Breaking gender stereotypes...gender stereotypes in rural Jharkhand Thirty-six-year-old Nishat Jahan, mother of two, is bent over a row of bricks carefully checking that they are in

WorldBank

IN INDIA

THE

I N S I D E

MARCH 2020VOL 18 / NO 5

Rani Mistris of Jharkhand 1-3

Development Dialogue: Aanganwadi workers fight undernutrition in India 4-5

Recent Project Approvals & Signings 6-7

Events 8-10

Lighthouse India: Is solar power the panacea? 11-13

Infographics: How safe are roads in India 14-15

ICR Update: Second Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project 16-17

World Bank Publications – New Additions 18-27

Contact Information 28

Photo by the World Bank

Rani Mistris are breaking gender stereotypes in rural Jharkhand

Thirty-six-year-old Nishat Jahan, mother of two, is bent over a row of

bricks carefully checking that they are in a straight line. It is 9.30 in the

morning and she has already laid half of a toilet wall she is constructing.

The villagers marvel at the speed with which she is working.

A few feet away, 42-year-old Usha Rani, her friend and co-worker,

stands inside a 4-feet deep pit expertly lining it with bricks and cement.

Nishat and Usha are building a toilet at a home in Silbar Khurd village of

Hazaribagh block, about 70 kms from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand

state. “I will be able to build the walls of this toilet in one day,” proclaims

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The World Bank in India • March 202012

Nishat proudly. It usually takes a group of

3-4 women around 3-4 days to build a twin-

pit toilet like the one the two women plan to

complete in half the time.

About 12 kms away, a group of smartly-

dressed women are building a toilet for some

roadside shop-owners. One of the women,

forty-year old Urmila Devi, has been a mason

for over two years. “I have built more than

1,000 toilets across the state of Jharkhand.

I have even gone to Champaran district in

Bihar to construct them,” she declares with

pride. Poonam Devi, who works alongside

her is not to be outdone; she has built about

900 toilets over the last one year.

In India, masonry work is a specialized skill

that is usually dominated by men. These men

are called ‘raj mistris’ – ‘raj’ being short for

‘raja’ or king. Traditionally, the women have

played a supporting role, carrying bricks,

preparing the cement mixture and following

the men’s commands.

Jharkhand’s enterprising group of women

masons have now broken this gender

stereotype. The women first took up masonry

when the state launched a massive toilet-

building drive under the Swachh Bharat

Mission. Most men had left to work in the

cities and the few that remained thought the

money they would earn by building village

toilets was too paltry a sum to work for.

Today Jharkhand’s 50,000+ workforce

of skilled women masons has played a

pivotal role in helping the state achieve

open-defecation-free status, a milestone it

reached in November 2018. Just as their male

counterparts are called king, these women are

called ‘rani mistris’ – or the queen masons.

Jharkhand was one of the states that received

Technical Assistance (TA) support from

the World Bank in the overall planning and

implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

As part of the TA, the Bank supported several

training programs to build toilets where many

women masons also participated.

Breaking gender stereotypesBut it was not always so. In the beginning,

the village community, especially the women,

looked on them with disapproval. Poonam

Devi, one of the rani mistris, recalls how

her mother-in-law was against her learning

masonry. However, with the strong support

of her husband she was able to start. “When

they saw us becoming financially independent,

the very people who disapproved quietly

began asking how they could also learn the

work. Once the women stood together, the

community relented,” she says.

The women have broken another taboo too.

Earlier, they could never think of travelling

outside their villages to work. Women either

2

The World Bank in India • March 2020 12

worked at home or as farm laborers. But things

have changed now. “We now travel to other

villages when there are requests to build toilets.

In fact, we ask the women of the household to

help us. By the time we leave, some of them

say that they too want to be like us.”

