure amongst the sparsest and most dilapidated in the world.

Transport and logistics infrastructure is a critical determinant of the competitiveness of a country's producers and exporters. Well-functioning transport and logistics infrastructure relies not just on hardware, but critically on the operating environment that emerges from the interaction between private sector operators; national policies and regulatory regimes; and, in many countries, state-owned owners and operators of core infrastructure. This paper looks at the case of South Africa, where constraints in access, pricing, reliability, and network interfaces, particularly in the port and rail network, are eroding the competitiveness of South African exporters. The paper draws on interviews with a wide range of exporters along with secondary research to examine South Africa's port and rail network, and explores the underlying factors contributing to these constraints, including chronic underinvestment, an inadequate regulatory environment, insufficient private sector participation, and weak regional integration. The paper concludes with a review of the reforms needed to deliver a more broadly accessible and competitive rail and port sector based on international case examples. It highlights the need for institutional reforms to promote competitive pricing; private sector participation to increase investment and improve service delivery; information and coordination to address market failures and improve access; and cooperation to improve intermodal, interregional, and institutional interfaces.

The countries comprising the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) are currently not very integrated into global value chains (GVCs), potentially missing out on important development opportunities. Accordingly, we explore high level options for promoting their integration. Given East Asia’s spectacular success with integrating into GVCs, we first assess the probability that SACU can copy their flying geese pattern. That was initiated by Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) investing in successive East Asian countries thereby becoming the lead geese, to be joined subsequently by MNCs from other countries. We argue that the conditions for pursuing a flying geese approach are difficult to replicate in SACU. Therefore, we proffer and explore the proposition that South Africa could serve as the gateway for harnessing MNC geese flying from third countries into the SACU region, in time propelling regional development through knowledge and investment spillovers, and serving as a conduit into GVCs. However, there may be substantial obstacles to deepening this integration potential. Other African gateways are emerging as alternatives to South Africa. And some SACU governments would prefer to build regional value chains (RVCs) rather than prioritize GVC integration. We argue that RVCs are complements to GVCs. SACU countries, excluding South Africa, may not attract many world leading MNCs since their markets are small, but could attract smaller regional players from South Africa or elsewhere. Thus building RVCs in the short run could assist with integration into GVCs in the longer run. Overall, this requires harnessing South African and MNC geese to the South African gateway, in a mutually complementary strategy.

The trade facilitation facility (TFF) was launched to help low-income countries improve their competitiveness by reducing the costs of engaging in international trade, thus supporting their efforts to reduce poverty and achieve the millennium development goals. This report summarizes the outcomes of the TFF between its establishment in 2009 and its end in 2015. The report highlights and reviews the accomplishments and lessons learned of TFF; it also discusses and reflects the perspective of task team leaders and relevant World Bank Group officials on the Bank Group’s continuing work in the trade facilitation sphere. The report presents results of TFF-funded activities and programs managed by staff from a large cross section of Bank Group sectors, including transport, agriculture, governance (customs), international trade, and private sector development. The report is organized as follows: chapter one give introduction. Chapter two provides an overview of the TFF portfolio. Chapter three looks at TFF as enabler of deepening regional integration, highlighting some of the facility’s accomplishments from a geographic and thematic perspective, particularly the extent to which TFF complemented Bank infrastructure operations and nurtured progress on trade facilitation instruments that countries and regional economic communities (RECs) have adopted but failed to implement. Chapter four, expanding thematic insights, addresses conceptual themes in trade facilitation. Chapter five, conclusions and contributions, sums up the areas in which TFF has contributed to moving the regional and multilateral trade facilitation agenda.

Building on six years of technical assistance, policy dialogue and recent stove switching program experience in Ulaanbaatar, this report sets out a proposed national low-emission stove strategy for Mongolia. The objective of the strategy is to establish a sustainable market for low emission stoves in Mongolia. The report focuses on clean heating and cooking stoves as well as small water heating boilers used in peri-urban ger areas of Ulaanbaatar and other Aimags and Soum centers.

