Newsletter: World Bank in India - March 2021

World Bank in India Vol 22 / No. 4

March 2021

Women who lead from the front

Development Dialogue

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New Publications

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Women who lead from the front W

omen constitute half of India’s population, but have not benefitted proportionately from the country's economic prosperity. The pandemic has seen more women affected because of the

informal nature of their work. But they have not given up. From across the country have emerged stories of resilient women, coming out of their homes and helping communities with immense strength and courage. They have turned the pandemic into a positive experience, tailoring their skills to fit the new world. These stories offer hope and encouragement for others to follow.

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The community worker Anita Devi, an anganwadi worker from Giridh district in Jharkhand—a low-income state in India—is among an army of women mobilized in the battle against COVID-19. Usually fighting malnutrition from the frontlines, during the pandemic, these million-plus women joined forces with other members of the rural health workforce to go door to door, recording people’s travel history, noting flu symptoms and, where needed, even helping trace contacts.

They were a resilient workforce who adapted very quickly to difficult circumstances and came forward to answer the call of duty. "If the doctors

Women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have been another force that adapted their mission during this time. From being small savings and credit groups that sought to empower poor rural women in India, SHGs are now one of the largest institutional platforms of the poor, with over 70 million women as members of over 6.9 million SHGs in India.

SHG women produced facemasks, ran community kitchens, delivered essential food supplies, sensitized people about health and hygiene and combatted misinformation.

The business woman

and nurses can leave their families and work, day

Muskanben Vohara is part of a group of women

and night, why can’t we contribute in our own

weavers in Gujarat’s Anand district who have

small way?” Anita Devi said when asked if she felt

been trained in digital skills by the Self-Employed

safe working during the pandemic.

Women’s Association (SEWA). During the

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pandemic, these women, newly versed in their

SEWA helps women who work in the informal

digital skills, were able to share photographs of

sector, including seamstresses, artisans, vendors,

their products online, create Whatsapp groups

and small and marginal farmers.

of customers, and enable digital payments for purchases. Many of these women have been able to make cashless payments through Paytm, the BHIM App, and Google Pay rather than meeting people, handling cash and risking infections.

“Not only were we able to continue our work uninterrupted [during the pandemic],” declared Muskanben proudly, “we sold off all our stocks of domestic furnishings.”

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Those who broke the barriers Thirty-two-year-old Kausar Jahan is a mother of three, who lives with nine other family members in the eastern city of Hyderabad. Kausar was just 17 years old when she got married and had to drop out of school. A Government of India program called Nai Manzil - New Horizons – has given her a second chance to complete her education and learn a marketable skill.

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During the pandemic Nai Manzil’s training

In a remote village in Bihar’s Aurangabad

enabled Kausar to get a job at a government

district, Bandhini Kumari has been providing

hospital providing bed-side care to patients.

basic banking services in her village for the past two years, but has never been as busy as during

More than half of Nai Manzil’s beneficiaries

the past year. “I deal with 50-80 people every

are women, with Muslim women constituting

day. Even those who hardly ever operated their

the majority. So far, more than 50,700 minority

accounts are now coming forward to withdraw

women have benefited from the education and

this money,” she says.

skilling provided by the program.

The World Bank has supported many such Another group of women who have been

programs that have encouraged women to come

especially helpful during the pandemic are

out of their homes and take the lead in fields they

the Bank Sakhis, or female banker friend, first

have not traditionally been associated with.

introduced by the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in 2016-17 and supported

Women engineers, for example, manage dams

by the World Bank. These women have been

and build and maintain canals at the irrigation

a lifeline in these extraordinary times, helping

department in Kerala, a state that has the

people withdraw the money the government is

highest literacy rates in India, and where girls

crediting into their bank accounts to help them

compete equally with boys in the tough entrance

tide over the Covid crisis.

examination to qualify for the civil engineering courses conducted by government colleges.

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Jharkhand now has a 50,000-plus workforce of skilled women masons, called ‘rani mistris’, or the queen masons.

S. Manju works with the Dam Safety department and often travels with senior women engineers to dam sites across the state for inspections.

She feels extremely proud working with other women colleagues. “We feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that our work impacts people's lives in the state.”

Another field where women are not usually seen in India is masonry work; the women have traditionally played a supporting role, carrying bricks, and preparing the cement mixture, etc.

In The Jharkhand, however, an enterprising group Young women members

from Patan districts and working on embroidery in group. New Generations of SEWA artisans stereotype. women member from Patan district of Gujarat of women masons have now broken this gender

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They first took up masonry work when the state

The World Bank celebrates these courageous

launched a massive toilet-building drive under

women who are breaking traditional roles carved

the Swachh Bharat Mission and most men had

out for them for generations.

left to work in the cities. Jharkhand now has a 50,000-plus workforce of skilled women masons,

As Sheetal Chaya, the daughter of rani mistri

called ‘rani mistris’, or the queen masons. These

Usha says: “It is important that women take up

women have been key to helping the state

work. That is the only way the economy will

achieve Open Defecation Free status in 2018.

improve.”

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Development Dialogue CONNECTING TO THRIVE Transport integration for shared prosperity

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Here is a familiar scene at the Benapole-Petrapole border crossing between India and Bangladesh: a winding queue of trucks waiting for days to transload cargo and shift freight. Both countries do not allow trucks of the other to use its roads, causing delays and high costs- a major impediment to better connectivity and intraregional trade.

Within ASEAN

25% 50%

The neighbors who share the fifth longest border in the world are also the largest economies in Eastern South Asia. Despite that, bilateral trade represents about 10% of Bangladesh’s total trade and 1 % India’s trade.

