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Review and Guidance on ECD Assessment Tools in FCV Contexts
No full textBy 2030, an estimated two-thirds of
the world's extremely poor could be concentrated in
countries and contexts characterized by fragility, conflict,
and violence (FCV) (World Bank Group, 2020). FCV contexts,
affected by humanitarian crises, prolonged emergencies, and
armed conflicts, are significant hindrances to poverty
reduction and sustainable development. The cycle of
instability and violence in these contexts often leads to
the destruction of infrastructure and a strain on resources,
making it difficult for communities to lift themselves out
of poverty and achieve sustainable development goals. The
list of FCV contexts includes the World Bank list of
countries and territories affected by fragility and conflict
situations (FCS), as well as countries suffering from
violence and those with large-forcibly displaced populations
that are not included in the FCS list. This review aims to
describe which early childhood development (ECD) measurement
tools have been used in FCV contexts and to serve as a guide
for tool selection in these settings. This guidance is
intended to assist country teams in identifying appropriate
tools for ECD measurement activities, provided that such
activities are already recognized as priorities. While
parents and caregivers are essential to ECD, particularly in
FCV environments, this review does not concern tools that
measure adults' well-being or parenting-related
outcomes. Instead, it measures children's developmental
outcomes and other child-related constructs relevant to FCV
contexts. The authors briefly describe the situation of
children living in FCV contexts and how it can affect their
development. We then make a case for the importance of ECD
measurement, the lack of data on ECD in FCV contexts, and
the data collection challenges. After that, we provide a
deep dive into what was found in the desk review and provide
a framework for tool selection. Finally, we present policy recommendations
Links Between Forced Displacement, Conflict and Intimate Partner Violence in Colombia and Liberia
Get PDFDisplacement and conflict substantially heighten the risk of gender-based violence including intimate partner violence (IPV), experienced by women and girls. This study aims to examine the links between conflict, forced displacement and IPV using nationally representative survey data measuring IPV combined with data on conflict-related violence from two different conflict-affected settings: Colombia and Liberia. We find that forced displacement is strongly associated with increased lifetime and past year IPV. Displaced women and girls in Colombia and Liberia have a 36 and 55 per cent, respectively greater risk of experiencing past year IPV and 39 and 49 per cent greater risk of experiencing lifetime IPV in each country respectively, compared to their non-displaced counterparts. Both conflict and displacement are independently and significantly associated with past year IPV. Taking conflict intensity into account increases the associated IPV risk to 40 and 60 per cent in Colombia and Liberia respectively. Recognising the increased prevalence of IPV for displaced women is vital to providing effective assistance. Humanitarian, state and peace-building efforts, should encompass the provision of a range of assistance services to help displaced and conflict-affected women heal from the impacts of the violence
Knowledge, Data, and Information
No full textAfrica has significant potential to improve its climate-smart sustainable development by focusing on the Blue Economy. However, efforts to reach this potential are stymied by poor access to relevant data and knowledge due to inadequate historical investments in technology and institutional capacity for modernization. Today, many opportunities exist to leapfrog traditional development paths by leveraging a new range of technologies. BlueTech refers to the innovative use of emerging technologies to scale up the development impact of the Blue Economy, while managing associated trade-offs. These technologies can potentially accelerate the expansion of the Blue Economy, but only if African countries invest in enabling infrastructure, capacity, and services to strengthen their technological innovation ecosystem. A robust technological backbone will better harness the power of the cloud, e-package data, and technological knowledge to enable new ways to collect, analyze, and share data, making it more accessible and usable. At the same time, it will facilitate the collaborative development of harmonized systems to generate insights into and support decisions relating to the Blue Economy
Preparing Tomorrow’s Workers for Home and Abroad
No full textHigher-income countries are aging at unprecedented rates, creating skills shortages in critical sectors ranging from healthcare to construction to information technology. At the same time, many lower-income countries are experiencing booming youth populations, but many lack the skills needed to access quality work opportunities both at home and abroad. In Global Skill Partnerships (GSPs), origin and destination countries partner to invest in education and training systems in the origin country to meet skill needs in both countries. Through collaboration and innovation in skills development and migration management, GSPs cost-effectively expand domestic training capacity in the origin while facilitating the benefits of regularized skilled migration. This report reviews the state of knowledge of GSPs, considers terminology and approaches, provides a roadmap for policymakers who want to implement GSPs, and clarifies the role of multilateral development institutions in this pivotal agenda. Various GSP and GSP-like programs and pilots have already been implemented globally and financed through various sources, and this report reviews their essential features, challenges faced, and lessons learned for future initiatives. Before highlighting these examples, the report discusses the current global economic landscape, focusing on demographic and education trends and why they call for international partnerships to invest in education and training for workers to participate in domestic and international markets
Viet Nam Macro Monitoring, April 2025
No full textIndustrial production increased by 8.6 percent y/y in March 2025, compared to 4.8 percent y/y in March 2024, driven by apparel, electronics and machinery. The PMI entered expansionary territory (50.5) in March after three months of contraction, driven by growth in new orders despite high uncertainties. Revenue collection for the first three months of 2025 reached 36.7 percent of the State budget’s annual plan compared to 31.7 percent in the same period of 2024, driven by increases in VAT and corporate income tax collection. However, the public investment disbursement rate slowed as of end of March 2025, reaching 9.5 percent of Prime Minister’s annual plan, below the 12.3 percent execution rate from the same period of last year