Cities are vulnerable to many types of shocks and stresses, including natural hazards like storms and sea level rise, but also man-made ones like economic transformation and rapid urbanization. These shocks and stresses have the potential to bring cities to a halt and reverse years of socio-economic development gains. Cities that are to grow and thrive in the future must take steps to address these shocks and stresses. Simply put, a resilient city is one that can adapt to these types of changing conditions and withstand shocks while still providing essential services to its residents. A resilient city can keep moving toward its long-term goals despite the challenges it meets along the way. In February 2015, a team of specialists from the World Bank Group worked with government officials, experts and stakeholders in Addis Ababa to identify the priority actions and investments that will enhance the city’s resilience to these current and future challenges. They explored options to transform planned or aspirational projects into initiatives that will also enhance the city’s resilience. As the largest city in Ethiopia and one of the fastest growing cities in Africa, Addis Ababa plays an important role in promoting the well-being of the country and economic prosperity in the region. For Addis Ababa, efforts to promote greater resilience must be closely aligned with the city’s vision to be a safe and livable city, ensure the national goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2025, and become Africa’s diplomatic capital.

This report argues that urbanization brings significant opportunities for both rural and urban areas and that Burundi needs to prioritize issues of economic growth and job creation. Based on a diagnostic evaluation of the current urbanization and spatial growth, GDP, and job potential, the report highlights the importance of prioritizing policies and investments to address deficiencies in Burundi urbanization. These remedial actions will help prepare Burundi for coming urban growth and help leverage agglomeration effects, minimize negative externalities associated with rapid urbanization, and potentially reap the demographic dividend of this transition. Getting urbanization right will need to be associated with targeted implementation strategies for growth in the agribusiness and tourism sectors. A rapid move to cities is a central element of Burundi development strategy, including an increase in the urbanization rate from 11 percent to 40 percent by 2025. Burundi vision 2025 aims to aims to promote urbanization via rural-urban migration, freeing arable land, providing nonagricultural urban employment opportunities, and in turn, reducing the risks for social conflict and economic fragility. This report shows that while the Vision 2025 target of rate 40 percent is unrealistic, Burundi urbanization rate may already be higher than expected due to limitations in the current urban classification and the agglomeration of households along major transport corridors. This uncertainty further underlines the need for government to address the key issues that will affect whether Burundi will achieve effective urbanization or not.

The country partnership framework (CPF) for Azerbaijan covering the period FY2016-20, sets out the World Bank Group (WBG) support to the country on its path toward a sustainable, inclusive, and private sector-led growth underpinned by a diversified asset base. The country’s strategic goals are laid out in its development strategy - Azerbaijan 2020: vision for the future and other strategic documents that aim at reducing Azerbaijan’s dependence on oil and gas revenues and strengthening its resilience to external shocks through investments into diversified human capital, physical infrastructure, and stronger institutions. The CPF builds on the WBG systematic country diagnostic (SCD) for Azerbaijan and aligns its objectives with the constraints and priorities identified in the SCD. Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has made remarkable progress toward reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. In response to the emerging challenges and the mounting depreciation pressures, the government devalued the national currency and committed to fiscal consolidation. The CPF takes into account the government’s intention to optimize the external borrowing over the medium term as part of the ongoing effort to maintain fiscal sustainability. The CPF lending program will help Azerbaijan in meeting its development objectives through engagement in priority areas where the country’s ownership is strong, where the WBG has a comparative advantage and where the potential impact on the WBG twin goals is substantial. The CPF will address the SCD connectivity agenda through investments into the development of the county’s transport and transit corridors as well as improvement of local infrastructure at the community level. The CPF results are grouped around two focus areas and eight objectives that aim at improved public sector management and service delivery, and enhanced economic competitiveness.

