The World Bank

Monitoring the performance of the Customs administration using key performance indicators has led to substantial institutional development impact. The project was also instrumental in creating local project teams, which were semi-informal structures with representatives of each administration working at border/customs sites (Customs, Veterinary, Police, Phyto-sanitary, and road taxes). It also provided technical assistance and advisory services to trade and international transport participants through BULPRO. BULPRO is a consultative committee including representatives of the private sector and from all main ministries/agencies involved with trade and border crossings in Bulgaria, under the chairmanship of the Chamber of Commerce. The committee aims to facilitate trade, transport and their related procedures in a coordinated fashion as per the recommendation of the UNCEFACT on public-private dialogue. This type of committee is an important partner of the World Bank in the implementation of the TTFSE program. Finally, the three-year Users’ Survey comparative results, published on the TTFSE regional website, provided a diagnostic of the overall Customs environment. The survey covered five main issues: (i) Customs legislation; (ii) Communications; (iii) Customs procedures; (iv) Personnel; and (v) Logistics from the users’ perspective in a transparent manner, thus contributing to a substantial improvement of the dialogue between Customs and its clients.

“There is an increasing awareness of global environmental problems. The issue is so critical that it could literally affect our very survival. Large scale projects and restructuring needed for fixing these problems require significant funding as well as expertise. This is where the World Bank may play an extremely important role. Reputable international organizations such as the World Bank are able to help us address this growing worldwide crisis. They specifically have the ability to engage actively in overseeing projects and help in risk management. Nikko AM has taken the lead to collaborate with the World Bank to create this green fund which is expected to provide good returns with solid risk management in place. This will give investors an opportunity to help the world.” Timothy F. McCarthy, Nikko AM’s Chairman and CEO said.

conditions attached to loans have grown in breadth and depth. The result of the three forces described is that developing countries are displaying a diminishing appetite for borrowing from the World Bank (Woods 2006, p. 189). However, some smaller countries still need the Bank’s continuous financial assistance due to either their size or limited resources and relationships, factors that hinder them from getting access to loans elsewhere. It is essential for the Bank to realize its competitive advantage in the 21 st century is no longer derived solely from financial assistance but, more importantly, its accumulated knowledge and research capabilities. Although other banks might be physically closer or more willing to loan without stipulations, they do not have the level of expertise, the ability to see and predict trends and, more importantly, the developmental policy programs these countries need in order to stabilize and grow to their full potential.

Since the former Soviet Union failed to ratify the Bretton Woods Agreement, India moved to the fifth place. This was important since the World Bank’s chapter entitled each of the five members having the largest shares to have a permanent seat in its Executive Board and to appoint its own Executive Director (The World Bank, 1993). In the early 1970’s, Japan moved into the first five positions, and India continued to be in the World Banks Executive Board with an elected Executive Director, who also represents Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan (The World Bank, 1993). The Executive Directors take important policy decisions. Of the 21 Executive Directors in the Bank, one is from India (Das and Dash). India, by its continuous presence in the board right from the beginning, played her legitimate role in the formulation in the implementation of policies and monitoring of the Bank’s programmes. The finance ministers of India as members of the Governing Body have been participating in the annual meetings which frame the basic policy guidelines for the Bank’s Executive Board. Many Indians have occupied senior positions in the Bank. For instance, Gautam Kaji, was a Managing Director of the Bank.

Institute at the London School of Economics has been chosen by consulting firm Mercer to work on a joint project with the Norwegian fund looking at how global warming impacts capital markets and pension fund investors. The Norwegian Finance Ministry announced the details of the 2010 investment plans in its national budget this week. It said: “The Ministry is planning that approximately NOK4bn (€481m) be invested on the basis of environmental criteria in 2010. It is natural that these kinds of investments initially be made in already permitted instruments and markets, such as listed equities and bonds.” Also being discussed are the establishment of external environmental mandates for unlisted investments and the possibility of investing in green infrastructure projects such as wind farms and eco-friendly start-ups – which are outside the fund’s current investment universe. In August, the Ministry asked Norges Bank, which runs the pension fund’s assets, to examine investing in environmental bonds issued by the World Bank and various environmental stock market indices. In addition NBIM was asked to assess the

15 zero. In specifications using the logarithm of Bank commitments as the dependent variable, we set these values to a negligible $1 (since ln(1)=0). While not in a readily usable format, a wealth of information and data are available in the World Bank’s Annual Reports. We use the information available in these documents to construct three key variables. First, we create a dummy variable representing whether a country is serving on the Board of Executive Directors in a given year. We call this variable ‘Board Member.’ The number of times each country in the dataset has served on the IBRD and the IDA’s boards, which we refer to as the ‘Service’ variable, is shown in Table IIa and IIb, respectively. More than half the countries who were members of the World Bank at some point since its founding have never gotten the opportunity to serve on the board – including countries from Afghanistan and Albania to Zambia and Zimbabwe. Some countries, such as Pakistan, India, and Colombia, have served many times. Since terms on the board begin and end in the middle of the calendar year while all other data is in calendar years, there is a half-year lag effect that must be accounted for in interpreting the results of our analysis. We also create a similar variable, called ‘Alternate Board Member’, to reflect the same information for alternate directors. The summary statistics found in Table I- a are broken down in Table I-b by full board members, alternate board members, and other countries.

