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Project greenback 2.0, remittances champion cities consists in identifying cities where a series of measures are implemented to foster the development of a sound remittance market. The objective of the project is the promotion of transparency and competition in the market for remittances and, ultimately, the reduction of prices for remittance services. Montreuil, France is the second Remittances Champion City after Turin, Italy. This report presents the main results of the survey. It starts with an overview of migration from and remittances to the selected countries. It then presents the research objectives and describes both the survey design and sampling methodology as well as the challenges posed by the field work. It is followed by a presentation of the main findings of the survey, based on a total sample of 428 migrants. After a brief description of the socio-demographic characteristics of the surveyed migrants, the discussion focuses on their financial inclusion and their remittance behavior. The last part of the report provides concluding remarks on the policy options for private and public actions to promote the objectives of greenback 2.0.

This Technical Note evaluates state bank corporate governance practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis was completed during October 27-November 18, 2014. This TN is not a formal assessment against the Basel Committee’s Principles for Enhancing Governance; rather, it assesses key issues and provides a set of recommendations to the authorities with the view to strengthen state bank governance and the State’s ownership structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The governments of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republic of Srpska (RS) are involved in their domestic banking systems through equity stakes and subordinated debt investments in certain banking institutions. Banks’ supervisory boards are not performing their intended leadership role.

Ghana is experiencing its third gold rush, and this paper sheds light on the socioeconomic impacts of this rapid expansion in industrial production. The paper uses a rich data set consisting of geocoded household data combined with detailed information on gold mining activities, and conducts two types of difference-in-differences estimations that provide complementary evidence. The first is a local-level analysis that identifies an economic footprint area very close to a mine; the second is a district-level analysis that captures the fiscal channel. The results indicate that men are more likely to benefit from direct employment as miners and that women are more likely to gain from indirect employment opportunities in services, although these results are imprecisely measured. Long-established households gain access to infrastructure, such as electricity and radios. Migrants living close to mines are less likely to have access to electricity and the incidence of diarrheal diseases is higher among migrant children. Overall, however, infant mortality rates decrease significantly in mining communities.

In mid-2014, the Government of Ukraine (GoU) requested technical assistance and financial support from the inter¬national community to assess and plan priority recovery and peacebuilding efforts in the conflict-affected regions of eastern Ukraine. Following these requests, and within the framework of the 2008 Joint Declaration on Post-Crisis Assessments and Recovery Planning, the EU, UN, and WBG agreed to support the government in undertaking a Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment (RPA). This assessment follows the Post-Conflict Needs Assessment (PCNA) methodology. In view of the continuing conflict in eastern Ukraine, it was decided to undertake an initial rapid assess¬ment as a first phase of activity, which would provide an analytical and programmatic baseline for recovery efforts to inform urgent interventions and provide a basis for scaling up recovery plan¬ning and responses as the situation and needs evolve on the ground. This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the first phase of the RPA, which was undertaken in the period November 2014 to February 2015. In light of the dynamic and fluid nature of the situation in eastern Ukraine, these findings should be considered as a snapshot in time. In particular, the assessment of infrastructure damage is limited to the damage that occurred on or before November 2014. Furthermore, the number of registered internally displaced persons (IDPs), utilized as a reference to estimate the needs of this affected population, corresponds to the official government estimates as of February 2015.

Land and property rights, migration, and citizenship are complex issues that cut across all social, economic, and political spheres of West Africa. This paper provides an overarching scoping of the most pressing contemporary issues related to land, migration, and citizenship, including how they intersect in various contexts and locations in West Africa. The way issues are analytically framed captures structural challenges and sets them against the regional and global meta-trends of which policy makers and practitioners should be aware for conflict-sensitive planning. The paper points to some of the effective practices in managing and mitigating these issues and also raises several questions on areas for future research. Part one lays out the migratory context in West Africa. It points to the type, nature, and extent of mobility that characterizes the region. Part two sets out West Africa’s land tenure and management systems, including structural challenges, general management policies, and key issues related to land tenure and migrants. Part three frames the key land and migration meta-trends in the context of fragility. Part four concludes with an overall exploration of the paper’s results and puts forward a series of research questions that are necessary in order to discern the most effective and realistic operational approaches.