Nishat, along with the other women,

was trained in the city of Ranchi on the

technicalities of building toilets. The week-

long module taught them how to do a site

inspection and assess the best place to build

the toilet. They also learnt the technology

behind soak pits and twin pits and were given

practical training on construction techniques.

After a week, they apprenticed under a senior

mason before starting work on their own.

Now when the women go out to work, they

always advise the family to construct the

toilet within the courtyard of their house.

“Traditional inhibitions hold people back

from constructing a toilet within the house.

But we feel that the toilet should be within

the compound so it’s easier for the women

at night. We need to do something for the

women in our community and it is in our

interest to insist on a toilet,” says Usha Rani.

As masons, they earn more than double

of what they did as a construction laborer.

Nishat, whose husband is unemployed,

is elated with her new earnings. “I save

the money I earn to pay for my children’s

education. I even have spare cash to spend

on myself.”

Usha Rani echoes Nishat’s new-found

confidence. “This skill we have learned makes

us feel so proud. I am more confident now

and feel a great sense of self-worth.”

Enthused and eager to do moreHaving seen the success their work has

brought, the rani mistris now want to

branch out, especially as the work of toilet

construction is largely over in the state. “We

have heard of the government’s Jal Jeevan

program to provide drinking water to all

households. We would now like to be trained

as plumbers,” declares Usha.

Government officials are surprised at the

women’s proactivity. “Their enthusiasm to

learn more enthuses us too. They want to

become plumbers and learn more on solid

and liquid waste management techniques and

about rain water harvesting.”

The women’s success is making their

daughters proud and spurring their own

ambitions. Usha’s daughter Sheetal Chaya

wants to join the Indian Police Service. “It is

important that women take up work. That is

the only way the economy will improve,” she

says confidently.

3


With 50 pre-school children in her care,

Jyothi Parmar was always busy. As

an aangandwadi worker at a government

health and nutrition center in a village in

Madhya Pradesh, she had to monitor each

child’s growth, teach them numbers and the

alphabet, supervise hot lunches for the 3 to

6-year-olds, and distribute rice, pulses and

jaggery for the pregnant mothers and the

younger children to take home. The paper-

work was endless; ten different registers had

to be filled in every day.

Yet Jyothi and the 1.4 million aangandwadi

workers like her are critical for India’s efforts

to build its human capital. For they are at

the frontline of its war on undernutrition. To

tackle this deeply-entrenched challenge,

the government recently rebalanced the

focus of its long-standing Integrated Child

Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, in

operation for the past 40 years.

The new program – the Poshan Abhiyaan or

the National Nutrition Mission, launched in

early 2018 – places greater emphasis on the

delivery of nutrition services during the first

1,000 days of a child’s life.

Currently, 38.4% of India’s children under 5

are stunted and 35.7% are underweight.

This period, from conception until 2 years of

age, is critical for a child to grow, learn and

thrive but was largely ignored earlier when

the focus was placed on the 3 to 6-year-

olds. The program aims to reduce stunting

in children below six years of age to 25% by

2022 and decrease the incidence of low birth

Empowering grassroots workers to fight undernutrition In India

Development Dialogue

The Poshan Abhiyaan or the National Nutrition Mission, launched in early 2018 - places greater

emphasis on the delivery of nutrition services during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. The

1.4 million aangandwadi workers are the critical force at the frontline in India’s war against

undernutrition.


weight among babies. It also aims to lower

the rates of anemia among adolescent girls

and women.

As with the earlier effort, the program’s

scale is huge – it covers every village in the

country’s 36 states and union territories.

Changing age-old practices in feeding and caring for young childrenAmong the Poshan Abhiyaan’s most difficult

task has been changing deeply ingrained

beliefs and nutrition practices. The program

has therefore started a mass movement that

uses a variety of media and public meetings

to create awareness among communities

about the right way to care for and feed a

child.

It emphasizes the importance of only

breastfeeding until six months of age – no

water to be given either during this time, with

solid foods being introduced in appropriate

quantities only after that. It also stresses the

necessity of adolescent girls, pregnant and

lactating women consuming a nutritious diet,

together with the iron and folic acid they need.

