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The LPI has provided valuable information for policy makers, traders, and other stakeholders, including researchers and academics, on the role of logistics for growth and the policies needed to support logistics in areas such as infrastructure planning, service provision, and crossborder trade and transport facilitation. The results of Connecting to Compete 2016 point to Germany as the best performing country, with an LPI score of 4.23, and Syria as the lowest, with a score of 1.60 (equivalent to 19 percent of Germany’s score on a scale from 1 to 5). The converging trend between the top and worst performers that appeared in the previous LPI surveys (2007, 2010, 2012, and 2014) seems to have slightly reversed. The average scores in each quintile reveal that the gap between the top 2 quintiles and the countries at the bottom in performance is widening again.

Infrastructure services are significant determinants of economic development, social welfare, trade, and public health. As such, they typically feature strongly in national development plans. While governments may receive many infrastructure project proposals, however, resources are often insufficient to finance the full set of proposals in the short term. Leading up to 2020, an estimated US$836 billion - 1 trillion will be required each year to meet growth targets worldwide (Ruiz-Nunez and Wei, 2014; World Bank). Global estimates of infrastructure investments required to support economic growth and human development lie in the range of US$65-70 trillion by 2030 (OECD, 2006), while the estimated pool of available funds is limited to approximately US$45 trillion (B20, 2014). The past twenty years have also seen a shift towards decentralized infrastructure planning. Many subnational governments, regional entities, and sector agencies have been delegated responsibility for infrastructure planning promote local responsiveness, but responsibility for allocating funds often remains with a centralized finance agency (CFA). While constituencies may propose numerous projects, governments often have insufficient financial resources to implement the full suite of proposals. This report presents the IPF methodology and results of the pilot application to a select set of transport and water and sanitation projects in Panama. The report first gives background information on infrastructure prioritization in Panama, then follows with a description of the IPF in technical and implementation terms. Next, we present the results of the pilot and close with recommendations for implementing IPF to a wider set of projects.

Regional integration in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is crucial for its further economic development and, more importantly, its structural transformation away from agriculture towards higher value-added activities, such as manufacturing and services. Yet there are many paths towards greater integration, some of which are easier than others. In order to gain insights into how regional integration is occurring in SSA, determine impediments to it, and develop recommendations for how the World Bank and other development agencies can help further facilitate it, the World Bank commissioned a set of political economy of regional integration studies covering sector analyses of agriculture, financial services, professional services, trade facilitation, and transport. This report summarizes the findings from the sector studies and suggests recommendations for further efforts in these areas by the World Bank and other development agencies. In a comparative context, the findings of the studies suggest cautious optimism for regional integration efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. Economic integration is more likely to succeed when it occurs alongside regional attempts at improving political stability and or developing joint infrastructure.

In 2012, the World Bank signed five agreements with MRDPA for advisory services, out of which one relates to the growth poles policy and to its improvement for the programming period 2014-2020. This agreement has three components: 1) an analysis of the growth poles policy, 2) energy efficiency studies for each growth pole; and 3) a review of the Integrated Development Plans prepared by the growth poles for the period 2007-2013. In this context, South Muntenia Regional Development Agency, through the coordinator of Ploiești Growth Pole, requested the World Bank, under a project funded by ERDF through the Technical Assistance Operational Program 2007-2013, to support the Growth Pole in implementing the recommendations stemming from the previous analysis with: 1) updating the Integrated Development Plan for 2014-2020; and 2) proposing an improved institutional framework for coordinating the planning, implementation and monitoring of projects under this plan. The current document of the Integrated Development Plan belonging to Ploiești Growth Pole was developed during the period 2008-2009 and approved and submitted to South Muntenia RDA in April 2010. It contains a total number of 93 projects with a total value of RON 5,136,143,583.91, out of which 762,515,322.81 are EU funds, and the remainder comes from the national budget and the beneficiaries’ own contribution. In the process of updating the plan, the implementation status of these projects will be studied further, while attention will be also given to the unimplemented projects in order to see whether they will be included in the documentation, depending on their response to the new development conditions of the growth pole.

