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This study examines recent developments of mobility patterns in West Africa within the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A broad understanding of mobilities is applied to account for mobilities of people, goods and capital likewise. The aim is to track changes in mobility patterns caused by the pandemic and by institutional responses to the latter. The study may herein serve to encourage more in depth and comprehensive studies of the new (im)mobilities and the regimes that shape them. Embedding the subject of mobility changes into the political-economic framework of the networks of global capitalism and taking a perspective on the formative regimes, we develop first suppositions on how to apply the concept of (im)mobility regimes to assess the newly manifested (im)mobilisations. To shed light on the bigger picture of recent developments in Western Africa, this study tackles a wide range of mobility-related topics. At first, the epidemiological situation as well as the local testing regimes are analysed in order to assess the extent to which the pandemic is scientifically captured in Western Africa in contrast to other regions. By then providing a systematic outline of the lockdown policies of the individual ECOWAS member states, a first approach to the formative regimes can be given. The manifest new (im)mobilities of people are then evaluated with a focus on public transport, migratory movements and public air travel. Thereafter, the (im)mobilities of goods are discussed with a special focus on maritime freight mobilities. Finally, (im)mobilities of capital are dealt with in order to address changes and constants in the context of COVID-19, for example in the realm of remittances. Overall, this provides a first basis for a multi-dimensional understanding of the emerging phenomena in the ECOWAS region.

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.

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 explores the sectors that will be instrumental for positive CU impact and competitiveness in the medium term. The initial chapter analyzes the gaps and opportunities the Kyrgyz NQI presents for capturing benefits of access to the enlarged common market across sectors. The next three chapters take an in-depth look at three high-growth sectors and identify adaptation priorities and opportunities. Agriculture, services, and garments are a large and growing share of exports and are the sectors most likely to be transformed by accession to the CU and the increased tariffs to countries outside the EEU. Services added 56 percent to GDP in 2013, while agriculture contributed 18 percent, and manufacturing 16 percent. Exports in the garment sector were close to US$200 million in 2013, employing over 150,000 workers. The main findings of each chapter are summarized below followed by a summary of recommendations. This report is relevant to the Kyrgyz experience as it highlights important differences both in terms of regulations and technical requirements. The report highlights differences between the EU and CU regulatory systems in approaches to food safety and legislation, but it also analyzes the differences in infrastructure aspects of the NQI, such as testing laboratories and certification mechanisms between the EU and CU. The Customs Union approach is based on end-product compliance to a specific technical regulation or standard, whereas the European Union relies on preventive measures and minimizing risks associated with each process throughout the complete food chain. In the CU food control system, food control bodies verify that the end-product meets the required technical specifications established by the government; in the EU system, end-product attributes such as size, color, shape, smell, and taste are generally left to the marketplace to judge if they are acceptable. Importantly, the report pinpoints specific technical requirements for EU food safety that differ from the CU requirements (microbiological criteria for foodstuff, contaminants in food; maximum residue limits for residues of pesticides, and pharmacologically active substances).

This report seeks to shed light on the ways in which the services sector has contributed to Lao PDR’s competitiveness and integration into the global marketplace. It focuses on two complementary roles that the services sector plays: first, as an avenue for export diversification and growth and, second,by providing inputs into other productive sectors of the economy, such as the manufacturing sector. As economies grow, the importance of the services sector generally increases, but its role as an enabler of other sectors of the economy in moving up the value chain is frequently overlooked. However, the services sector is critical in raising competitiveness of these other sectors to boost growth and create better quality jobs. The main policy recommendations that emerge from this report are aimed at increasing competition in the services sector, reducing distortive regulations, and opening up the sector to foreign participation, building up skills, both at the individual and at the firm level, and investing in hard and soft infrastructure to promote the development of the sector.

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.

Devastating earthquakes in April and May of 2015 took a huge human toll, destroyed homes, businesses, irreplaceable cultural heritage sites, and slowed economic growth. The Government of Nepal (GoN), through a post disaster needs assessment (PDNA), estimated the value of losses at United States dollar (USD) 7.1 billion (physical damage of USD 5.2 billion and economic losses, spanning several years, of USD 1.9 billion). Nepal’s political parties intensified their efforts to adopt a new constitution, after eight years of deliberations, spurred on by the shift in political priorities following the April and May earthquakes. A normalization was envisaged whereby the faster budget implementation and sustained reconstruction activities can lead to a surge in imports, which will have tipped the current account balance into deficit over the forecast period, despite large remittances. Similarly, increased government spending on capital expenditure, as national reconstruction authority speeds up reconstruction activities, will lead to a larger budget deficit. The aim of this report is to report on key economic developments over the preceding months, placing them in a longer term and global perspective and to examine topics of particular policy significance.