Freight forwarders play a key role in moving goods across international borders. They arrange transport, oversee customs clearance on behalf of their clients, and more generally troubleshoot issues that arise while goods are in transit. This paper reports the results from a survey of 153 freight forwarding firms in Serbia. Respondents report on firm characteristics, operational choices, and conditions at the border posts and terminals where imported goods are cleared for release. One key purpose of the study is to investigate operational trade-offs between time and cost that arise when import shipments are in transit. In three of four hypotheticals, respondents suggest that money savings dominate time savings. Responses regarding real operational decisions such as route choices reinforce this finding. Respondents also reported penalty rates for late delivery of import shipments as well as the value of a typical import shipment. From these responses, it is estimated that the contracted value of one additional (unexpected) day of delivery time in Serbia appears to be approximately 1 percent of the value of the underlying shipment.

Firms normally keep certain inventories, including raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods, to operate seamlessly and not to miss possible business opportunities. But inventory is costly, and the optimal firm inventory differs depending on various economic conditions, including trade and transport costs. The paper examines firm inventory behavior in East Africa, in which transport connectivity, especially to the ports, is considered as one of the major business constraints. Using firm-level data from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, it is shown that transport connectivity significantly affects firm inventory behavior. In particular, road density and transport costs to the port are important to determine the optimal inventory level. With more roads in a city and/or cheaper access to the port, firms would hold smaller inventories.

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.

Transport infrastructure is deemed to be central to development and consumes a large fraction of the development assistance envelope. Yet there is debate about the economic impact of road projects. This paper proposes an approach to assess the differential development impacts of alternative road construction and prioritize various proposals, using Nigeria as a case study. Recognizing that there is no perfect measure of economic well-being, a variety of outcome metrics are used, including crop revenue, livestock revenue, non-agricultural income, the probability of being multi-dimensionally poor, and local gross domestic product for Nigeria. Although the measure of transport is the most accurate possible, it is still endogenous because of the nonrandom placement of road infrastructure. This endogeneity is addressed using a seemingly novel instrumental variable termed the natural path: the time it would take to walk along the most logical route connecting two points without taking into account other, bias-causing economic benefits. Further, the analysis considers the potential endogeneity from nonrandom placement of households and markets through carefully chosen control variables. It finds that reducing transportation costs in Nigeria will increase crop revenue, non-agricultural income, the wealth index, and local gross domestic product. Livestock sales increase as well, although this finding is less robust. The probability of being multi-dimensionally poor will decrease. The results also cast light on income diversification and structural changes that may arise. These findings are robust to relaxing the exclusion restriction. The paper also demonstrates how to prioritize alternative road programs by comparing the expected development impacts of alternative New Partnership for Africas Development projects.

In conflict-prone situations, access to markets is necessary to restore economic growth and generate the preconditions for peace and reconstruction. Hence, the rehabilitation of damaged transport infrastructure has emerged as an overarching investment priority among donors and governments. This paper brings together two distinct strands of literature on the effects of conflict on welfare and on the economic impact of transport infrastructure. The theoretical model explores how transport infrastructure affects conflict incidence and welfare when selection into rebel groups is endogenous. The implications of the model are tested with data from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The analysis addresses the problems of the endogeneity of transport costs and conflict using a novel set of instrumental variables. For transport costs, a new instrument is developed, the natural-historical path, which measures the most efficient travel route to a market, taking into account topography, land cover, and historical caravan routes. Recognizing the imprecision in measuring the geographic impacts of conflict, the analysis develops a spatial kernel density function to proxy for the incidence of conflict. To account for its endogeneity, it is instrumented with ethnic fractionalization and distance to the eastern border. A variety of indicators of well-being are used: a wealth index, a poverty index, and local gross domestic product. The results suggest that, in most situations, reducing transport costs has the expected beneficial impacts on all the measures of welfare. However, when there is intense conflict, improvements in infrastructure may not have the anticipated benefits. The results suggest the need for more nuanced strategies that take into account varying circumstances and consider actions that jointly target governance with construction activities.