This report starts by presenting the international and Italian context of international remittance flows in the past decade, as a general framework of the study (chapter two). The connection between the labor market integration of migrants with the more general economic trends in their destination countries is a crucial issue in the current academic and political debate. Trends and impacts of the economic crisis reflect themselves in micro-behaviors and affect also the transnational activities of migrants. Chapter three presents the objectives of the research and the related survey design and sampling techniques for the fieldwork, while a specific methodological note is added at the end of the report on the fieldwork phase. Chapter four focuses on empirical findings from the analysis of the 480 interviews collected. After a brief description of demographic and economic conditions of interviewed migrants, the core of this section is devoted to the analysis of migrants’ attitudes and behaviors in sending remittances, in engaging in investments and savings, and to explore changes across time and according to their occupational status at destination. In light of the global commitment to the reduction of remittance costs as a part of a more comprehensive strategy to foster the migration and development nexus, a specific section deals with remittance service providers and remittance costs revealing still room for improvement for the development of a competitive and transparent remittance market. The conclusive chapter highlights the main empirical findings and suggests further lines of analysis on migratory models, migrant economic integration and transnationalism from the collected empirical evidence.

In 2009 the Gabonese authorities defined a new vision whose strategic guidelines are detailed in an operational plan, the strategic plan for an emerging Gabon (PSGE) whose goal is to turn Gabon into an emerging country within one generation. PSGE includes an ambitious public investment program to develop basic infrastructure and to create the necessary economic environment for the emergence of a diversified economy. The major challenge for PSGE, and how it can be different from previous development plans, will be to become a growth model that is both sustainable and inclusive, leading to a significant improvement in the revenue and living conditions of all Gabonese people. This report is a contribution to the debate on how to achieve this goal. It was developed as part of the implementation of a new World Bank intervention strategy in Gabon wherein competitiveness and employment is the first pillar. It identifies the main obstacles to the low impact of economic growth on employment in Gabon and makes recommendations that will foster dialogue between the World Bank and the Gabonese authorities on the subject. The report is divided into three parts: (i) an analysis of Gabons economic performance since the independence and its effect on employment, (ii) an analysis of the main characteristics of the labor market, and (iii) a review of the main obstacles to job creation. The conclusion recommends some options for reforming the labor market as well as the legal and institutional framework for employment promotion in Gabon.

Grenada has faced various socioeconomic challenges within the last decade, including the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and the global financial crisis. As a result, economic indicators for Grenada illustrate unfavorable. Increases in the poverty and unemployment rates, especially among the youth and young adults. This report presents an assessment of the regulatory, legislative, and institutional landscape governing workforce development (WfD) in Grenada. The results of this analysis are based on a newly designed analytical tool developed by the World Bank under the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative. The aim of this initiative is to garner data so as to provide systematic documentation and assessment of the policy and institution factors that influence the performance of education and training systems of SABER-participating countries. The SABER-WfD tool encompasses initial, continuing, and targeted vocational education and training that are offered through multiple channels, and focus largely on programs at the secondary and post-secondary levels. The results of the assessment presented in this report are expected to assist in clarifying priorities. They classify the WfD system according to four stages of maturity in policy and institutional development, as follows: (1) Latent, (2) Emerging, (3) Established, and (4) Advanced.