Cross border value chains are increasingly seen as critical for export growth, providing the conduit for more than half of developing countries exports in value-added terms. However, Africa’s contribution to cross border value chains remains low, at 1.5 percent. And African countries’ limited participation in value chains is in the lower-value, lower end stages of production. Reasons for this limited integration include infrastructure, thick borders, geographical remoteness, size, fragmentation, and the limited financial capacities and service industries of African countries.

In the 22 years between 1992 and 2014 Vietnam attained the remarkable average annual rate of economic growth of 6.9 percent. However, the sources of growth that underpinned much of this period of economic transformation ready availability of labor and a structural shift of national production from subsistence agriculture to industry and services are gradually being depleted and cannot be sustained indefinitely. Given that a substantial share of Vietnam’s growth has been associated with the expansion of manufacturing linked to international trade, more competitive freight logistics which are the backbone of import-export activity should be among those levers. This report aims to compile the key lessons that have been learned by other countries in setting up platforms for direct dialogue between public sector agencies and private sector freight stakeholders at the planning and policy making level. This experience yields options for Vietnam to strengthen its own approaches to public private and public policy dialogue in logistics. Chapter one gives background and current situation. Chapter two briefly summarizes the current state of private sector involvement in the public sector functions of management and oversight of Vietnam’s logistics industry. Chapter three draws lessons from a limited number of relevant countries where governments have instituted institutional mechanisms for private sector engagement and inter-agency collaboration in logistics and transport planning and policy making. Chapter four offers recommendations for the Government of Vietnam (GoV) towards realistically implementing and ultimately mainstreaming robust private sector engagement and inter-agency collaboration in logistics. Chapter five presents the findings of a recent World Bank- Ministry of Transport (MoT) survey of Vietnam-based private sector freight stakeholders on the subject of private sector engagement in the planning and policy making processes of government. Chapter six concludes by offering examples of the kinds of good public sector logistics management practices that the GoV can pursue if it availed itself of the collaborative mechanisms recommended by this report.

Regulatory frameworks on logistics regulations are often opaque, especially in developing countries, because of the complex nature of logistics services. World Bank client countries have faced difficulty finding the issues that hinder them from improving logistics competence. Therefore, it is beneficial to understand how the logistics service industry is regulated and what should be addressed in building the regulatory framework to improve logistics competence. This note proposes questions to be addressed for beneficial regulations by reviewing existing logistics service regulations in 14 countries, particularly regulations for the freight forwarding industry. These questions will help in assessing a regulatory framework and identifying regulatory weaknesses. This note suggests that the regulatory framework should take into consideration national recognition of freight forwarding business, an institutional arrangement with clear division of responsibility among stakeholders, and streamlined but flexible regulations adapted to the country context.

The objective of this study was to assess the economy wide indirect benefits of investments in the East West highway (EWH). This study has used a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, which simulates indirect benefits associated with the completion of the upgraded road corridor. The transmission channel modeled is the reduction in transportation costs - reduction in vehicle operating costs, and time savings - resulting from the investments in the EWH. A CGE model is a simultaneous equation system that consists of equations representing various economic relationships for different economic agents, such as producers and households. CGE models are commonly used by countries and international financial institutions to simulate policy interventions to determine economy-wide impacts. This study involved modifying the existing social accounting matrix (SAM) and CGE model in order to carry out simulations to answer the question of economy wide impacts of the EWH investments, including impacts on real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, jobs, and trade, as well as impacts on households disaggregated by income. It aims to answer the following questions: how will the EWH lower the transportation costs for producers of goods and services?; what are the economy wide impacts of the EWH on employment, real GDP growth, trade, and household income?; and can the EWH help bridge the existing economic divide between rural and urban areas in Georgia? The study is aims to simulate quantitatively how the EWH as a large-scale infrastructure investment program can bring significant stimulus to foster economic growth and welfare in Georgia.

Economic activity in many African countries remains highly concentrated and exports are often dominated by mineral resources or a few primary products. The World Bank’s 2011 report on light manufacturing in Africa identified poor trade logistics performance as a constraint that especially penalized African exporters that relied on imported inputs, very often making them uncompetitive. The report highlighted research that demonstrated how poor logistics added roughly a 10 percent production cost penalty in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia across the five subsectors of light manufacturing where opportunities were identified as greatest in Africa. The report outlined how in Africa poor trade logistics increase production costs (often wiping out the labor cost advantage) and lead to long and unreliable delivery times, making local firm’s unattractive suppliers to lead firms in global value chains (GVCs), particularly for light manufacturing. This note seeks to contribute to a review of progress in achieving export diversification through greater exports of light manufacturing products. It looks at recent trends in the exports of the five categories of light manufacturing identified as having strong potential in Africa. The note reviews progress in improving trade logistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the three countries highlighted in the light manufacturing study: Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, and additionally Kenya and Uganda.

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.