Within East Asia & Pacific Within South Asia

INTRA REGIONAL TRADE

5%

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A latest World Bank report Connecting to Thrive: Challenges and Opportunities of Transport Integration in Eastern South Asia attributes the low numbers to lack of transport integration, high tariffs, para-tariffs and nontariff barriers. The report presents new data: complete transport integration and seamless movement of trucks across borders could add up to 17 % to Bangladesh’s economy and 8% to India’s economy. The Indian states, particularly in the North-Eastern region, will benefit both from a decrease in costs to reach markets across India, and an improved access to Bangladeshi markets.

Bangladeshi districts, on the other hand, will mainly gain from better access to Indian markets.

Such benefits of transport integration and connectivity guide the World Bank’s Regional Integration Cooperation and Engagement in South Asia. Overall, South Asia scores low on intraregional

trade, which is barely 5% of its total trade a fraction of 50 % for East Asia and Pacific region.

The intraregional trade, however, can be strengthened by measures including targeted investments in infrastructure, strengthening the Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) and dialogue with stakeholders.

Motor Vehicles Agreement for subregional connectivity The Motor Vehicles Agreement of 2015, between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN), lays the foundation to integrated road transport in the subregion. It seeks to facilitate unrestricted cross-border movement of cargo, passenger, and personal vehicles among the countries. Even though signed in 2015, the implementation of the MVA has been delayed.

Senior economist Matías Herrera Dappe and Global Product Specialist on Connectivity and Logistics, Charles Kunaka said a review of over 100 bilateral and multilateral agreements globally indicated greater intraregional trade in areas where MVA or similar agreements were successful. “The BBIN MVA scores well when reviewed against similar agreements, but there is a need to reinforce, revise and refine its contents,” they said.

INDIA AND BANGLADESH TRADE

BANGLADESH

INDIA

Two largest economies of Eastern South Asia.

Share the fifth largest border in the world.

But bilateral trade represents 10% of Bangladesh’s trade and 1% India’s trade.

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BENEFITS OF EASING BORDER RESTRICTIONS

Easing border restrictions generates significant benefits, but they depend on implementation Percentage change in national income

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16.6

16

11.3

12

Inefficient integration

7.6

8

4

5.6

Efficient integration Full integration

3.5 1.4

0

Bangladesh

India

World Bank Group | Connecting to Thrive: Challenges and Opportunities of Transport Integration in Eastern South Asia

The new report recommends some of the following policy actions to strengthen the MVA and improve regional connectivity: Harmonize drivers’ license and visa regimes across BBIN countries.

Establish an efficient and integrated transit regime, based on successful international practices.

Rationalize and digitalize documents, using information technology and cross-border data sharing services.

Rationalize the selection of routes, based on preferences of shippers and carriers.

Improve and standardize infrastructure along corridors.

Ensure competition in service markets, to reduce costs and improve quality of transport services.

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Cecile Fruman, Director, Regional Integration and Engagement, South Asia said strengthening the MVA could lead to transformative changes in Eastern South Asia, with seamless movement of passenger, personal, and cargo. “Implementation of the MVA and simplification of processes by which goods cross borders would provide a great opportunity for economic growth and shared prosperity in the sub-region," added Fruman.

Important side benefit Regional connectivity will not only improve movement of goods, but also transform livelihoods for those who live along the transport corridors.

Hartwig Schafer, Vice President, South Asia Region, said it is important to create conditions that will enhance local benefits, especially for the marginalized communities in rural areas and women. The report recommends identifying and connecting rural markets to the economic corridors and increasing women’s participation in export-oriented agriculture value chains.

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PROMOTING DIALOGUE To build consensus and explore opportunities of regional integration and cooperation, the #OneSouthAsia conversations bring stakeholders together for dialogue. On March 10, 2021, the conversation was centered around findings of the latest report, with panelists from India and Bangladesh.

Ambassador Vikram K. Doraiswami, India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, urged policy makers to not confine trade to one or two land ports, which runs the risk of creating costs and monopolies.

“We need to view transport in terms of multi-modal connectivity- with roads, rail lines, inland waterways, airfields, and even alternate means of moving commodities like with gas pipelines,” he said

Doraiswami said they will benefit both from access through Bangladesh and will be a facilitator of traffic and transport between Bangladesh and other mountain neighbors – Bhutan and Nepal.

For Bangladesh, a fast-growing economy, the opportunities of access are enticing.

Nihad Kabir, President of Dhaka’s Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said demonstrating benefits to the business community and stakeholders could help allay fears of being overwhelmed by a larger economy like India. Another panelist Tariq Karim, Bangladesh’s former High Commissioner to India, emphasized the need for grassroots outreach, and to revive commonalities between South Asian countries that “override the differences.”

In context of India’s North Eastern states, which have limited access to markets, Listen to the webinar here:

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Some recent

Blogs

Chennai becomes first Indian city to recycle wastewater at scale

By Poonam Ahluwalia, Raghu Kesavan Much thought has been given to Chennai’s water woes.

Now, taking a leaf from Singapore’s acclaimed initiative, the city has begun to recycle wastewater at scale to meet the non-drinking water needs of its industries. Its two Tertiary Treatment Reverse Osmosis (TTRO) plants - launched in late 2019 - are the first facilities of this nature and scale in India.

Read more at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/chennai-becomes-first-indian-city-recycle-wastewater-scale

Making roads safer for India’s popular two-wheelers Jaishree Jindel, Gerald Ollivier In India two-wheelers – motorbikes and scooters remain the first choice for upwardly mobile families and young commuters as they buy their first motorized vehicles. Unfortunately, two-wheelers are more prone to accidents than cars, and riders suffer a high rate of death and disability. Measures introduced in other countries and in other parts of India can provide useful lessons for the country’s plans to enhance road safety.