The Czech Republic's care system for unaccompanied minors rests on a solid legal framework. However, it is essential to ensure that the common practice reflects the law, and that unaccompanied minors (further referred to as UAMs) are provided with sufficient care. It is obvious that the Facility for Children of Foreign Nationals - Permon, is still far from ideal. In general, unaccompanied minors should not be traumatized by living together with children who suffer from behaviour disorders, nor should they live in isolated environment. It is vital to consider the qualities of the personnel who work with the target group and their language skills. It is further necessary to provide unaccompanied minors with an early psychotherapeutic care in order to avoid their later hospitalizations in psychiatric hospitals. In addition, UAMs should also attend intensive courses of the Czech language so that they can fully integrate into a Czech school as early as possible. It also emerged that a legal regulation which would govern age tests in all resorts is necessary. Therefore, a new concept of how UAMs should be integrated into the Czech society is needed.

This case study summarizes the findings of desk reviews and a field visit carried out in January 2011 as part of IEG's evaluation of the 2007 Governance and Anticorruption (GAC) strategy. The case study sought to evaluate the relevance and effectiveness of Bank support for GAC efforts over the FY2004-10 period, to assess the contributions of 2007 strategy implementation, and to identify early outcomes and lessons. This Background Paper is based on findings of the mission that visited Liberia in January 2011. The team is particularly grateful for informative meetings with officials from the Government of Liberia, Bank staff, and members of civil society. The evaluation aims to help enhance the Bank's approach to governance and anticorruption and to improve its effectiveness in helping countries develop capable and accountable states that create opportunities for the poor. Pursuant to this objective, the evaluation assessed the relevance of the 2007 GAC strategy and implementation plan, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of implementation efforts in making Bank engagement with countries and other development partners more responsive to GAC concerns. It also sought to identify early lessons about what works and what does not in helping to promote good governance and reduce corruption. The Liberia case study is based on an extensive desk review as well as a field visit to Monrovia from January 17-22, 2011. It evaluates the relevance and effectiveness of Bank support for governance and anticorruption efforts since the launch of the Bank's GAC strategy in 2007. It elaborates on a desk review of the GAC responsiveness of the Bank's Liberia program and reviews the following GAC entry points: core public sector reform (public financial management and decentralization); demand for good governance (including social accountability issues); GAC in the road sector; and the investment climate. The case study also examines the extent to which the Bank's GAC Strategy has made a difference in staff attitudes toward addressing GAC issues in their operational work. The mission interviewed government, Bank, donor, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) staff based in Washington and in Monrovia.

This paper describes forced displacement in the Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA) and the vulnerabilities associated with being a displaced person. It analyzes the development challenges of forced displacement particularly protracted displacement in the region and the prospects for durable solutions. Displaced persons face challenges related to recovery of or access to housing and land, employment and livelihoods, access to services and public goods including health, education, and infrastructure, and accountable and responsive governance.

This issue includes the following headings: integrated health systems: Lesothos pioneering model; access to healthcare for the poor: lessons from Ghana, India, and Mexico; and cost efficiency: Singapores secret to healthcare.

Inclusive growth (IG) analysis involves analyzing the available data in a country to determine the best course of action for accelerating growth and or improving the distribution of the opportunities and benefits from the growth process. In economies in which international migration is a significant trend, that determination may be especially challenging. The international migration phenomenon can contribute to (or detract from) growth and its distribution through myriad number of complex and sometimes divergent channels, and these effects can change substantially over time. The ability to analyze these impacts, however, is often significantly handicapped by a lack of appropriate data. Moreover, because the migration decision is inherently a private decision made by households in the best interest of their welfare, determining the policy conclusions based on the results of inclusive growth analysis is often unclear. Governments are rightfully wary of interfering with the migration process. This paper examines the issue of international migration in inclusive growth. The aim is to provide the practitioners of inclusive growth diagnostics a useful framework for assessing the nature of the international migration phenomenon, and to highlight the key tools utilized in evaluating its current and potential impact on shared growth.