The program designated September 2018 as

Poshan Maah—or nutrition month—during

which time its activities reached 270 million

people across the country. Its messages

are reinforced at village gatherings when

traditional milestones are celebrated –

such as the god-bharai and annaprasan

ceremonies that mark a woman’s pregnancy

and a baby’s first taste of solid food.

At one such meeting, M.V Rao, father of a

6-month-old daughter, proudly announced:

“We now feed our child sizeable quantities of

a variety of food – leafy vegetables, fruits and

whatever we cook at home, while my wife

continues to breastfeed.”

A further round of reinforcement and problem

solving takes place when the aangandwadi

workers make home visits, where they

often engage mothers-in-law and husbands

who are mostly the decision-makers within

families.

In one of the world’s largest deployments of

mobile technology in the field of public health

and nutrition, each aangandwadi worker has

been given a smartphone with preloaded

apps.

Mobile phones empower frontline workers

Next, in one of the world’s largest

deployments of mobile technology in the

field of public health and nutrition, each

aangandwadi worker has been given a

smartphone with preloaded apps to help

them prioritize what they need to do, review

the work they have done and take action

where necessary. Across the country,

more than 550,000 – out of the 1.4 million

– aangandwadi workers have been given

mobile phones, with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,

Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra being

the forerunners in this effort.

The phones have not only done away

with 10 of the 11 registers that needed to

be filled in every day but help convey the

messages more vividly. “We can forget

the spoken messages, but not the videos

the aangandwadi worker shows us on her

phone,” said Nargis, a young mother from

Madhya Pradesh.

The technology also helps officials track the

program’s performance and make informed

decisions. “With this system, I get a complete

dataset in one place,” said an official from

Madhya Pradesh. “This helps me prioritize

the interventions that need to be undertaken.”

Learning in bite-sized doses

With so much hinging on the effectiveness of

the aangandwadi workers, their knowledge

and skills are also being improved. Instead

of the traditional classroom approach, the

women are now taught in monthly face-to-

face sessions where learning is imparted

in small doses. They then return to their

communities to practice what they have

learnt, coming back a month later to discuss

the problems they faced, until the lessons

have been deeply ingrained.

A good beginning has indeed been made.

These trainings have been rolled out in 33 of

India’s 36 states. Even so, given the enormity

of the challenge and the long-term nature of

the effort, the program’s full impact will only

be evident in the coming years.


Recent Project Approvals and Signings

Integrated Project for Source Sustainability and Climate Resilient Rain-Fed Agriculture

in Himachal Pradesh

The World Bank Board of Executive

Directors has approved an $80 million

loan to improve water management

practices and increase agricultural

productivity in selected Gram Panchayats

(Village Councils) in Himachal Pradesh, a

mountain state richly endowed with natural

resources.

The Project will be implemented in 428

selected Gram Panchayats in 10 districts1

benefiting over 400,000 smallholder

farmers, women and pastoral communities.

The project will improve upstream water

sources in forests, pastures and grasslands

and ensure enough water is available for

sustainable agriculture both in Himachal

Pradesh and in downstream states.

The project will set up hydrological

monitoring stations to monitor the water

quality and quantity. This will not only help

lay the foundation for future water budgeting

through better land use and agricultural

investments, but also ensure more holistic

catchment area treatment (CAT) plans.

The investment in downstream areas

will augment the use of irrigation and

help farmers shift from low-value cereal

production to climate-resilient crop varieties

and to higher-value fruit and vegetable

production. The focus on increasing

climate resilience and water productivity

will help farmers maximize their financial

returns on water use. The project will

also work in collaboration with other

government programs particularly those

of the agriculture, horticulture, and animal

husbandry departments.

The $80 million loan from the International

Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(IBRD), has a final maturity of 14.5 years

including a grace period of five years.