The Government of Benin has requested an update of the 2005 Diagnostic Trade Integration Study and has asked the World Bank to take the leading role in this exercise. The update’s objectives are to (a) take stock of progress in the mainstreaming of trade in the government’s national development strategy and of implementation of the Action Matrix recommendations; (b) complement and deepen the analysis in selected areas; and (c) revise and update the Action Matrix to take account of the evolving context since 2006. The aim of the analysis is to assist the Government of Benin in defining an overall competitiveness strategy for inclusive, job-creating export-led growth in accordance with the key priorities identified in the 2013 Plan Stratégique de Développement du Commerce (PSDC), and to further mainstream trade into the general policy orientation defined by Benin’s key policy documents, including the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRSP) update. The DTIS Update (DTISU) offers a diagnosis, analytical framework and action plan, giving trade expansion a key role in the reduction of poverty and vulnerability. As mandated by the Paris Principles, the DTISU’s approach is strongly aligned with the MICPME’s PSDC (Trade Development Strategy Plan, henceforth TDSP) and draws also from the diagnosis in the Government of Benin’s recent poverty assessment (INSAE 2014) as well as the 2011 update of the GPRSP. It emphasizes the linkages between poverty, jobs, and trade with two key objectives: (i) reducing poverty through trade-led growth, and (ii) reducing vulnerability.

This paper addresses an old and recurring theme in development economics: the slow adoption of new technologies by farmers in many developing countries. The paper explores a somewhat novel link to explain this puzzle -- the link between market access and the incentives to adopt a new technology when there are non-convexities. The paper develops a theoretical model to guide the empirical analysis, which uses spatially disaggregated agricultural production data from Spatial Production Allocation Model and Living Standards Measurement Study survey data for Nigeria. The model is used to estimate the impact of transport costs on crop production, the adoption of modern technologies, and the differential impact on returns of modern versus traditional farmers. To overcome the limitation of data availability on travel costs for much of Africa, road survey data are combined with geographic information road network data to generate the most thorough and accurate road network available. With these data and the Highway Development Management Model, minimum travel costs from each location to the market are computed. Consistent with the theory, analysis finds that transportation costs are critical in determining technology choices, with a greater responsiveness among farmers who adopt modern technologies, and at times a perverse (negative) response to lower transport costs among those who employ more traditional techniques. In sum, the paper presents compelling evidence that the constraints to the adoption of modern technologies and access to markets are interconnected, and so should be targeted jointly.

Rapid urbanization in Ghana over the past three decades has coincided with rapid GDP growth. This has helped to create jobs, increase human capital, decrease poverty, and expand opportunities and improve living conditions for millions of Ghanaians. Ghana’s urban transformation has been momentous, but it is not unique: a similar process has characterized other countries at similar levels of development. Ghana’s key challenge now is to ensure that urbanization continues to complement growth through improvements in productivity and inclusion, rather than detracting from these goals. Many rising problems are related to efficiency and inclusion: these include slums, lack of basic services, underdeveloped manufacturing, and insufficient transport infrastructure.

Rail intermodal logistics, the movement of containerized cargo from origin to destination where a portion of the journey takes place on rail, have gained significance in North America over the past 10 to 15 years based on cost and operational efficiency. In China, however, the story has thus far been different. Considering the length-of-haul and commodity characteristics of China s manufacturing sector, the country has a persistently low incidence of rail intermodal participation in domestic and international supply chains. We find that the binding constraints behind the low incidence of rail intermodal services in China are most likely to be found on the supply side, not the demand side of the equation. Specifically, the regulatory and institutional environment, which regulate freight tariffs and provides little or no flexibility for China Railway Corporation (CRC) to tailor services to customer needs, is at the root of this challenge. This note outlines the success of railways in North America in (a) tailoring rail intermodal service offerings based on customer needs and willingness to pay; and (b) collaborating with other logistics service providers so as to concentrate on their core (rail transportation) competency, while leaving other segments of the end-to-end intermodal supply chain to those most efficient in those segments. The current policy and economic environment facing CRC seems favorable to pursuing reforms towards adopting similar practices.