Read more at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/making-roads-safer-indias-popular-two-wheelers?CID=WBW_ AL_BlogNotification_EN_EXT

Rebooting Tamil Nadu’s rural economy during COVID-19 Samik Sundar Das Read about how struggling village enterprises and farmer groups in the state of Tamil Nadu used the assistance package and capital grant provided by the TN Rural Transformation Project to securing livelihoods and transforming lives.

Read more at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/india-rebooting-tamil-nadus-rural-economy-during-covid19?CID=WBW_AL_BlogNotification_EN_EXT

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Road crashes affect women and men differently—here’s why Wei Yan, Dr. Soames Job Traffic collisions claim 1.35 million lives every year—a number that has been widely publicized. But the global statistics on road safety hide many disparities when it comes to the geographic distribution of victims, their socioeconomic profile, and, perhaps more surprisingly, their gender.

Read more at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/road-crashes-affect-women-and-men-differently-hereswhy?CID=WBW_AL_BlogNotification_EN_EXT

Thinking about using technology to address gender-based violence?

Mirai Maruo,Aalicia Hammond, Diana J. Arango Technology has become a valuable tool to help address gender-based violence. Learn about interventions introduced in some countries that are helping to better support survivors at home and address this form of violence in public spaces.

Read more at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/thinking-about-using-technology-address-gender-based-violence-fiverecommendations-experts

5 reasons why South Asia is coming together to beat marine plastic pollution

By Cecile Fruman, John Roome, Pawan Patil Plastic pollution is everywhere - in the air we breathe, in glacial ice on Mount Everest, in water we drink and in fish that we eat, with huge costs to the environment, biodiversity, livelihoods, and even our health.

Interventions are needed at every stage of the plastic lifecycle, from production to stopping plastic leakage through investments in solid waste management, to transitioning to a circular economy approach for plastics.

Read more at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/5-reasons-why-south-asia-coming-together-beat-marineplastic-pollution

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New Projects March 2021

$500 million to Improve Education Outcomes in Gujarat The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved a $500 million Outcomes for Accelerated Learning Program (GOAL) to improve education outcomes for children across the state of Gujarat.

GOAL will focus on a series of reform initiates.

These include: i) Direct delivery of education services at the state, district and sub-district levels by providing customized local-level solutions for school improvement. District-level fiscal allocation and large-scale school infrastructure upgrades will be undertaken to create international-standard student-friendly schools with state-of-the-art technology and facilities. ii) Build the capacity of district, block, cluster, and school level bodies on decentralized planning and management through collaboration with the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) - the national expert body on educational planning. iii) Implement the key tenets of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 with a focused attention on foundational learning and ensuring that the school environment is conducive to educational reforms through child-friendly facilities. iv) The program will equip teachers to manage this transformation by providing them with individualized, needs-based training that will give them an opportunity to have a say in shaping training programs. It will also strengthen

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More than 11 million students between the age of 6 and 17 in about 54,000 schools, and more than 400,000 teachers are expected to benefit from the program.

the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) platform that offers online teacher training to more than 1.5 million registered teachers. v) Recognizing the need for investing in human capital for future economic growth, GOAL will strengthen foundational learning for children in classes 1 to 3 and equip them with the cognitive, socio-behavioral, and language skills to meet future labor market needs.

The $500 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a final maturity of 17 years including a grace period of seven years.

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March 2021

$32 million to Improve Healthcare Services in Mizoram The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved a $32 million Mizoram Health Systems Strengthening Project to improve management capacity and quality of health services in Mizoram, situated in the North East region of India, particularly for the benefit of underserved areas and vulnerable groups.

The project will strengthen the governance and the management structure of the Department of Health and Family Welfare (DoHFW) and its subsidiaries, improve the quality and coverage of services delivered by the state government health systems, and invest in a comprehensive Quality Assurance program which would enable quality certification of health facilities.

A key focus will be to strengthen the effectiveness of the state health insurance program; build synergies with the Government of India’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY); and thereby reduce financial barriers in accessing hospital services, prevent catastrophic out of pocket expenditure for health by poor families and expand coverage.

The Mizoram Health Systems Strengthening Project will benefit the people across all eight districts of the state. It will also benefit health sector staff, specifically at the secondary and primary levels, by strengthening their planning and management capacity along with building their clinical skills and competencies.

“While Mizoram performs better than the national average on many key health indicators, access to quality health services is a challenge, particularly in rural areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also adversely impacted the delivery of essential health services,” said Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director in India. “This project will support the state government’s efforts to deliver quality healthcare for the poor and vulnerable and those located in remote areas.”

Strengthen governance & management of Department of Health and Family Welfare Improve quality and coverage of state government health services Strengthen effectiveness of the state health insurance program

As a key strategy, the project will move towards a performance-based financing system where Internal Performance Agreements (IPAs) between the DoHFW and its subsidiaries would foster more accountability at all levels. The project will invest in infection prevention and control for a more resilient response to future outbreaks, pandemics, and health emergencies. The project will invest in improving the overall ecosystem for bio-medical waste management (both solid and liquid waste).

The $32 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a maturity of 14.5 years, including a grace period of 5 years.

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March 2021

$105 Million to Improve Urban Services in Two Cities of Punjab The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved a $105 million Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project to strengthen urban services in Amritsar and Ludhiana, the two largest cities in Punjab.

A major focus of the project will be on providing efficient water supply and sanitation services in Amritsar and Ludhiana, cities that are the engines of economic growth for the state of Punjab. The improvements in the water supply are expected to benefit more than 3 million people in 2025 and an estimated 5 million projected population in 2055.