1Shimla, Solan, Sirmour, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Mandi, Kullu,

Chamba, Kangra and Una


The Government of India and the World

Bank have signed a $450 million loan

agreement to support the government’s

national program to arrest the country’s

depleting groundwater levels and strengthen

groundwater institutions.

The World Bank-supported Atal Bhujal

Yojana, will be implemented in the states of

Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka,

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar

Pradesh and cover 78 districts.

These states span both the hard rock

aquifers of peninsular India and the alluvial

aquifers of the Indo-Gangetic plains.

They were selected based on several

criteria, including degree of groundwater

exploitation and degradation, established

legal and regulatory instruments, institutional

readiness, and experience in implementing

initiatives related to groundwater

management.

The program will, among others, enhance

the recharge of aquifers and introduce

water conservation practices; promote

activities related to water harvesting,

water management, and crop alignment;

create an institutional structure for

Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY) – National Groundwater Management Improvement Program

sustainable groundwater management; and

equip communities and stakeholders to

sustainably manage groundwater.

Crop management and diversification

will be the other focus areas. The program

will support adoption of micro-irrigation

systems, including sprinkler and drip

irrigation to increase productivity and

support farmers to shift to low water-

intensive crops.

To facilitate this process, the government

will transfer a significant portion of

the money (nearly 80 percent) to local

governments, including districts and gram

panchayats. The remaining funds will be

used for providing technical support for

sustainable management of groundwater

and strengthening institutional arrangements

in the selected states.

The $450 million loan, from the International

Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(IBRD), has a 6-year grace period, and a

maturity of 18 years.


A clean Ganga is a national undertaking.

The World Bank’s $1-billion National

Ganga River Basin Project is helping build

institutional capacity for long-term clean-

up and conservation of the Ganga. College

students invited by the World Bank presented

some innovative techniques to achieve this

project.

The World Bank and Lady Shri Ram College

on January 17 organized a Case Study

competition on issues pertaining to Ganga

Rejuvenation for colleges across India. The

challenge was to present solutions on how

to bring behavioral changes among key

stakeholders in cleaning the Ganga. Some

1200 colleges from across the country

participated and eight were short-listed to

make presentations before a panel of expert

judges from the National Mission for Clean

Ganga, Lady Shri Ram College and the World

Bank.

The winners were from Shri Ram College

of Commerce (SRCC) in Delhi; St. Xavier’s

College, Kolkata; Christ University,

Bengaluru; and the Indian Institute of

Technology, Delhi. The winners from SRCC

suggested the creation of a Namami Namah

mobile application that will have a real-time

water quality index and also envisioned that

stakeholders who register on the mobile app

will have access to research on industry-

specific best practices for river cleaning.

“Engaging with and sensitizing the youth

to the challenges of rejuvenating the

Ganga is highly crucial for the success and

College students present ideas for cleaning the Ganga

Case Study Competition

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)

January 17, 2020 • Lady Shri Ram College • New Delhi

Events


sustainability of our mission,” said Rajiv

Ranjan Mishra, Director-General of the

National Mission for Clean Ganga during the

final round of the competition at the World

Bank India offices. “This competition has

brought in numerous remarkable innovative

ideas by young minds on how behavior

change can be triggered using simple

techniques. I am pleased to see that the

ethos of the Ganga continues to shine bright

in the minds of today.”

Tackling pollution in the Ganga BasinThe Ganga basin extends over an area of

860,000 square kilometers, spread across

11 states, and is home to over 500 million

people and generates 40 percent of the

country’s gross domestic product.