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.

China Railways Corporation (CRC) is considering new ways to attract capital to support the strategic development of the railway sector. Currently, government is the predominant equity financier, with debt being supplied by domestic bank credits and limited amounts borrowed from International Financial Institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Considering its high level of accumulated debt and liabilities (RMB 3.7 trillion on an asset base of 5.7 trillion), CRC wishes to explore equity investment mechanisms, to increase cash flow from its core and non-core activities, and to use different financing channels as a way to leverage the value of its assets and introduce market-based business models to the sector. CRC is seeking to attract investment from both the private sector and from public sources such as local governments and state owned enterprises. It refers to these sources of capital as ‘social capital.’ This report examines how companies in China and railways in seven other countries, China, France, India, Japan, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, have attracted capital and made capital budgeting decisions to support their strategic development.

The 2014-2015 Romania Regional Development 2 Program is the continuation of the World Bank’s technical assistance to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MRDPA). Building on the previous engagement, the current work addresses a fundamental question: given Romania’s persistent development challenges, how can the country do more with less when it comes to the public infrastructure it needs? The key is to enhance coordination and harmonization of different funding sources, particularly infrastructure programs financed from the state budget and from EU structural funds. The National Local Development Program (PNDL), managed by the MRDPA, is reviewed in depth, though the conclusions typically hold for all state-budget-funded programs. This synthesis report summarizes the main findings and recommendations from eight final reports and 24 knowledge sharing workshops organized in all eight regions in Romania in 2015. Several ‘bonus’ outputs were also produced, going beyond the terms of this technical assistance (three investment guides, an applicant guide, and an operational manual). This synthesis report – along with all the outputs it draws from – is meant as a practical tool for policymakers at the national, regional, and local level. It also seeks to inform a broader audience of private and nongovernmental stakeholders.

Policy makers are often confronted with a myriad of factors in the investment decision-making process. This issue is particularly acute in infrastructure investment decisions, as these often involve significant financial resources and lock-in technologies. In regions and countries where the infrastructure access gap is large and pubic budgets severely constrained, the importance of considering the different facets of the decision-making process becomes even more relevant. This paper discusses the trade-offs policy makers confront when attempting to prioritize infrastructure investments, in particular with regard to economic growth and welfare, and proposes a methodological framework for prioritizing infrastructure projects and portfolios that holistically equates such trade-offs, among others. The analysis suggests that it is not desirable to have a single methodology, providing a single ranking of infrastructure investments, because of the complexities of infrastructure investments. Rather, a multidisciplinary approach should be taken. Decision makers will also need to account for factors that are often not easily measured. While having techniques that enable logical frameworks in the decision-making process of establishing priorities is highly desirable, they are no substitute for consensus building and political negotiations.

The authors have assembled 1960–2012 infrastructure stock data from 145 countries to estimate the demand for infrastructure services in emerging markets and developing economies. This paper identifies that the required resource flows to satisfy new demand while maintaining service for existing infrastructure amounts to $836 billion or 6.1 percent of current gross domestic product per year over the period 2014–20. The annual infrastructure investment gap for emerging markets and developing economies is $452 billion per year, which implies that emerging markets and developing economies should almost double their current spending. The paper also estimates that half of the spending should be allocated to maintenance of existing assets. Acknowledging the challenges to compare infrastructure investment estimates across different methodologies, the authors recognize this result as a lower bound estimate and compare the results with others available in the literature.