Infrastructure projects, and more specifically, roads construction, and maintenance are one of the core operations of the World Bank. However, despite the increase of gender mainstreaming efforts in transport projects little is known about the effects of these interventions on women’s agency defined as the ability to make effective choices and transform these choices into desired outcomes’. This study aims to bridge this knowledge gap. The study looks at the effects of women’s participation in roads construction and maintenance and rural economy promotion activities on women’s agency, which has recently become a focus of study at the World Bank. Through individual interviews and focus groups the study assesses the effects of women-targeted interventions in three rural transport projects in Argentina, Nicaragua, and Peru. By focusing on agency, the study sheds light on effects of gender mainstreaming interventions that have more lasting effects on gender equality given the catalytic value of agency on other gender outcomes such as economic opportunities and endowments. The report is structured as follows: section one gives introduction. Second section describes the gender dimensions and agency-enhancing approaches in transport projects and the gender approaches in project implementation in the selected case studies. The third section provides a summary of the methodology of the study. The fourth section describes the key findings of the qualitative research. The fifth section presents the lessons learned to inform future rural transport interventions. The sixth section provides concluding remarks.

Cambodia’s rice harvests have been rising significantly since 2005, powered by improved and expanded irrigation and attractive farm gate prices. In 2010, the Cambodian government announced an export target of 1.0 million tons of milled rice by 2015. This analysis, which updates reports prepared in 2009 and 2011, seeks to identify short-term policy measures that can assist Cambodian exporters in boosting exports in the near term. This report examines new and expected investments in the larger rice mills and polishing factories, export trends, recent changes in milling costs, and provides a look at logistical costs and some alternatives. Additionally, import trends are examined in two current markets - the European Union (EU) and Russia, and in three other key markets - Indonesia, the Philippines, and China. Finally, an analysis is provided of the current Thai rice policy which impacts on local prices and investment interests by Thai rice exporters.

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are completely dependent on their transit neighbors infrastructure and administrative procedures to transport their goods to port. This publication provides a comprehensive ten-year review in order to assess the progress made in improving access of LLDCs to global markets, identify the remaining challenges faced by LLDCs, and present improved and innovative ways to overcome them. This publication is based on the practical knowledge from implementing the Almaty Program policies, shared by both of our institutions. It provides a snapshot of the economic trends in LLDCs, with regard to trade costs, connectivity constraints and trade diversification. It reviews the key access policies in the Almaty Program of Action framework that include infrastructure, transport and logistics services, regional integration, trade and transit facilitation. It combines data and substantial feedback from implemented projects and policy changes. The focus of the document is general in scope and does not include detailed economic or policy analysis of all the potential components of reforms. The publication is organized as follows: Chapter1: Economics of Landlockedness; Chapter 2: Connectivity Constraints; Chapter 3: Hinterland Connections; Chapter 4: Transit and Trade Facilitation, Regional Integration; Chapter 5: Physical Connectivity, Corridors. This document is based primarily on the experience of project implementation by the World Bank, and on analytical work on trade corridors and LLDCs, including reports and presentations on progress in implementing the Almaty Program of Action.

The Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS) update identifies priority actions in support of the Government of Sudan (GOS) commitment to increase trade and diversify the economy. The current study builds on the earlier 2008 DTIS by identifying the major factors holding back the increase of agricultural exports and economic diversification. The report identifies a package of measures that will support Sudan to more effectively realize its economic potential. The DTIS Update presents an updated action matrix that summarizes the recommended policy reforms. This matrix was validated with a wide variety of stakeholders in Khartoum in September 2014. Together, the action points will contribute to reducing trade costs, thereby enabling Sudanese enterprises and farmers to compete more successfully in regional and global markets and realize the GOS objectives of expanding and diversifying exports for increased economic growth. The recommendations accept that any changes in tariff schedules should be ‘revenue neutral,’ given the existing challenging fiscal situation.

The purpose of this policy note is to present reform options on cabotage liberalization. The goal of cabotage liberalization is to help i) foster more competition in the domestic shipping industry, ii) reduce shipping cost, and iii) improve efficiency, maritime services, and safety standards. These, together with complementary reforms in domestic shipping and ports, can help enhance consumer and producer welfare through lower consumer prices, higher household real income, timely delivery of goods, and ultimately, job creation and poverty reduction through greater market access. This policy note on cabotage is organized as follows. Part one provides an overview of the domestic shipping industry and discusses the key issues that it faces. Part two discusses the underlying reasons for the industry’s inefficiency. Part three discusses the concept of cabotage, the cost and benefit of cabotage liberalization, and the cabotage regimes of the Philippines and of selected countries. Part four closes with a discussion of reform options.