Industrial and commercial users would also benefit from the good quality reliable water supply.

Amritsar and Ludhiana get their water by pumping out groundwater from hundreds of bore wells dug up across the two cities, leading to significant water loss and wastage as households are not incentivized to save. Studies have also revealed that Amritsar

Water supply and sanitation services in Amritsar and Ludhiana,

Benefit more than 3 million people in 2025 and an estimated

5 million projected population in 2055.

district’s groundwater is contaminated with arsenic and Ludhiana’s groundwater with nitrates and other heavy metals. The project will shift water supply from rapidly depleting and highly contaminated groundwater sources, to a centralized treatment plant drawing water from local canals (surface water sources). This shift is likely to have significant health benefits, studies have shown.

The project will finance all new raw water systems, water treatment plants, transmission systems, and reservoirs to supply clean water to cover entire cities under a Design, Build, Operate and Transfer (DBOT) contract. The DBOT operator will manage the operations and maintenance of these water supply systems under the direct supervision of the municipal corporations in the two cities through city-level water utilities.

“Punjab’s rapid urbanization has been creating thirsty cities. Overexploitation of groundwater is the inevitable casualty,” said Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director in India. “This project aims to tackle the challenge of urbanization and ensure access to sustainable and safe water for Amritsar and Ludhiana.

The focus is on municipal capabilities to plan, finance, and deliver services and to tap into the potential of surface water.”

The Project will also focus on administrative and e-governance improvements, especially those with a public interface (such as improved systems for permits, payments, and grievance redress). This will benefit the users of municipal services in both cities.

The project will also provide sub-grants to all the municipal corporations in Punjab to finance critical non-medical interventions that address impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, and to improve their readiness to tackle disasters.

The $105 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a final maturity of 12.5 years including a grace period of three years.

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March 2021

$105 Million to Strengthen Solid Waste Management Systems in Kerala The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved a $105 million project to support Kerala in strengthening its solid waste management systems and services.

The Kerala Solid Waste Management Project (KSWMP) will establish an integrated solid waste management system. It will support multiple activities at local and regional levels including expansion of waste collection services, development of waste recycling and management facilities, remediation and closure of existing dumpsites, development of scientific landfills, and sanitization of government offices, hospitals, community level waste recycling and processing facilities. The project will pay special attention to financial, operational and environmental sustainability of the solid waste management systems to be developed in the state. These project activities will also contribute to improved flood resilience, since large parts of Kerala are prone to flooding.

To directly benefit over

7.5 million people in all 93 Urban Local Bodies across all 14 districts in Kerala

At the local level, the new project will support initiatives by laying out mechanisms for ULBs to formally engage with Kudumbashree groups (state women livelihood mission) as service providers of solid-waste management, including collection and transportation. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the project will support ULB systems to undertake COVID-19 waste management, cleanliness/sanitization activities, and strengthen the systems for ensuring the health and safety of the sanitation workers including women.

“For a rapidly urbanizing state like Kerala, solid waste management is critical to building sustainable, healthy, and inclusive cities and communities,” said Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director in India. “This project will support the enabling policy and institutional framework being created by the Government of Kerala for improved service delivery systems and capacities at both city and state levels,” he added.

This project will promote environmentally sound waste recycling, waste diversion and safe disposal methods. It will reduce marine litter contribution by strengthening plastic waste segregation, collection and disposal systems; upgrading plastic recycling technology; creating enabling policy and regulatory framework for reducing plastic consumption; and introducing circularity for maximizing resource efficiency.

Behavior change and public participation is also key to a functional waste system. The project will support behavior change and awareness programs to motivate waste reduction, sourceseparation and reuse through extensive communication and outreach activities.

The $105 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a final maturity of 13.5 years including a grace period of six years.

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World Bank Publications New Additions A select listing of recent World Bank publications – reports, policy research working papers and project documents – that are available on the World Bank’s website. Links to some reports are also available here.

REPORT Traffic Crash Injuries and Disabilities: The Burden on Indian Society February 2021 Road crashes endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of road users globally and in India. The risk of a road crash in low-income countries is three times higher compared to that in high-income countries.

Not only does it lead to untold and unaccounted for suffering and loss for victims and their families, it also drains the GDP of countries by claiming millions of economically productive young lives. The World Bank commissioned a survey-based assessment study in association with the Save LIFE Foundation (SLF) to determine such differential impacts more objectively in India. This study aims to capture the socioeconomic realities and nuances of road crashes at the sub-national level in India. It seeks to document inter-linkages between poverty, inequalities, road users, and road crash outcomes by analyzing data from four States in India, i.e., Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.

Strengthening Teacher Mentoring and Monitoring Systems: Evidence from India - Implications for Teacher Development: Strengthening Teacher Mentoring and Monitoring Systems: Evidence from India (English) March 2021 Over the last 10 years, a special cadre of middle-level management known as Resource Persons (RPs) was specifically created in India for carrying out teacher mentoring and monitoring activities. Despite being allocated almost one-third of the education budget targeted at improving learning outcomes, the RPs are a poorly understood cadre with little known about their roles, responsibilities and effectiveness. In this paper, drawing on detailed data collected from school audits, unannounced classroom observations, student, teacher and RP surveys in approximately 350 primary and upper primary schools in Jharkhand, India, authors assess RPs’ mentoring and monitoring activities.