In the context of Romania’s push toward sustainable and inclusive development, the government has asked the World Bank to support the harmonization of public investments financed by the European Union and the state budget. The current report describes the national program for local development (PNDL’s) framework and project cycle and provides an overview of the program’s project portfolio in 2014. It also draws a number of preliminary observations and presents some potential policy measures, based on a review of 289 technical-economic documentations (in most cases feasibility studies) for new investments proposed for PNDL financing in 2014. The aim is to understand gaps and opportunities in the PNDL’s programming and implementation, and also to help develop the MRDPA’s capacity for assessing received proposals. This report seeks to contribute to the overall objective of improving the design and implementation of state-budget-funded investment programs under the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MRDPA) - primarily the PNDL. Chapter one gives introduction; chapter two presents PNDL background and portfolio assessment; chapter three presents main challenges related to the quality of projects submitted for PNDL financing; and chapter four presents preliminary observations and policy measures recommendations.

Romania faces today the critical need to enhance the coordination of public investment programs and projects in order to ‘do more with less,’ maximizing development impact given limited financial resources available. In this context, ‘value for money’ is the key guiding principle of public investments, making this final report is both critically important and timely. Romania’s preparations for the 2014-2020 EU programming period are in full swing, with multiple operational programs recently approved. In parallel, the Government is working on revamping instruments financed entirely from the state budget. The core focus is on the National Local Development Program (PNDL), the main state-budget-funded investment program for local infrastructure development, though findings and recommendations may be extrapolated to other state-budget-funded instruments (e.g., the Environment Fund) and, indeed, as decentralization and regionalization may evolve in the future, subnational governments may also apply the lessons of this work. The main goal of this work is to recommend and facilitate the adoption of prioritization and selection criteria that enhance coordination at the level of infrastructure programs and the projects they finance.

This paper is organized into three main sections. Section one presents the background, objectives, scope, and limitations of the study. It also provides a general definition of OM and presents prototypical OM arrangements for rural CDD and community-based subprojects. Section two presents the detailed case studies for the seven selected projects. Section three summarizes the conclusions from the review and recommends steps for moving ahead. Five annexes provide extra background information, including the complete list of projects from which the seven main case studies were selected, as well as: examples of maintenance requirements for rural infrastructure; considerations for task teams planning for OM design and implementation; sample OM measures and timelines; and links to OM materials.

In May 2005, the Bank adopted a new policy and new procedures on Additional Financing (OP/BP13.20) for investment lending, replacing the previous policy on supplemental financing. This policywas later revised in March 2012. This learning product assesses the performance of the AdditionalFinancing (AF) operations approved since then and draws lessons from their implementationexperience. The assessment focuses on AF in projects of the Transport and Information andCommunication Technology (ICT) Global Practice (GP). This was selected as the first batch ofoperations to review because they represent a large share in lending volume, as well as the fact that there is an existing AF study conducted by the former Transport Anchor which this review coulduse to verify the AF portfolio. This note aims to enhance the understanding of the way it has been used and how it has affected the project outcomes, through reviewing a subset of the AF portfolio for which the relevant data was readily available. The review notes the limitation of the small sample. More areas could be investigated when the data of more projects become available.

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.

This paper provides perspectives on patterns of public-private partnerships in infrastructure across time and space. Public-private partnerships are a new term for old concepts. Much infrastructure started under private auspices. Then many governments nationalized the ventures. Governments often push infrastructure providers to keep prices low. In emerging markets, the price of water covers maybe 30 percent of costs on average, that of electricity some 80 percent of costs. This renders public infrastructure ventures dependent on subsidies. When governments run into fiscal troubles, they often look again for public-private partnerships, and price increases. As a result, public-private partnerships keep making a comeback in most countries, but are not always loved. Waves of interest in public-private partnerships sweep different countries at different times. Overall, in emerging markets today, public-private partnerships account for some 20 percent of infrastructure investments, with wide variations across countries and from year to year. There is no “killer” rationale for public-private partnerships. They can help raise financing when governments face borrowing constraints. They can be more efficient when sound incentives are applied. Existing evaluations suggest public-private partnerships tend to perform often a bit better than public provision. Yet, well-run governments can do as well. Public-private partnerships provide mechanisms to improve the governance of infrastructure ventures where governments are flawed. Once the fiscal troubles are over, the politics of pricing assert themselves again. Tight pricing erodes the profitability of public-private partnerships and the wheel of privatization and nationalization keeps turning, as it has since modern infrastructure services were invented.