Yet, despite its economic importance and its

iconic cultural significance, the Ganga today

is facing formidable pollution pressures,

along with threats to its biodiversity and

environmental sustainability. Over 80 per

cent of the organic pollution discharged into

the Ganga is from domestic sewage from

the many hundreds of towns and cities that

line its banks. Urban centres along the river

generate around 3 billion litres of sewage

every day, whereas treatment capacity exists

for only around one-third of this. Effluents

from manufacturing units in industries such

as paper, pulp, textile and leather that are

located by the river are a major source of

pollution, too.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga

(NMCG) was set up in 2011 to implement

programs and objectives for a clean and

pollution free Ganga. The World Bank is

supporting the Government of India in its

effort to rejuvenate the river. The project is

supporting the government’s program in the

five states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,

Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The

project is also financing 31 sewage treatment

plants across the five states with a total

treatment capacity of 842.8 million litres a day,

and a total sewer network of 3,571 kilometers.

Identifying the pollutantsThe students began by identifying the various

stakeholder groups associated with the

Ganga and how they are contributing towards

polluting the river.

Millions of pilgrims who visit the river every

year use traditional ritual practices such as

throwing puja waste into the river in plastic

bags, using chemical soap with their ritual

dips or immersing chemical-painted idols

in the river are adding to the river’s woes

and small eco-friendly solutions can avoid

additional burden of waste on the river while


also ensuring that their spiritual experience

remains unaltered.

Domestic sewage from the millions of

households in the Ganga towns and cities is

the biggest source of organic pollution in the

river. It will need to be communicated to them

that a simple exercise of connecting their

toilets to sewage networks will ensure that all

the wastewater goes to the sewage treatment

plants and does not fall untreated into the

Ganga.

Similarly, industries and farmers across the

river basin who also contribute to pollution

of the river through agricultural run-off

and discharge of industrial effluents will

also need to make some changes in their

practices, while safeguarding livelihoods and

competitiveness.

Suggested solutions Students talked about the lack of ownership

of the Ganga, and a dissociation from

who is responsible for polluting the river.

The need for addressing the growing

urban requirements of river cities was also

discussed, where populations living along

the river that benefit the most from it are not

currently thinking of giving back to the river.

Students highlighted that urban planning be

done in the perspective of river.

Solutions ranged from involving religious

groups in creating behavioral change,

building enclosures specific for ritualistic

bathing so that chemical and other impurities

are not flowing back into the river as far as

tourists are concerned; going back to using

traditional natural products such as pattal

(dried leaves) for the ritualistic disposal of

flowers into the river, use of mud packs

instead of chemical soaps, or encouraging

overhead bath showers instead of the

ritualistic dip into the river.

For containing the flow of pesticides into the

river, students suggested governments create

and promote belts of organic and natural

farming along the river and create incentives

for domestic users to install greywater

treatment plants. To tackle the continuous

stripping of groundwater, farmers should

be incentivized to use eco-friendly crops

that use less water, rather than giving them

electricity subsidies that may encourage

water wastage.

Industries could be taxed if they dump

untreated chemical factory waste into the

river, and those that are using innovative

solutions to reuse this chemical waste must

be incentivized.

Students also highlighted the need to

encourage the youth to think about this

issue. Organizing drives to spread awareness

in metropolitan cities; starting clubs and

societies with government collaboration in

schools and colleges to generate debate

and find viable solutions; as also including

the issue in school curriculums to create

awareness were some of the suggestions.

The challenge now lies in the effective

implementation and scaling up of these

solutions.

Lighthouse India

Is solar power the panacea it promises to be?

Unshackling India’s energy-water-agriculture nexus:

The World Bank in India • March 2020 12 11

Groundwater levels in India are depleting

at an alarming rate. While groundwater

has played a key role in boosting agricultural

production, the provision of subsidised power

to farmers has led to the ubiquitous use of

irrigation pumps and the over-extraction

of this vital resource. Today, agriculture

consumes almost 90 percent of the country’s

groundwater, largely because of the easy

availability of largely free power to pump it

out with.