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Policy Research Working Papers WPS9569

WPS9564

Closing the Gap: Gender, Transport, and Employment in Mumbai

Inventories, Input Costs, and Productivity Gains from Trade Liberalizations

By Alam, Muneeza Mehmood, Cropper, Maureen L. Herrera Dappe, Matias, Suri, Palak There is increasing recognition that women experience mobility differently from men. A growing body of literature documents the differences in men and women’s mobility patterns.

However, there is limited evidence on the evolution of these mobility patterns over time and the role that transportation networks play in women’s access to economic opportunities. This study attempts to fill these gaps. It contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it documents the differences in men and women’s mobility patterns in Mumbai, India, and the changes in these patterns over time, as the city has developed. Second, it explores whether the lack of access to mass transit limits women’s labor force participation.

WPS9566

The Silenced Women: Can Public Activism Stimulate Reporting of Violence against Women

By Sahay,Abhilasha This paper examines whether public activism against such violence can stimulate disclosure of socially sensitive crimes such as rape and sexual assault. Exploiting regional variation in exposure to the shock, the analysis finds an increase of 27 percent in reported violence against women after the shock but no change in gender-neutral crimes such as murder, robbery and riots.

By Shafaat Yar Khan and Armen Khederlarian This paper revisits the effect of trade liberalization on firms’ productivity considering the inventory premium of importing and input cost heterogeneity. Through model simulations, the paper shows that in the presence of inventory holding costs, their omission in revenue-based productivity measures leads to a systematic overestimation of the elasticity of productivity to input tariffs.

WPS9555

Who Is in Justice? Caste, Religion and Gender in the Courts of Bihar over a Decade

By Sandeep Bhupatiraju, Daniel Li Chen, Shareen Joshi et.al.

Bihar is widely regarded as one of India’s poorest and most divided states. Little is currently known about how structural inequalities have affected the functioning of formal systems of justice in the state. This paper uses a novel dataset of more than one million cases filed at the Patna high court between 2009 and 2019 together with a variety of supplementary data to analyze the role of religion, caste, and gender in the high court of Bihar.

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WPS9544

WPS9540

A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India

Development Research at High Geographic Resolution: An Analysis of Night Lights, Firms, and Poverty in India Using the SHRUG Open Data Platform

By Guilhem Cassan, Daniel Keniston and Tatjana Karina Kleineberg Workers' social identity affects their choice of occupation, and therefore the structure and prosperity of the aggregate economy. This paper studies this phenomenon in a setting where work and identity are particularly intertwined in the Indian caste system.

WPS9543

The Causal Effects of Long-Term PM2.5 Exposure on COVID-19 in India

By Takahiro Yamada, Hiroyuki Yamada and Muthukumara S. Mani This study investigates the causal effects of longterm particulate matter 2.5 exposure on COVID-19 deaths, fatality rates, and cases in India by using an instrumental variables approach based on thermal inversion episodes.

WPS9541

Land Rezoning and Structural Transformation in Rural India: Evidence from the Industrial Areas Program

By David Blakeslee, Ritam Chaurey, Ram Fishman and Samreen Malik Zoning laws that restrict rural land to agricultural production pose an important institutional barrier to industrial development. This paper studies the effects of the Industrial Areas (IA) program in Karnataka, India, which rezoned agricultural land for industrial use, but without the economic incentives common with other place-based policies.

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By Sam Asher, Tobias Lunt, Ryu Matsuura and Paul Michael Novosad The SHRUG is an open data platform describing multidimensional socioeconomic development across 600,000 villages and towns in India. This paper presents three illustrative analyses only possible with high-resolution data. The SHRUG can serve as a model for open high-resolution data in developing countries.

WPS9536

Assessing the Impact and Cost of Economic Inclusion Programs: A Synthesis of Evidence

By Boban Varghese Paul, Puja Vasudeva Dutta and Sarang Chaudhary

This paper analyzes global evidence on the impact and costs of economic inclusion programs to transform the economic lives of households and communities living in extreme poverty. The analysis uses 107 quantitative and qualitative impact evaluations from 80 economic inclusion programs.

WPS9522

Does Central Bank Independence Increase Inequality?

By Michael Aklin, Andreas Kern and Mario Negre Since the 1980s, income inequality has increased substantially in several countries. Yet the political logic that triggered rising inequality in some places but not in others remains poorly understood.

This paper builds a theory that links central bank independence to these dynamics. It posits the existence of three mechanisms that tie central bank independence to inequality.

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Other Publications

Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Resources and Tools, 2nd Edition

Subnational Governance and Conflict: The Merits of Subnational Governance as a Catalyst for Peace

Gerald Ollivier, Ashish Ghate, Kaira Bankim and Prerna Mehta January 2021

Stefan Wolff, Simona Ross, Asbjorn Wee November 2020

Transit-oriented development, commonly known as TOD, is a planning and design strategy that focuses on creating urban development patterns which facilitate the use of public transit, walking and cycling, as primary modes of transport and which supports vibrant, diverse and livable communities.

This toolkit provides a compendium of resources for TOD stakeholders to navigate each phase of the process: Assessing, Enabling, Planning and Design, Financing, and Implementing. It includes how-to guides, analytical tools, communication tools, resources, case studies and template terms of reference for each phase.

The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2021: The Potential to Scale Colin Andrews, Aude de Montesquiou, Ines Arevalo

Sanchez, Puja Vasudeva Dutta et.al.

January 2021 The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2021: The Potential to Scale gives voice to one of the most stubborn challenges in development— transforming the economic lives of the extreme poor and vulnerable. A central hypothesis of the report is that people who are poor and vulnerable face multiple constraints when encountering “poverty traps” for which a multidimensional response is required.

The potential for subnational governance to serve as a catalyst of peace has been widely recognized. It is reflected in the frequent inclusion of subnational governance arrangements in political settlements.