In less than fifty years, Brazil evolved from a predominantly rural society and economy to a highly urbanized country in which 85 percent of its people now live in urban areas and more than 90 percent of the country’s GDP is generated in the cities. This rapid urbanization process was characterized by a lack of planning and an enduring framework of inequality, resulting in high degrees of concentrated poverty in the urban areas. Much of this urbanization has taken place in metropolitan regions (MRs). MRs have grown more rapidly than the rest of the country, both in population and in GDP terms. In 2010, per capita GDP was higher in MRs than in the rest of the country and metropolitan economies accounted for 70 percent of GDP. At the same time, half of the Brazilian poor and 90 percent of the people living in subnormal conditions were found in metropolitan regions. The recent approval of a new framework for metropolitan governance inBrazil creates the opportunity for debate and evolution regarding several key issues. These include: a) placing metropolitan matters at the forefront of the development arena in Brazil; b) reviewing what has been learned about inter-municipal governance and service delivery; c) estimating resource mobilization needs for metropolitan development; d) coordinating metropolitan land use with transport and housing; e) including metropolitan concerns in any revision of fiscal federalism; and f) promoting environmental sustainability, social inclusion and resilience to disasters and climate change plans at the metropolitan scale. The World Bank can be a partner in addressing these issues. In responding to client demand, the Bank has been providing a range of support to Brazilian states and cities and especially their low- income populations in the areas of infrastructure, social services, slum upgrading, institutional development, river basin management, local economic development, environmental protection, water and sanitation, and transportation.

This report, supported by the energy sector management assistance program (ESMAP), applies the tool for the rapid assessment of city energy (TRACE) to examine energy use in León, México. This study is one of three requested and conducted in 2013 by the World Bank Latin America and the Caribbean energy unit to begin a dialogue on energy efficiency (EE) potential in Latin America and Caribbean cities. In Puebla and León, TRACE helped the Mexican Secretary of Energy (SENER) develop an urban EE strategy. TRACE is a simple, practical tool for making rapid assessments of municipal energy use. It helps prioritize sectors that have the potential to save significant amounts of energy and identifies appropriate EE measures in six sectors - transport, municipal buildings, wastewater, streetlights, solid waste, and power and heat. Globally, the six are often managed by the cities which have substantial influence over public utility services. The study looked at six areas to determine the three that have the greatest savings potential and where the city has a significant degree of control: streetlights, solid waste, and municipal buildings.

With most of the global population and capital goods concentrated in urban areas, cities are key to social development and economic prosperity. They are drivers of national economic growth and innovation, and act as cultural and creative centers. Many development partners and other organizations are active on the topic of resilience in cities, and there has been a recent upswing in the development and promotion of innovate programs, tools, and initiatives. Arup International and the Rockefeller Foundation have developed the city resilience framework, which provides a lens through which the complexity of cities and the numerous factors that contribute to a city’s resilience can be understood. The framework is being used to facilitate agenda-setting sessions in cities selected to participate in the 100 resilient cities challenge. Within this global context, the city strength diagnostic was developed to help World Bank staff apply this new holistic approach to urban resilience to operations. It was designed to help facilitate a dialogue among stakeholders (for example, government, civil society, residents, and the private sector) about risks, resilience, and the performance of urban systems. The city strength diagnostic results in the identification of priority actions and investments that will enhance the city’s resilience as well as increase the resilience building potential of planned or aspirational projects. It stresses a holistic and integrated approach that encourages cross-sectoral collaborations to more efficiently tackle existing issues and to unlock opportunities within the city.

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.

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.

Turkey’s demographic and economic transformation has been one of the world’s most dramatic, with urban growth and economic growth proceeding hand in hand. Distinguishing Turkey from many other developing countries has been the pace, scale, and geographical diversity of its spatial and economic transformation. Fast-growing secondary cities bring added challenges that define Turkey’s second-generation urban agenda. New and differentiated service standards will need to be established across both dense urban built-up areas and small villages and rural settlements within the newly-expanded metropolitan municipality administrative area. These developments make planning, connecting, and financing important policy principles for Turkey’s second-generation urban development agenda. This policy brief frames a second-generation urban development agenda to support Turkey’s transition from upper middle income to high income.