Une nouvelle approche prometteuse pour le M300 développée au Niger
No full textIn spring 2024, the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank
launched an ambitious effort to connect 300 million people in Africa with electricity access by 2030. The subsequent M300 Africa Energy Summit held in January in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was a landmark gathering focused on accelerating energy access across Africa. Renewable energy mini grids are expected to play a key role in this deployment. But for a scale-up commensurate with the need, governments—with support from donors—must create an enabling environment capable of attracting private investment and ensuring long-term sustainability. This Live Wire showcases a new approach for assessing mini grid market readiness. Developed in Niger, it could become a blueprint for the mini-grid work under M300. The recent work in Niger provides a comprehensive methodology for assessing a country’s readiness for private sector participation in mini-grid development. Using a 10-building-block framework, the study evaluated key technical, regulatory, financial, and institutional barriers to mini-grid deployment and proposed actionable solutions. The insights from this study
offer a valuable model for other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, ensuring that the necessary technical, regulatory, and financial foundations are in place to scale mini grids effectively and support M300 goals.Au printemps 2024, le Groupe de la Banque mondiale et la Banque africaine de développement
a lancé un effort ambitieux pour connecter 300 millions de personnes en Afrique à l’électricité d’ici 2030. Le Sommet africain de l’énergie M300, qui s’est tenu en janvier à Dar es Salaam, en Tanzanie, a été un rassemblement historique axé sur l’accélération de l’accès à l’énergie en Afrique. Les mini-réseaux d’énergie renouvelable devraient jouer un rôle clé dans ce déploiement. Mais pour que l’expansion soit à la mesure des besoins, les gouvernements, avec l’appui des donateurs, doivent créer un environnement favorable capable d’attirer les investissements privés et d’assurer la durabilité à long terme. Ce fil en direct présente une nouvelle approche pour évaluer l’état de préparation du marché des mini-réseaux. Développé au Niger, il pourrait devenir un modèle pour le travail de mini-réseau sous M300. Les travaux récents au Niger fournissent une méthodologie complète pour évaluer l’état de préparation d’un pays à la participation du secteur privé au développement de mini-réseaux. À l’aide d’un cadre de 10 modules, l’étude a évalué les principaux obstacles techniques, réglementaires, financiers et institutionnels au déploiement de mini-réseaux et a proposé des solutions réalisables. Les enseignements de cette étude
offrir un modèle précieux pour d’autres pays d’Afrique subsaharienne, en veillant à ce que les bases techniques, réglementaires et financières nécessaires soient en place pour faire évoluer efficacement les mini-réseaux et soutenir les objectifs de M300
Navigating Fiscal Realities for Equitable Growth in Georgia
No full textGeorgia has made impressive economic progress over the past two decades, achieving strong and resilient economic growth and development despite numerous external and domestic shocks. This Fiscal Incidence Analysis (FIA) report serves as a baseline for evaluating current fiscal policy and potential policy reforms to enhance fiscal equity and sustainability. The Commitment to Equity (CEQ) methodology helps understand which population subgroups benefit the most from public expenditures and which subgroups are paying the taxes that finance those expenditures. It traces changes in the distribution of household incomes from market income (before taxes and transfers) to final income, identifying changes in income inequality and poverty attributable to different fiscal policy interventions such as taxes, transfers, and social expenditures. The equity aspect of fiscal policy is critical to informing Sustainable Development Goals Indicator 10.4.2, which measures the redistributive impact of fiscal policy. The FIA helps identify spending priorities based on their contributions to reducing poverty and inequality and examines how fiscal space can be created without increasing the burden on poor and vulnerable households
What Happened to Europe’s Middle Class in the Course of a Decade ?
No full textThis paper uses a vulnerability-based
approach to analyze the evolution of the middle class in
Europe between 2005–08 and 2015–18. The analysis reveals
that, on average, the income level needed to ensure a low
probability of falling into poverty—also understood as the
vulnerability threshold—increased between those periods in
real terms. This increase correlates with decreases in the
size of the middle class in many European countries. In
parallel, the composition of the middle class changed, with
an increased share of tertiary-educated household heads and
a larger share of household heads with managerial and
professional occupations. Lastly, the households that were
not poor, but not yet middle class, were further from
becoming middle class in the second period than in the first period
A Firm-Level Impact Evaluation
No full textThis paper studies the impact of a World Bank program aimed at promoting access to finance for micro, small, and medium-size enterprises in Ecuador. A staggered difference-in-differences method is used to estimate the impact of the program on 2,035 participant firms during 2019–23. The findings show that the program had a positive effect on these firms, by boosting their financing, number of workers, short-term assets, and sales. This effect is similar when enterprises are female-led and is larger for firms that had no previous access to finance
Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in the Digital Era
No full textFrom 2018 to 2022, household access to home internet in Latin
America and the Caribbean (LAC) increased from 50.7 to 68.4
percent, with higher access rates in urban areas (ITU, 2023).
In most countries of LAC, there are pronounced disparities in
access to the internet between poor and non-poor households
(World Bank, 2024). There are notable gender disparities too.
Men generally have better access to the internet than women,
but in some countries a higher percentage of women accesses
the internet . The gender gap favoring women
(expressed in percentage points) is particularly significant in
the Dominican Republic. Similarly, a noticeable gap in favor of
women’s internet usage can be seen in Nicaragua, Paraguay,
and Uruguay