The study seeks to analyze the merits and risks of subnational governance as a conflict mitigation mechanism within the framework of political settlement processes. The findings are largely informed by in-depth analysis of seven case studies of countries where subnational governance arrangements have been applied and proposed as a tool for mitigating violent conflict. These include Kenya, the Philippines, Somalia, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yemen, and Mali.

Women, Business and the Law 2021 Tea Trumbic, Norman V. Loayza, Rita Ramalho and Aart Kraay February 2021 Women, Business and the Law 2021 is the seventh in a series of annual studies measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their lives and careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.

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Global Waves of Debt: Causes and Consequences Ayhan Kose, Peter Stephen Oliver Nagle, Franziska Lieselotte Ohnsorge et.al.

January 2021 The study shows that simultaneous buildups in public and private debt have historically been associated with financial crises that resulted in particularly prolonged declines in per capita income and investment. Emerging market and developing economies already are more vulnerable on a variety of fronts than they were ahead of the last crisis. The study identifies several concrete steps that policy makers can take to lower the probability and severity of a crisis.

Deepening Decentralization within Centrally Led States: The Direction of Local Governance Reforms in Southeast Asia (English)

In the early 1990s, a host of unitary states in Southeast Asia began pursuing, at their own pace, the process of decentralizing their systems of governance. The form and function of these reforms were documented in the World Bank's report, East Asia Decentralizes: Making Local Government Work, published in 2005. The analysis in this discussion paper updates the findings and data from this foundational work and widens the lens to new countries embarking on similar reforms.

Tax Theory Applied to the Digital Economy: A Proposal for a Digital Data Tax and a Global Internet Tax Agency

22

Re-thinking the Approach to Informal Businesses: Typologies, Evidence and Future Exploration

By Cristian Oliver Lucas-Mas and Raul Felix Junquera-Varela March 2021

Digital technology allows businesses to operate in a country without a physical presence, which poses challenges for traditional taxation. The digital debate focuses on direct taxation and the creation of new taxing rights arising from the tax claims of market jurisdictions on income obtained by foreign digital suppliers conducting business therein without any physical presence. Tax Theory Applied to the Digital Economy analyzes the taxdisruptive aspects of digital business models and reviews current tax initiatives in light of traditional tax theory principles.

Zubair Khurshid Bhatti and Paul Lachlan Mcdonald January 2021

William Iver Nielsen, Andreja Marusic, Tania Ghossein and Sylvia Solf December 2020

Interventions over the past decades to encourage increased business formalization have shown mixed results and produced limited knowledge on how to address informality systematically. Based on a review of relevant literature on informality and efforts to promote formalization, this paper will discuss the use of the term “informality” to align with the heterogeneity that exists within the informal sector and to identify factors that drive formality.

World Bank in India

Road Crash Trauma, Climate Change, Pollution and the Total Costs of Speed: Six graphs that tell the story

By Raymond Franklin Soames Job and Leah Watetu Mbugua December 2020

The impacts of speed on the safety of road users, on congestion, on pollution, and on total costs of road travel are broadly misunderstood: often based on wrong assumptions, with effects taken as self-evident, failure to consider multiple impacts, and under-estimation of impacts (especially economic costs of higher speeds). The purpose of this brief note is to provide information on these relationships relevant to fundamental road transport policies, design, and operation.

Public Utility Reform: What lessons can we learn from IEG evaluations in the energy and water sectors?

Independent Evaluation Group December 2020

The report summarizes the IEG evidence of what worked and what did not work, and why, in WB support of public utility reforms in its client countries. It identifies two fundamental areas of utility reform – improving institutional accountability and strengthening financial viability.

Private Sector Participation in Disaster Recovery and Mitigation Aditi Raina, Darwin Marcelo Gordillo and Stuti Rawat December 2020 When a disaster strikes, apart from the government response, a variety of other actors also step in to provide support, including non-profit organizations, aid organizations, international organizations, local communities, and individual agents. This Guidance Note aims to provide action oriented guidance to local and national government officials, key decisionmakers and other stakeholders on ways to encourage, enable and facilitate successful private sector participation in postdisaster recovery.

This synthesis provides a review of operationally relevant findings and lessons from World Banksupported utility reforms in the energy and water sectors, as identified in IEG evaluation products.

23

Policy Research Working Papers WPS9564

WPS9559

Inventories, Input Costs, and Productivity Gains from Trade Liberalizations Shafaat Yar Khan and Armen Khederlarian

Long-Term and Intergenerational Effects of Education: Evidence from School Construction in Indonesia

WPS9563

By Richard Akresh, Daniel Zefanya Halim and Marieke Kleemans

Policy Choices Can Help Keep 4G and 5G Universal Broadband Affordable

WPS9558

Edward J. Oughton, Niccolo Comini, Vivien Foster and Jim W.Hall

Welfare and Distributional Impacts of Inflation and the COVID-19 Outbreak in the Islamic Republic of Iran

WPS9562

By Laura Kiku Rodriguez Takeuchi and Aziz Atamanov

Pathways out of Extreme Poverty: Tackling Psychosocial and Capital Constraints with a Multi-faceted Social Protection Program in Niger Thomas Bossuroy, Markus P. Goldstein, Dean S. Karlan and et.al.

Gravity Model–Based Export Potential: An Application to Turkey

By Alen Mulabdic and Pinar Yasar

WPS9561

WPS9556

Liberalization, Technology Adoption, and Stock Returns: Evidence from Telecom

The Evolving Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 in Four African Countries

By Rabah Arezki, Vianney Dequiedt, Yuting Fan and et.al.