The aim of this paper is to provide feedback on the question of socioeconomic benefits from rural road development and the impact of transport infrastructure on the poor, particularly the poorest and the bottom 20 percent of the population. This paper relies on impact evaluation methodologies, which are traditionally used in social sectors but less so in the transport sector. The study, including first surveys, was launched in 2003 under the Tocantins Sustainable Regional Development Project. The paper highlights the context that led to the project’s design, which included an impact evaluation of the works envisaged under the project. The paper also highlights some of the main challenges faced by this impact evaluation and how these challenges were addressed for the present study. It then provides details about the data collected during the surveys and the key relevant characteristics of the population targeted by the surveys. It discusses the possible estimation methods envisioned to undertake the study and provides the main results of the assessment based on these methods. The analysis shows that improved rural roads changed people’s transport modal choice. People used more public buses and individual motorized vehicles after the rural road improvements. The paper also finds that the project increased school attendance, particularly for girls. Although the evidence is relatively weak in statistical terms, it indicates that the project contributed to increasing agricultural jobs and household income in certain regions.

This report provides a diagnostic and a set of recommendations for the coordination of infrastructure investments in three main sectors in Romania: roads; water and wastewater; and social infrastructure (education, health, culture, and sports). The proposals formulated are targeted primarily at the main client of this work, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MRDPA) and specifically at the Directorate General for Regional Development and Infrastructure (DG RDI), which manages the most important state-budget-funded program for local infrastructure investments – the National Local Development Program (PNDL). Other key stakeholders include the Center of Government (CoG), the Ministry of Public Finances, the Ministry of European Funds, other central authorities in charge of EU and/or state-funded investment programs, Regional Development Agencies, and county and local councils. While customized for the PNDL, the recommendations that follow can be replicated across all state-budget-funded investment programs. This report presents multiple instruments for promoting coordination: dedicated platforms, harmonization of investment programs (design, financing criteria, producers), and knowledge sharing of good practices at the local level.

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.

The Timor-Leste Government’s 2011-2013 strategic development plan (SDP) outlines its plan for achieving upper-middle income country status, with a secure, well-educated, and healthy population, by 2030. It argues that the four key national attributes of political will, economic potential, national integration, and a dynamic population will underpin the achievement of this vision. The development of infrastructure is a core pillar of the SDP. Thus, the SDP outlines specific plans for a number of large construction projects for the development of roads and bridges, water and sanitation facilities, electrical power generation facilities, telecommunications, and ports. The SDP recognizes that Timor-Leste currently lacks the core infrastructure required to support a modern and productive economy. According to the SDP, government spending on infrastructure will drive high, double-digit rates of economic growth in the short and medium term, contributing to a rate of growth of 8 percent by 2020. The SDP also emphasizes the construction of infrastructure as a means to achieve its stated goals in the pillars of economic development, notably agriculture, and the development of social capital. The SDP commits the government to a significant school building program and to the expansion and rehabilitation of health facilities such as local clinics and hospitals.

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.

Infrastructure and services are critical to development and form the backbone of economic and community activities at the local, regional, national, and international levels. They enable the distribution of goods and services within and between countries and ease access to schools, markets, and health services. Food security and vaccination programs, for example, require functioning roads and railways and access to ports and airports to move critical supplies to people. While there is agreement on the need for greater connectivity, there is much debate on how to deliver it given the challenges from climate change. The contribution of the transport sector to increasing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and fossil fuel consumption have been at the center of global discussions on climate change. Transport is among the fastest growing sectors for CO2 emissions from fuel combustion, and it is estimated to contribute approximately 23 percent of total energy-related CO2 emissions in 2010. Transport enables development, but causes traffic congestion, pollution, noise, and road accidents, that together bring about 2 percent to 10 percent reduction in country-level GDP. Reversing this trend in emissions growth will require action to decouple emissions growth from GDP growth, driven by passenger and freight activity. This includes policies to encourage investment in low-carbon transport modes; programs to curb energy and emissions growth; and action to transform the way countries manage transport services.