A slow-moving tropical depression caused persistent heavy rains in the Solomon Islands between April 1 and 4, 2014. The highest recorded daily rainfall associated with this event was 318mm in Honiara on April 3. The rains caused flash flooding in Honiara, Guadalcanal, Isabel, Malaita, and Makira-Ulawa. More than 732mm of rain was recorded over four days at the Honiara rain gauge, although heavier rainfall was reported inland. On April 5, as the system moved away from the Solomon Islands, it was upgraded to Tropical Cyclone Ita. The Solomon Islands government has worked with the international community, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to address humanitarian response needs. The government has sought assistance from Pacific humanitarian team personnel (which is led by the United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs), and has also requested supplies to support response efforts. The methodology used for assessing the effects of a disaster or extreme event proceeds from the bottom up: information about the effects of the event is captured sector by sector, and the data are aggregated to arrive at the event s total effect on society and the economy. The ultimate goal of the assessment is to measure in monetary and social terms the disaster's impact on the society, economy, and environment of the affected country or region.

Central America's trade has increased significantly in the past decade, in great part as a result of strong efforts to reduce tariffs within the region, as well as improvements in market access due to the entry into force of important free trade agreements. However, the growth of Central America's trade has not been as impressive from a global perspective and there is growing evidence that the gains from trade agreements and liberalization policies have been limited by transport and logistics barriers. Studies sponsored by the World Bank reveal that high domestic transportation costs, along with bottlenecks at land border crossings, continue to present large hurdles to intra and extra regional trade. Key factors that impede commerce include the lack of good-quality paved secondary roads, expensive trucking services, and lengthy border crossing procedures. Coordinated efforts to address these bottlenecks could help improve significantly the growth impacts of international trade in the region.

Twenty million people in Central America cook with biomass using open fires or rudimentary stoves. The number of people using biomass for cooking in the region will remain significant for a long time due to high incidence of poverty, high Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) prices coupled with unsustainable LPG subsidies, as well as relatively easy access to fuel wood in the region. Providing these people with clean and efficient cooking solutions is not just an energy issue, but one related to poverty, gender inequality, public health, environmental sustainability, local employment, climate change, agriculture, and local employment. A new generation of improved biomass cook stoves (ICS) has recently become available in Central America. The economic benefits from improving public health, reducing deforestation, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions well outweigh the costs of ICS dissemination. Efforts involving donor agencies, governments, non-governmental organizations, as well as local entrepreneurs have been made to disseminate ICS in the region in the last 10 years. The objective of this study is to better understand current developments in clean and efficient biomass cooking solutions, factors that have precluded a larger penetration of ICS within the region, and lessons learned from past programs-both in the region and in other countries-that may be relevant to Central America. The study recommends key actions that may help the region step up its current dissemination efforts and promote sustained use of ICS, a first step toward universal access to ICS by fuel wood users. Its intended audience includes different stakeholders, including government agencies, regional and international organizations, as well as various implementing entities who are thinking or rethinking appropriate technologies, policy interventions, financing, and delivery mechanisms for Central America to promote ICS.

Economic growth in West Bank and Gaza (WB&G) slowed in the first quarter (Q1) of 2012. The real growth rate is estimated to have reached 5.6 percent, more than three percentage points lower than the Q1 2011 growth figure and almost one percent lower than the growth forecast contained in the Palestinian Authority's (PA's) budget. This decline is attributed to a major slowdown in Gaza, where real growth decreased from 21.3 percent to 6 percent on a year-on-year basis. The slowdown in Gaza during Q1 of 2012 was mainly attributed to a major decline in the agriculture and fishing sector, which offset much of the growth witnessed in other sectors. This sector shrank by 43 percent in Q1 2012 due to frequent power outages resulting from the lack of fuel in Gaza. Nevertheless, other sectors in Gaza expanded and the highest growth levels were witnessed in the construction, and hotels and restaurants sectors. In the West Bank, growth in Q1 2012 was broadly unchanged from its 2011 level. Most of the growth was from an expansion of services, which contributed around 2.2 percentage points of the 5.4 percent total growth in Q1 2012. The recent slowdown in economic growth is also reflected in higher unemployment levels. Overall unemployment in WB&G was 20.9 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared to 18.7 percent during the same period in 2011. A serious concern in WB&G is the high level of youth unemployment that is accompanied by low youth participation in the labor force.