Datum Axel Dreher/KOF, ETH Zurich/mail@axel-dreher.de Review of World Bank Conditionality Key Findings (continued) The Bank has made important strides in adapting its policy- based lending to complex reform programs and focusing on critical actions, but should try to using large and complex policy matrices – especially in multi-sectoral operations.

Confidential and Sensitive Operational Information 52. Pursuant to relevant provisions of this Part III, the Bank makes publicly available, after finalization, certain of the following documents: ESW, CAS, JSA, PAD, PD, TRD, HIPC documents, ICR, PPAR, IER, CAE, other OED reports, QAG Synthesis Reports and factual technical docu- ments. Such documents may, however, involve or contain information or data that may be confidential or sensitive or that may adversely affect rela- tions between countries and the Bank. In such cases, taking into account the provisions of Part IV of this statement, the country or borrower con- cerned is requested, prior to the finalization of such documents or during negotiations related to them, to identify any text or data that is confidential or sensitive or that may adversely affect relations with the Bank if dis- closed. 38 The Bank, as it considers appropriate, makes adjustments to deal with the matters of concern prior to making such documents publicly avail- able. Further, in exceptional cases, if extensive issues of confidentiality, sen- sitivity or adverse relations with the Bank arise, the Bank may restrict the release of such document. The cover page of any such document carries a note indicating that the release of such a document is restricted.

Thus, the project proposes the following main investments: (a) small infrastructure rehabilitation to facilitate the organization of community-based fisheries management [r]

Throughout the EFSAL implementation period, the Government proactively pursued the resolution of public sector arrears. Amendments to social insurance and health sector legislation were enacted during 2002 allowing more flexibility in the resolution of social security and health insurance premium arrears. However, new legal obstacles became apparent during 2003 when actual resolution attempts were undertaken. A tender for the sale of health insurance premium arrears at a discount to third parties was not successful, as all bids came in below a 10% of nominal value minimum sales price specified in the law. It should be noted that even attempting to sell such arrears at a discount was a very innovative and progressive step for the Slovak Government to take, as few if any governments anywhere have used such techniques for arrears resolution - hence the failure of the tender should in no way be seen as a lack of effort in this respect. Tax secrecy provisions in the corporate income tax law precluded the transfer of tax arrears to third parties. Another round of amendments to social insurance and tax administration legislation in late 2003/early 2004 eliminated these remaining obstacles. Additionally, all health insurance premiums were transferred to a new collection agency created as part of a comprehensive health sector reform effort (supported by the Bank through a package of adjustment and TA lending). This agency is using a menu of options for resolving these arrears, including sale at a discount to third parties. Remaining public sector arrears already have been/will be transferred to the SKA in the near future for resolution. Even with this new responsibility, it is expected that the SKA will wrap up its operations within the next 1-2 years.

(a) help to improve the power supply to the Eastern Region, one of the poorest areas in India and one whose industrial base is currently being crippled by power shortages; (b) [r]

These costs include: additional staff, supplies and materials, operation and maintenance costs for renovated facilities.' A concerted effort has been made to minimize the incremental re[r]

The Quality Assurance Program (QAP) raised awareness on the issue of quality of care at all levels and introduced health staff behavior changes (e.g., counselling of patients and improv[r]

4. Rationale for Bank Involvement. The Bank has maintained a dialogue on general education issues through the first Elementary Education Project and.. The proposed pro[r]

(a) NHAI's social and environmental capacity building, including (i) a poverty and highway development study that would help understand the poverty dimension of the social issues involve[r]

McKibbin, W. 'The economics of international policy coordination'. Economic Record, vol. 'Growth in Africa: it can be done'. 'Development strategy at the beginning of the twenty-first ce[r]

They were assisted by support teams and had direct authority over the bulk of the project funds; these were allocated through the normal GOP process of annual budget allocat[r]

Nevertheless, the historic environment does not comply with the requirements of the modern world. The inhabitants cannot find solutions for a healthy and safe environment in the old buildings, with modern levels of standards. The type of construction currently used requires repair and maintenance with traditional material and techniques, renewed on a regular basis. This conflicts with seemingly modern solutions which use concrete and other new techniques, seems to be more sustainable, and less labor- intensive. Therefore, the new modern way of living, and methods of construction can seriously erode the physical and social historic environment, and weed out traditional building skills.

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education and primary health prevention. The good progress on roads may be due to the stronger accountability systems at TANROADS described above and can be attributed to the project only to a small extent, as TANROADS received less than US$70,000 from the Performance Improvement Fund. In education, the pass rates in primary and secondary schools have been declining since 2007. The value of public resources spent for each successful candidate of the exams at the end of the primary cycle increased in real terms by more than 41 percent between 2007 and 2009, while the cost per passer of the exam at the end of the secondary cycle grew by 60 percent between 2005 and 2010. The worsening of education outcomes after a decade of increased public spending (2001-2011) is also mentioned in World Bank (2012, p. 18): “a highly regarded pan-East-African survey conducted by Uwezo shows that the quality of education in Tanzania‟s primary education system was significantly worse than in Kenya and Uganda, as measured by a performance in maths and English by second grade students.” Tanzania has also a much lower participation of private schools in the education sectors than its neighboring countries.