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.

Various transport-related agencies and local governments develop their respective transport plans or strategies to address bottlenecks and improve outcomes in the transport sector. However, to be able to bring a more focused or targeted intervention that is more inclusive, these various strategies need to focus on establishing interconnectivity between key urban growth centers and between lagging and fast-growing regions, and creating supporting institutions that promote greater integration. Upon the request of the National Economic and Development Authority, a framework plan was developed to provide policy-makers with a strategic framework to help identify the transport needs of the Philippines and guide in implementing an integrated, more coordinated approach to establishing stronger transport infrastructure linkages to support the country’s inclusive growth agenda. The framework plan was developed under the guidance of a vision and goals developed by stakeholders across the Philippines. This comprehensive vision can be summarized as ‘Bringing us all closer together for prosperity.’ The geographic focus of the Framework Plan includes all of the Philippines outside of Metro Manila. This Framework Plan does not replicate the work being done by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Metro Manila (the JICA study covers Metro Manila with an approximate radius of 100 kilometers and is being conducted to evaluate specific transport infrastructure projects for the Metro Manila area). Future improvements and needs of transportation infrastructure to meet the demand for long-distance transport to and from Metro Manila and to other urban/economic centers in the Philippines are considered; nevertheless, national-level strategies recommended in this study affect all areas of the Philippines.

This issue includes the following headings: finding the right broadband public-private partnership (PPP): whats key for emerging economies?; reform has its rewards: telecom takes off in Myanmar; e-gov excellence: models from Colombia, Ghana, India, and Portugal; know what you know: creating a government technology strategy; and closing the gap: Facebook and intel connect the unconnected.

The Greenprint 2030 is a resolute attempt on the part of MMDA to engage all stakeholders in a process to create a common vision for the region’s future. For the first time, all 16 cities and one municipality comprising Metro Manila are linked under one vision that sets developmental priorities for the region and provides direction to achieve those priorities. The vision is formulated within the wider Mega Manila context, considering the shared challenges and opportunities with adjacent provinces. Like other metropolitan plans, Greenprint 2030 starts with a vision. However, it differs from the comprehensive metropolitan planning exercises in that it focuses on developing strategic areas of opportunity. Through the vision process, connectivity, inclusiveness, and resilience emerged as the key entry points for strategic engagement. Based on the vision the Greenprint 2030 will provide metropolitan wide spatial guidance, demonstrate coordination mechanisms, and identify areas for catalytic investments. The green in Greenprint goes beyond trees and open spaces green is efficient transportation, affordable housing, and more resilient infrastructure. It emphasizes sustainable urban development as the underlying principle across the three themes of inclusivity, connectivity, and resiliency. These sectors work together to enable more efficient use of resources and to create a livable urban environment. The Greenprint 2030 offers the strategic direction which informs comprehensive spatial and development plans prepared by national and local government agencies, related to Metro and Mega Manila. Through this process, more options for metropolitan governance will also be examined. The aim is to equip the metropolitan area to compete globally and to provide its citizens a safe, resilient, and green environment.