WPS9560

Mobile Internet Adoption in West Africa

By Carlos Rodriguez Castelan, Rogelio Granguillhome Ochoa, Samantha Lach and Takaaki Masaki

24

WPS9557

By Ann Furbush, Anna Leigh Josephson, Talip Kilic and et.al.

WPS9555

Who Is in Justice? Caste, Religion and Gender in the Courts of Bihar over a Decade

By Sandeep Bhupatiraju, Daniel Li Chen, Shareen Joshi and et.al.

World Bank in India

WPS9554

WPS9548

Happy but Unequal: Differences in Subjective Well-Being across Individuals and Space in Colombia

Toward the African Continental Free Trade Area: The Effects of Economic Integration and Democracy on Real Misalignments across Exchange Rate Regimes

By Martijn Burger, Martijn Hendriks and Elena Ianchovichina

By Ferdinand Owoundi Fouda, Desire Avom and Flora Yselle Kuete

WPS9553

A Global View of Poverty, Gender, and Household Composition

WPS9547

By Ana Maria Munoz Boudet, Antra Bhatt, Ginette Azcona and et. al.

Can Youth Empowerment Programs Reduce Violence against Girls during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

WPS9552

By Selim Gulesci, Manuela Puente Beccar and Diego Javier Ubfal

Business Training and Mentoring: Experimental Evidence from WomenOwned Microenterprises in Ethiopia

By M. Mehrab Bakhtiar, Gautam Bastian and Markus P. Goldstein

WPS9546

The Impact of Oil Shocks on Sovereign Default Risk

By Sultan Abdulaziz M Alturki and Ann Marie Hibbert

WPS9551

Taking Stock of Trade Policy Uncertainty: Evidence from China’s Pre-WTO Accession

WPS9545

By George Alessandria, Shafaat Yar Khan and Armen Khederlarian

It Takes Two (To Make Things Right): Women's Empowerment and Couple Concordance in South Asia

WPS9550

By Maurizio Bussolo, Nayantara Sarma, Anaise Marie Williams

Tax Revenue Effort and Aid in Fragile States: The Case of the Comoros

WPS9544

By Jose Luis Diaz Sanchez, Abrams Mbu Enow Tagem and Joana Monteiro Da Mota

A Division of Laborers: Identity and Efficiency in India

WPS9549

By Guilhem Cassan, Daniel Keniston and Tatjana Karina Kleineberg

Political Prioritization of Early Childhood Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

By Michelle J. Neuman and Shawn Michael Powers

WPS9543

The Causal Effects of Long-Term PM2.5 Exposure on COVID-19 in India

By Takahiro Yamada, Hiroyuki Yamada and Muthukumara S. Mani

25

WPS9542

WPS9536

Gender Differences in Children's Antibiotic Use and Adherence

Assessing the Impact and Cost of Economic Inclusion Programs: A Synthesis of Evidence

By Christine Blandhol and Anja Sautmann WPS9541

Land Rezoning and Structural Transformation in Rural India: Evidence from the Industrial Areas Program

By David Blakeslee, Ritam Chaurey, Ram Fishman and Samreen Malik WPS9540

Development Research at High Geographic Resolution: An Analysis of Night Lights, Firms, and Poverty in India Using the SHRUG Open Data Platform

By Sam Asher, Tobias Lunt, Ryu Matsuura and Paul Michael Novosad

By Boban Varghese Paul, Puja Vasudeva Dutta and Sarang Chaudhary WPS9535

School Management, Grants, and Test Scores: Experimental Evidence from Mexico

BY Mauricio Chicas Romero, Juan Bedoya, Monica Yanez Pagans and et.al.

WPS9534

Quantifying Vulnerability to Poverty in the Drought-Prone Lowlands of Ethiopia

By Emmanuel Skoufias, Katja Pauliina Vinha and Berhe Mekonnen Beyene WPS9533

WPS9539

Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue: Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea

By Christopher Alexander Hoy, Luke McKenzie and Mathias Georg Sinning WPS9538

Tracking Economic Activity in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis Using Nighttime Lights — The Case of Morocco

By Mark Roberts WPS9537

Do Large-Scale Student Assessments Really Capture Cognitive Skills?

By Rafael E. De Hoyos Navarro, Ricardo Estrada and Maria Jose Vargas Mancera

26

The Impact of Living Arrangements (InCamp versus Out-of-Camp) on the Quality of Life: A Case Study of Syrian Refugees in Jordan

By Chinedu Temple Obi WPS9532

The Demand for Advice: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Farmers in SubSaharan Africa

By Dominik Naeher and Matthias Schundeln WPS9531

Taming Private Leviathans: Regulation versus Taxation

By Rabah Arezki, Asif Mohammed Islam, and Gregoire Rota-Graziosi

World Bank in India

WPS9530

WPS9524

Measuring Poverty Rapidly Using WithinSurvey Imputations

Macroeconomic Expectations and Credit Card Spending

By Utz Johann Pape

By Mikhail Galashin, Martin Kanz and Ricardo Perez Truglia

WPS9529

The Technology-Employment TradeOff: Automation, Industry, and Income Effects

By Gene Kindberg-Hanlon

WPS9528

Building Back Better in Practice: A Science-Policy Framework for a Green Economic Recovery after COVID-19

By Theodoros Zachariadis, Elias Giannakis, Constantinos Taliotis and et.al.

WPS9523

Identification Properties for Estimating the Impact of Regulation on Markups and Productivity

By James Robert Ezequiel Sampi Bravo, Charl Jooste and Ekaterina Vostroknutova

WPS9522

Does Central Bank Independence Increase Inequality?