Portability of social benefits across professions and countries is an increasing concern for individuals and policy makers. Lacking or incomplete transfers of acquired social rights are feared to negatively impact individual labor market decisions as well as capacity to address social risks with consequences for economic and social outcomes. The paper gives a fresh and provocative look on the international perspective of the topic that has so far been dominated by social policy lawyers working within the framework of bilateral agreements; the input by economists has been very limited. It offers an analytical framework for portability analysis that suggests separating the risk pooling, (implicit or actual) pre-funding and redistributive elements in the benefit design and explores the proposed alternative approach for pensions and health care benefits. This promising approach may serve both as a substitute and complement to bi- and multilateral agreements.

This brief focuses on the period of displacement and seeks to outline the impact of refugees on neighboring countries, including the developmental implications of forced displacement. The study has two main sections. The first section describes trends in the distribution of refugees in asylum countries. A series of graphs and tables highlights the fact that the largest percentage of refugees is found in countries neighboring their country of origin, most of which are middle-income countries. The second section discusses how neighboring countries that host refugees for protracted periods experience long-term economic, social, political, and environmental impacts. Furthermore, it also shows that in terms of the impacts and the opportunities that the presence of refugees create, there can be winners and losers among both the displaced and their hosts. Finally, this brief presents examples of global experience of development interventions that have focused on mitigating the negative aspects of large-scale and protracted displacement and strengthening the productive capacities of refugees in host countries.

How is ‘difference’ reflected on crime and the criminal justice system in Portugal? The answers obtained depend on which notions we can translate ‘difference’ into: ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘foreigners’, ‘immigrants’, ‘minorities’. This, in turn, depends also on whether we focus on statistics, rates, or, from another angle, experiences of crime and of the criminal justice system. Quantitative and qualitative data highlight different but complementary aspects of a same landscape. This paper focuses on both. It first uses Portuguese official statistics, which allow for grasping ‘difference’ only in terms of the pair: foreigners/citizens, regardless of race or ethnicity. Second, it draws on an ethnographic study in a women’s prison, which allowed for the highlighting of the way categories of race and ethnicity may be at play in crime, law enforcement, and the experience of imprisonment. In all three domains class and the nature of residential areas emerge as important conditions for the relevance of race and ethnicity. The changing intersection between ethnicity and class, mediated by conditions such as the neighbourhood and the workings of the drug economy contributes to prevent, in prison, strong expressions of race and ethnicity as categories of identity and social organization., (undefined)

This report seeks to inform the development of a framework for addressing governance reform in fragile and conflict affected environments through are view of international experiences. The report analyzes the experience both of countries that sustained a transition to peace and those that fell back into conflict. Pertinent lessons will be drawn selectively from a range of fragile and conflict affected countries, including Haiti, Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mozambique, Liberia, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, and Angola. No specific typologies have been adopted or formed in order to assess these lessons, because typologies can be limiting and experiences can be better assessed based on the specificity of each country's context. The first section of the report sets out broadly accepted definitions of key terms such as governance, state building, and fragility. The second section reviews experiences with diverse governance dimensions and explores the objectives, opportunities, and constraints associated with each.

The point of this paper is to emphasize the importance and role of leadership for African growth, development, and poverty reduction. It is also an attempt to project a more objective assessment of leadership issues during the first three to four decades of African independence. Agreeing on shared responsibilities for Africa's failures in its early years will enable all who want to take part in the continent's renewal to focus on the partnership that is now needed to close a sad chapter in Africa's history, and open a new one. The core elements of such a partnership have evolved in the last decade, and this paper argues passionately for the political will, in Africa and outside, for their realization.