The challenge – known as the energy-

water-agriculture nexus – has led to a crisis

in all the three sectors involved. While

groundwater levels have fallen dramatically,

agriculture continues to follow unsustainable

practices and farmer incomes remain

low and stagnating. In peninsular India,

the sustainability of groundwater-based

agriculture itself is in question. At the same

time, the power subsidy is burgeoning,

draining scarce resources and depriving

essential sectors such as education, health,

and other social programs. To add to the

challenge, climate change is disrupting

agrarian ecosystems and livelihoods in

adverse and unpredictable ways.

India has now reached a tipping point. “This

is one of the most critical challenges facing

India,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog.

“Without dealing with water for agriculture,

we will never be able to release water for our

rural, urban and industrial needs.”

Bringing diverse stakeholders to the same table

Recognizing that a highly collaborative

approach is needed to tackle such a long-

entrenched issue, the World Bank recently


organized a workshop in New Delhi, in

partnership with NITI Aayog.

The event brought together the entire gamut

of stakeholders— from senior officials in

the power, water and agriculture ministries,

regulatory commissions and renewable

energy agencies, to policy experts from

development agencies, electricity distribution

companies, academia, farmer associations

and the private sector, including banks.

Small scale pilots may offer large scale wins – lessons from the states

The workshop highlighted a series of state

initiatives to break this long-standing nexus.

In Punjab, for instance, under the “Paani

Bachao, Paisa Kamao” pilot, farmers are not

only following better agronomic practices,

their water and electricity consumption is

down by 30 per cent. Though farmers still get

free power, they are allocated a fixed quantity

for each crop season. If they use less power,

they receive an attractive payment. If they

exceed the limit, they are not penalized.

Supported by the World Bank, it took

vigorous engagement before the farmers

voluntarily agreed to have their power

consumption metered. “They are also taking

on the responsibility of ensuring that ground

water depletion in Punjab can be slowed

down,” said Ravneet Kaur, Additional Chief

Secretary, Power, Government of Punjab.

In Gujarat, farmers formed a solar

cooperative through which they are

supplementing their incomes by selling the

surplus power generated by the solar pumps

in their fields. These solar pumps provide

farmers with reliable day-time electricity for

irrigation, while the surplus generated is sold

to the Madhya Gujarat Vij Company under a

25-year purchase power agreement.

Since the farmers can now sell their surplus

power to the grid, they pump up just as

much water as they need, saving both water

and electricity. The initiative - pioneered

by the Solar Pump Irrigators Cooperative

Enterprise (SPICE) - has helped farmers earn

more than Rs.12.8 lakh in three years.

Piloted by IWMI in Dhundi village of Kheda

District, efforts are on to replicate it state-

wide under the Surya Shakti Kisan Yojana.

Whether it will work on a large scale or not

is hard to gauge as yet, but the model offers

the promise of using solar energy in a more

sustainable way.

The promise and perils of solarization of agricultureGiven the record drop in the cost of solar

and solar-powered technologies, many

other states are experimenting with such

programs, too. The Government of India’s

The World Bank in India • March 2020 12 13

ambitious KUSUM Scheme also aims to

leverage solar in a big way. It is targeting

35 lakh farmers with funds and support

to set up stand-alone solar pumps and

grid-connected solar irrigation facilities, all

aimed at providing clean, reliable power and

doubling farmer incomes by 2022.

“Placing solar technology in the hands of

farmers offers a way to break this nexus in

a way which is win-win for everyone,” said

Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director

in India.

But not all solar powered irrigation pumps

are equally beneficial. While “off-grid” or

stand-alone solar pumps have provided

green and reliable power to farmers and

helped increase their incomes, they have

also increased the extraction of groundwater.

Stand-alone solar pumps are, therefore,

only suitable for regions with abundant

groundwater.

On the other hand, the “grid-connected”

solar pumps offer an additional advantage.

Since farmers can sell their surplus electricity

back to the grid, they can earn an extra

income that is also climate-friendly. The

caveat, however, is that the earning from

surplus solar electricity has to be higher

than the value of extracted water if used in

agriculture.