Every year, nearly 1.3 million people worldwide are killed in road crashes, which have become the leading cause of death among people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine. More than 90 percent of the world s road fatalities occur in developing countries, and half of the accident victims are pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Road accidents disproportionately affect the poor, making road safety an economic development issue. Many crash victims are of working age, and their death or serious injury too frequently leaves their dependents destitute. Governments in poorer countries have assumed they cannot act to reduce death rates until they are wealthier. However, many of today s road safety measures can be implemented relatively inexpensively to reduce death rates, if managed correctly. The United Nations (UN) invited the World Health Organization (WHO) to coordinate a drive to improve road safety globally. It also proclaimed a decade of action for road safety (2011 2020) to stabilize and then reduce the level of traffic fatalities and serious injuries around the world. More than 100 countries as well as multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, support the interventions. The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is aware of the rapidly worsening road safety situation in the developing world and efforts by the Bank's transport sector to encourage the use of best practices in road projects. This study, a pioneering learning product created by IEG in cooperation with transport operational staff and the Bank s Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), aims to provide useful knowledge to Bank operational staff involved with road safety, to support Bank and client countries in fine tuning their road safety strategies and practices, and to support the acceleration of the Bank s operational road safety agenda.

This issue of the Handshake, IFCs quarterly journal on public-private partnerships, contains the following topics of interest: weighing the options: burn or bury?; waste and climate: supporting governments; community engagement: integrating Indias informal sector; an interview with the director of the documentary Trashed; and bonus: podcast with 2013 CNN hero on community cleanups.

The Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE) is used for conducting rapid assessments of energy use in cities. It helps prioritize sectors with significant energy savings potential, and identifies appropriate energy efficiency interventions across six sectors-transport, municipal buildings, water and waste water, public lighting, solid waste, and power and heat. It is a simple, low-cost, user-friendly, and practical tool that can be applied in any socioeconomic setting. This report is based on the implementation of the TRACE tool in Iasi in July 2013 and it outlines ideas on what the city could further do to improve its energy efficiency performance. It details the analysis carried out and the recommendations derived as a result, for energy efficiency action plan and strategy, district heating maintenance and upgrade, non-motorized transport, public transport development, traffic flow optimization, parking restraint measures, municipal building benchmarking program, traffic restraint measures, municipal buildings audit and retrofit, and street lighting timing program.

The Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE) is used for conducting rapid assessments of energy use in cities. It helps prioritize sectors with significant energy savings potential, and identifies appropriate energy efficiency interventions across six sectors-transport, municipal buildings, water and waste water, public lighting, solid waste, and power and heat. It is a simple, low-cost, user-friendly, and practical tool that can be applied in any socioeconomic setting. This report is based on the implementation of the TRACE tool in Constanta in July 2013 and it outlines ideas on what the city could further do to improve its energy efficiency performance. It details the analysis carried out and the recommendations derived as a result, for district heating maintenance and upgrade, non-motorized transport, public transport development, parking restraint measures, municipal building benchmarking program, municipal buildings audit and retrofit, street lighting timing program, energy efficiency action plan and strategy, and awareness raising campaigns.

Many empirical studies have demonstrated the close relationship between a country’s economic development and its stock of infrastructure. Decades of deferred maintenance and lack of long-term financing have taken a heavy toll on Zimbabwe’s infrastructure that at one time was ranked at the top in Africa. Only the information and communications technologies (ICT) sector has been performing relatively well but its high tariffs add to the cost of doing business in Zimbabwe. The strategy in the infrastructure sectors is to encourage public private partnerships (PPPs) for the financing and execution of the different sub-projects. This strategy has been emerging in the electric power, road transport, and ICT sectors and is now being extended to water supply and sanitation. This review builds on the findings from an October-November 2013 mission that, upon the request of the Ministry of Finance, assessed the ministerial submissions for the 2014 public sector investment program (PSIP). The review concludes that the perception of the predictable policies is key for attracting responsible private partners for sustainable PPPs. The review recommends less risky options such as: (i) outsourcing operations of existing plants; (ii) lease contracts of existing plants; and (iii) sales of existing thermal plants. The review notes that the analytical multi donor trust fund (AMDTF) is programmed to close on June 30, 2014. It is of the essence to explore the possibilities to locate concessionary funding for a successor to the AMDTF given the high priority of additional studies in the power, water, and ICT sectors to prepare for the reforms suggested.

This issue includes the following headings: donors: aid versus trade; investment: seeking strong partners; power: hydro heats up; water: sanitation solutions; and first person: African Development Bank President