Botswana has been one of the most successful countries in the developing world over the last 40 years by many measures. Incomes have grown at a sustained pace, poverty has fallen, and the citizenry has become more educated. To be sure, poverty and income inequalities remain a problem, but rising standards of living have meant a better life for this generation of Batswana than any before it. The question facing the country leadership is whether this commendable performance can be sustained into the next generation. There are clouds on the horizon that cannot be ignored. Diamond earnings, the life blood of decades of prosperity, have flattened out. In per capita terms they are falling. Moreover, because revenues from diamonds going to the public sector have been falling for more than a decade, a growth model predicated upon an ever expanding state presence is not viable. Diamond earnings accruing to the state for subsequent redistribution have peaked. Employment and wages in the public sector have reached their natural limits as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); recycling revenues from mining into the private sector, either directly or through the financial sector, has been inefficient with low social returns; and redistributive mechanisms to support social safety nets are also likely be approaching their limits. The country confronts the challenge of looking for new sources of growth outside of government.

Arab countries face a number of food security risks due to their high dependence on wheat imports. This study explores ways in which countries can mitigate these risks. The authors evaluate the wheat import supply chain (WISC) from the unloading port to bulk storage at the flour mill, before the wheat is milled into flour. Existing literature treats isolated topics related to the supply chain, such as strategic storage and the use of financial instruments. This study is unique in that it takes a holistic view of the supply chain by examining how strategic storage, logistics improvements, and procurement strategies can all be used to improve food security. This study considers three critical aspects to the WISC and proposes several strategies Arab countries may consider to mitigate import risks: strategic storage (chapter two): maintain strategic wheat reserves to weather times of crisis and food supply disruptions and to contribute to domestic and international price stabilization effects. Logistics (chapter three): promote investments throughout the supply chain that create smooth logistics, improve security, provide a reliable supply of wheat, reduce the base cost of importing wheat, and reduce product losses. Procurement (chapter four): develop a procurement strategy that leverages strategic partnerships while maintaining a diversified portfolio of suppliers and mitigates import risks through the use of hedging strategies. Currently, overall storage capacity in the region averages the equivalent of six months of consumption, and estimated ending stocks average four and one-half months. However, many Arab countries are planning to increase their strategic wheat reserves as a policy to improve food security. This can provide them with critical lead time to secure alternative wheat supplies or supply routes during times of crisis. Reserves also offer psychological benefits that may prevent hoarding and pilferage.

Providing at least basic education to all children especially those coming from poor or disadvantaged families is an important factor for increasing chances to improve their lives in the future. Many countries recognize the need to better educate their populations and do so by trying to improve the equity and quality while taking care of efficiency. The provision of equal educational opportunities is a challenge for every society, where specific solutions typically depend on a number of factors. The intention of this document is to raise awareness and provide support to decision makers in planning the measures that will secure access to quality education for all children above all to those who are under higher risk of dropping out of the education system through a set of transportation and education policy measures. The document aims to equip municipal authorities, as well as transport and education stakeholders, with a systemized approach for assessing the access and accessibility of education services, and tools for the selection of the most appropriate options for improvements. The document is organized as follows: chapter one provides a short introductory review of the demographic changes in South East Europe (SEE) countries; chapter two is a valuable source of information on the experiences of countries in the SEE region and worldwide; chapter three gives decision-making framework for local authorities; chapter four provides a summary and a set of recommendations for local- and national-level authorities on the most effective ways of fulfilling legal obligations and ensuring a basic children's right- access to education; chapter five and six sets paths for making chosen policy options sustainable and for future developments based on innovative transport and education approaches and proven practices; and chapter seven gives literature and data sources.