A recent World Bank analytical study

titled, “Grow Solar, Save Water, Double

Farmer Income: An innovative approach

to addressing water-energy-agriculture

nexus in Rajasthan” has shown that it is

possible to achieve the trifecta of increasing

farm income, conserving water and saving

electricity. State government and the state

Discoms would also benefit financially.

Nevertheless, overall discoms are currently in

a weak financial situation, which may impact

their ability to buy large quantities of surplus

solar energy. This may also pose a challenge

for raising commercial financing to scale-up

grid-connected solar solutions.

“Innovative ways need to be explored to

catalyze the market using established power

traders, and support from Government of

India,” said Mohinder Gulati, Energy Expert,

World Bank.

“Once the market is primed, other

aggregators trading in renewable energy and

local large customers could emerge.”

Getting the solar initiative right

It is tempting to think of solar power as

the magic solution to the multi-faceted

challenge of the nexus. In actuality, many

complementary actions are needed but the

workshop helped distil wisdom that may help

to “get solar right” - solar will work better for

states that are prepared to undertake power

and agricultural sector reforms, embrace

irrigation efficiency and design and deploy

solar programs to suit their local ecosystems.

If states incorporate all these lessons from

the pilots, there is higher likelihood of their

farmers switching to more sustainable

agricultural practices and the unshackling of

the nexus.

“We look forward to changing it into a

virtuous cycle or a synergistic cycle instead

of being a nexus,” summed up NS Bains,

Director Research, Punjab Agriculture

University.

“Lighthouse India” is a World Bank initiative

supporting systematic knowledge exchanges

on good practices and innovations in

development programmes between Indian

states and the world.

12 The World Bank in India • March 2020

Infographics: How Safe are Roads in India

14

12 The World Bank in India • March 2020 15

Context

In early 2010, road development in

Karnataka, was lagging compared to the

growth in vehicle registration. Government

data showed that state highways and the

major district roads needed improvement.

The state also accounted for seven percent

of road fatalities in the country.

The state highway development program was

looking to diversify the financing strategy for

road development and maintenance beyond

government budget. The program also

wanted to improve road safety management

to reduce road accident fatalities and major

injuries. These issues were critical priorities

for the state government.

Project Development Objective

Building on the success of first Karnataka

State Highways Improvement Project

(KSHIP) which laid the foundation for road

Second Karnataka State Highway

Improvement Project (KSHIP II)

Approval Date: 24 March, 2011

Closing Date: 28 December, 2018

Total Project Cost $942 million

Bank Financing: $295 million

Private Financing: $416 million

Implementing Agency:

Karnataka Public

Works Department

and Karnataka

Road Development

Corporation Limited

Outcome: Satisfactory

Risk to Development Outcome:

Moderate

Overall Bank Performance:

Satisfactory

This is a short summary of the Implementation Completion Report (ICR) of a recently-

closed World Bank project. The full text of the ICR is available on the Bank’s website.

To access this document, go to www.worldbank.org/reference/ and then opt for the Documents

& Reports section.

ICR Update

Second Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project (KSHIP II)


sector modernization, KSHIP II was designed

to accelerate the development of the core

road network by leveraging public sector

outlays with private sector financing and

improve the institutional effectiveness of the

road sector agencies to deliver effective and

safe roads to its users.

Key Achievements

The project helped develop a financing

strategy to improve 24,800 km of the core

road network. It helped mobilize private

financing and co-financing from domestic

financial institutions and introduced an

innovative structure for term loan repayment

by securitizing revenue from toll proceeds.

It also assisted the Karnataka Public Works

Department (KPWD) to use modern business

and engineering practices to plan, fund, and

deliver strategic state highway corridors.