En este artículo se analiza la conformación del empresariado comercial de Concepción en las décadas finales del siglo XIX, en que culmina una etapa de expansión de la economía regional, como fue la segunda mitad de ese siglo. La fuente utilizada la constituyen los Registros de Comercio, en que se inscribe la formación de sociedades. Se puede advertir que el empresariado dominante en la región eran las firmas extranjeras, cuyo centro en el país fue el puerto de Valparaíso. La única firma local que por su capital y gestiones se equiparaba a aquéllas fue la casa de Mauricio Gleisner y Cía. Analizamos el número y tipo de sociedades que se formaron en Concepción, sus giros mercantiles, los capitales invertidos y la procedencia de los socios, fuesen nacionales o extranjeros. Considerando los capitales de las sociedades establecemos una jerarquización de empresas en tres tramos, determinando que fue en el tramo intermedio donde se verificó en mayor proporción la irrupción de comerciantes europeos, lo cual a nivel nacional fue denunciado por intelectuales nacionalistas como un desplazamiento de los nacionales por los extranjeros. Finalmente nos referimos a la participación que tuvo la mujer en el empresariado comercial. This article analyzes the formation of a community of commercial entrepreneurs in Concepción at the end of the nineteenth century, when the expansion the regional economy underwent from the 1850s reached its culmination. The main source for this study is Registros de Comercio, which recorded the creation of all sorts of partnerships. We have established that the dominant businesses in the region were the large foreign companies operating in Valparaíso; the only local firm whose capital and activities compared favorably to those foreign firms was Mauricio Gleisner & Cía. We also analyzed the number and type of partnerships established in Concepción, their main activities, and the national origin of their members. In addition, we distinguish three categories of firms according to the amount of initial capital. We conclude that it was the group of middlesized companies that saw the predominance of European merchants, which at the national level was denounced by nationalistic intellectuals as a displacement of domestic entrepreneurs by foreign entrepreneurs. Finally, we examine the role of women in the region’s commercial sector.

En el romancero escrito bajo la republica se denuncian abiertamente los crimenes y ocasiones de guerra de los nacionales, a la vez que se trata de exaltar el espiritu combativo del soldado republicano . Otra de sus finalidades fue alimentar el odio hacia los insurrectos y sus aliados, sirviendo como vehiculo propagandistico contra Francisco Franco y los demas generales. Dentro de este contexto de denuncia y critica de los rebeldes, los llamados romances de moros nos presentanuna visión repulsiva del norteafricano que formaba parte del ejercito de Africa, directamente relacionada con el estereotipo multisecular del moro cruel y violento. In the ballads written is support of the spanish republic , there is an open outcry against the war crimes committed by the nacionals, while as the same time they try to praise the convative spirit of the republican soldiers. another purpose was to promote hate against insurrents and their allies, serving as a prapagandistic tool against Francisco Franco, and the others generals. Whitin this context of denounce and criticism of the rebels, the so called Moorish ballad offter us a repulsive vision of the inhabitant of notherm Africa, an important source of men for the rebels African army. this vision of the moroccans is related to the multi secular stereotype of the cruel and violent Moor inthe spanish mind.

In the ballads written is support of the spanish republic , there is an open outcry against the war crimes committed by the nacionals, while as the same time they try to praise the convative spirit of the republican soldiers. another purpose was to promote hate against insurrents and their allies, serving as a prapagandistic tool against Francisco Franco, and the others generals. Whitin this context of denounce and criticism of the rebels, the so called Moorish ballad offter us a repulsive vision of the inhabitant of notherm Africa, an important source of men for the rebels African army. this vision of the moroccans is related to the multi secular stereotype of the cruel and violent Moor inthe spanish mind. En el romancero escrito bajo la republica se denuncian abiertamente los crimenes y ocasiones de guerra de los nacionales, a la vez que se trata de exaltar el espiritu combativo del soldado republicano . Otra de sus finalidades fue alimentar el odio hacia los insurrectos y sus aliados, sirviendo como vehiculo propagandistico contra Francisco Franco y los demas generales. Dentro de este contexto de denuncia y critica de los rebeldes, los llamados romances de moros nos presentanuna visión repulsiva del norteafricano que formaba parte del ejercito de Africa, directamente relacionada con el estereotipo multisecular del moro cruel y violento.