Between 2000 and 2005 infrastructure made a modest net contribution of less than one percentage point to the improved per capita growth performance of the Central African Republic (CAR), despite high expenses in the road sector. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could boost annual growth by about 3.5 percentage points. Assuming that the inefficiencies are fully captured, comparing spending needs against existing spending and potential efficiency gains leaves an annual funding gap of $183 million per year. By far the largest gap exists in transport. The CAR has the potential to close this gap by raising additional public funding for infrastructure from increased fiscal receipts of various kinds. Furthermore, the CAR has not captured as much private finance for infrastructure (measured as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, or GDP) as many of its neighbors. This scope for improvement, coupled with the prospect of an economic rebound and prudent policies, could lift the country from it fragile state back to and beyond the prosperity standards it once enjoyed.

Infrastructure contributed 1.3 percentage points to Burkina Faso's annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the past decade, much of it due to improvements in information and communication technology (ICT). Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries (MICs) could boost annual growth by more than 3 percentage points per capita.Today, Burkina Faso's infrastructure indicators look relatively good when compared with other low-income countries (LICs) in Africa. Burkina Faso has made significant progress in developing its infrastructure in recent years. The rapid modernization of the ICT sector, around 60 percent of the population lives within range of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) cell-phone signal. The expansion of safe water and sanitation technologies in urban areas since the late 1990s and the establishment of a system for funding road maintenance (by reducing the cost of road travel) should pay long-term dividends to the economy. The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) has gathered and analyzed extensive data on infrastructure across almost all African countries, including Burkina Faso. The results have been presented in reports covering different areas of infrastructure including ICT, irrigation, power, transport and water and sanitation and various policy areas, including investment needs, fiscal costs, and sector performance.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has been active in public and private sector pollution management for the past several decades. The Bank has mainstreamed environmental health concerns into its rural and urban services through projects that improved the management of solid and hazardous waste and wastewater, and controlled pollution related to a large variety of sectors including transport, industry, energy, and mining, with each decade having its flagship issues and projects. The changing global context illustrated by the wave of global crises, the rising acknowledgement in different countries of the impacts of climate change and the necessity to address greenhouse gas mitigation, the challenges in reaching the Millennium Development Goals pertaining to environment and poverty, and the voices calling for new approaches through green new deal, green growth, and green development require that pollution management be addressed within a new context.

This report presents the findings of the second edition of Connecting to Compete, a report on the new dataset for the 2010 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and its component indicators. Based on a worldwide survey of global freight forwarders and express carriers, the LPI is a benchmarking tool developed by the World Bank that measures performance along the logistics supply chain within a country. The index can help countries identify challenges and opportunities and improve their logistics performance. The World Bank conducts the survey every two years. The 2010 LPI also provides a snapshot of selected performance indicators in nearly 130 countries, including expanded information on the time, cost, and reliability of import and export supply chains, infrastructure quality, performance of core services, and the friendliness of trade clearance procedures. The 2010 LPI and its indicators encapsulate the firsthand knowledge of movers of international trade, collected amid the economic turmoil of 2009. This information is relevant for policymakers and the private sector seeking to identify priorities for reform agendas. Findings include the following. First, except in high-income countries, the availability and quality of trade-related infrastructure is a major constraint to performance, but the specific priorities tend to vary across countries. Second, efficient border management and coordination of the various agencies involved in border clearance is increasingly important. Third, a major challenge for the international community is how to help the lowest performing countries benefit from an increasingly open global trading system.

Spatial inequality is an important feature of many developing countries that seems to increase with economic growth and development. At the same time, there seems to be little consensus on the causes of spatial inequality and on a list of effective policy instruments that may foster or reduce spatial inequality. This paper examines the theoretical and empirical literature on spatial inequality to learn what we know and do not know about the causes of spatial inequality, to investigate what policies may or may not ameliorate spatial inequality, and to determine whether policy makers can identify and implement policies that promote or reduce spatial inequality.