By Michael Aklin, Andreas Kern and Mario Negre

WPS9527

WPS9520

Exports and Women Workers in Formal Firms

Investment Impacts of Gendered Land Rights in Customary Tenure Systems: Substantive and Methodological Insights from Malawi

By Mohammad Amin and Asif Mohammed Islam

WPS9526

Roads Development Optimization for AllSeason Service Accessibility Improvement in Rural Nepal Using a Novel Cost-Time Model and Evolutionary Algorithm

By Andries Michiel Heyns, Robert Steven Banick and Suraj Regmi

By Klaus W. Deininger, Fang Xia, Talip Kilic and Heather G. Moylan

WPS9519

Using Mobile Data to Understand Urban Mobility Patterns in Freetown, Sierra Leone

By Dunstan Matekenya, Xavier Espinet Alegre, Fatima Arroyo Arroyo and et.al.

WPS9525

Technology and Demand Drivers of Productivity Dynamics in Developed and Emerging Market Economies

By Alistair Matthew Dieppe, Neville Ricardo Francis and Gene Kindberg-Hanlon

WPS9518

A Reappraisal of the MigrationDevelopment Nexus: Testing the Robustness of the Migration Transition Hypothesis

By Nicolas Berthiaume, Naomi Leefmans, Nienke Oomes and et.al.

27

WPS9517

WPS9511

The Impact of Language of Instruction in Schools on Student Achievement: Evidence from Malaysia Using the Synthetic Control Method

COVID-19, Public Procurement Regimes, and Trade Policy

By Yew Chong Soh, Ximena Vanessa Del Carpio and Liang Choon Wang

WPS9516

Competition Reform and Household Welfare: A Microsimulation Analysis of the Telecommunication Sector in Ethiopia

By Carlos Rodriguez Castelan,Abdelkrim Araar, Eduardo Alonso Malasquez Carbonel and et.al.

WPS9515

Does Competition from Informal Firms Hurt Job Creation by Formal Firms?

Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data

By Mohammad Amin

WPS9514

Coping with COVID-19: Does Management Make Firms More Resilient?

By Arti Goswami Grover and Valerie Jean Karplus

WPS9513

Have Remittances Affected Real Unit Labor Costs in the Transition Economies of Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia?

By Jimmy Apaa Okello, Martin Brownbridge and Roy S. Canagarajah

WPS9512

Characterization of Ambient Air Quality in Selected Urban Areas in Uganda: A LowCost Approach

By Deo Okure, Engineer Bainomugisha, Nancy Lozano Gracia and et.al.

28

By Bernard M. Hoekman, Anirudh Shingal, Varun Eknath and et.al.

WPS9510

The Early Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries: Evidence from High-Frequency Phone Surveys

By Melanie Khamis, Daniel Prinz, David Locke Newhouse and et.al.

WPS9509

Incentives for Mayors to Improve Learning: Evidence from state reforms in Ceará, Brazil

By Ildo Jose Lautharte Junior, Victor Hugo de Oliveira and Andre Loureiro WPS9508

Pandemic Trade: Covid-19, Remote Work and Global Value Chains

By Alvaro Raul Espitia Rueda, Aaditya Mattoo, Nadia Rocha and et.al.

WPS9507

Trickle Down Tax Morale: A Cross Country Survey Experiment

By Jonathan Mellon, Tiago Carneiro Peixoto, Fredrik Matias Sjoberg and et.al.

WPS9506

Policies to Support Businesses through the COVID-19 Shock: A Firm-Level Perspective

By Xavier Cirera, Marcio Jose Vargas Da Cruz, Elwyn Adriaan Robin Davies and et.al

World Bank in India

WPS9505

WPS9499

Macroeconomic Modeling of Managing Hurricane Damage in the Caribbean: The Case of Jamaica

Assessing the Effects of Fiscal Policies on Poverty and Inequality: The Case of Uruguay

By Andrew Burns, Charl Jooste and Gregor Schwerhoff

By Marisa Bucheli, Gabriel Lara Ibarra and Diego Tuzman Fernandez

WPS9504

WPS9498

The Impact of Flooding on Urban Transit and Accessibility: A Case Study of Kinshasa

Trade Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis: Evidence from a New Data Set

By Yiyi He, Stephan Fabian Thies, Paolo Avner and et.al.

By Simon J. Evenett, Matteo Fiorini, Johannes Fritz and et.al.

WPS9503

WPS9497

Impacts of COVID-19 on Household Welfare in Tunisia

Taking Stock of the Financial Sector Policy Response to COVID-19 around the World

By Deeksha Kokas, Gladys C. Lopez-Acevedo, Abdel Rahman El Lahga and et.al.

WPS9502

Improving Business Practices and the Boundary of the Entrepreneur: A Randomized Experiment Comparing Training, Consulting, Insourcing and Outsourcing

By Stephen J. Anderson and David J. Mckenzie WPS9501

Bilateral International Investments: The Big Sur?

By Fernando Broner, Tatiana Didier Brandao, Sergio L. Schmukler and et.al.

By Erik H.B. Feyen, Tatiana Alonso Gispert, Tatsiana Kliatskova and et. al.

WPS9496

Actual and Potential Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific: Estimated Effects

By Michael Joseph Ferrantino, Maryla Maliszewska and Svitlana Taran WPS9495

Learning to Navigate a New Financial Technology: Evidence from Payroll Accounts

By Emily Breza, Martin Kanz and Leora Klapper

WPS9500

Do Immigrants Push Natives towards Safer Jobs? Exposure to COVID-19 in the European Union

By Laurent Loic Yves Bossavie, Daniel Garrote Sanchez, Mattia Makovec and et.al.

29

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