Under the project, 1167 km of core

road network in the State was improved

with enhanced road safety features,

environmental protection and conservation

measures and social enhancements. As

a result, the travel time on project roads

decreased by 30–40 percent and there was

a saving of 19 percent on vehicle operating

cost. About 143 blackspots were rectified

by KPWD in 2018-2019 using the standard

operating protocols adopted under the

Project. A road safety demonstration pilot

corridor, on a stretch of 62 km (SH20) from

Belgaum to Yaragatti, showed a reduction in

road accidents and fatalities by 66 and 41

percent respectively.

The state government successfully

mobilised US$347 million from the private

sector and US$27 million of commercial

debt through the innovative contracting

framework (hybrid annuity and co-financing)

adopted under the Project. Since then, the

hybrid annuity model is being replicated

not only in various national and state road

projects but also in other infrastructure

sectors such as water and energy.

A cloud-based E-Learning Management

System was developed for KPWD staff (3000

users) for capacity building along with a

three-year high impact training program. An

online system for grievance redressal with

dedicated 24*7 public resource centre was

adopted by KPWD.

Environment: Several environmental

enhancement measures including

rehabilitation of pond sites to convert

them into wayside recreational facilities,

rehabilitation of burrow areas, groundwater

recharging and specialized actions for

wildlife protection were undertaken. Waste

material from road construction such as

dismantled bituminous and concrete waste

was reused to develop village and temple

roads with public consent.

Social: Resettlement sites were developed

for vulnerable displaced families where

more than 2,000 untitled holders received

resettlement assistance and about 140

informal households were provided security

of tenure. The resettlement policy framework

developed under KSHIP II was adopted by

ADB for their road projects in Karnataka.

About 55,000 local villagers and 6,000

construction workers were also reached

through the HIV/Aids prevention campaign.

Employment opportunities: About 8,34,000

person-days of unskilled employment

opportunities were created through the

project and of these, 69 percent were

local workers and 17 percent of them were

women.

By the end of the project, the road users

and roadside communities benefited from

the reduced transport cost, improved ride

quality, reduced travel time, and safer roads.

The improvement in institutional capacity

contributed to better governance of the

state highway sector. In the resettlement

sites, multi-dimensional poverty index

(measured in term of health, education and

living conditions) reduced from 0.14 to 0.06

and proportion of poor decreased from 39

percent to 11 percent.

Lessons Learned

● Innovative & complex civil works need time

and resources.

● Physical/engineering improvements must

be accompanied by robust programs for

enforcement, education, and post-crash

management.

● A long-term programmatic approach is

key to introduce innovations and achieve

transformative results.


The World Bank in India • January 202012 The World Bank in India • January 2020 12

WPS9143

The Nitrogen Legacy: The Long-Term Effects of

Water Pollution on Human Capital

By Esha Dilip Zaveri, Jason

Daniel Russ, Sebastien

Gael Desbureaux, Richard

Damania and et.al.

The fallout of nitrogen

pollution is considered

one of the largest global

externalities facing the

world, impacting air, water,

soil, and human health.

This paper combines data from the Demographic and

Health Survey data set across India, Vietnam, and 33

India: Policy Research Working Papers

South Asia Publications

What Gets Measured Gets Managed: Assessing

Public Financing for Improving Nutrition Outcomes

and Human Capital in Bhutan

By Shakil Ahmed, Manav

Bhattarai, Laigden Dzed,

Mamata Ghimire, Pema

Lhazom, Ajay Tandon and

Valerie Ulep

Discussion Paper;

Published: January2020

This study summarizes

estimates and lessons

learned from application of

the scaling up nutrition (SUN) methodology to assess

public financing for nutrition in Bhutan. Despite the level

of spending increasing from Nu 1,744 in financial year

(FY) 2013-14, there does not appear to be any increase

in priority to nutrition over the course of the 11th five-

year plan (FYP): increases in the levels of expenditure for

nutrition have resulted from growth of the economy and

not because of higher budget allocation to addressing

nutrition.

18

India PublicationsPublications may be consulted and copies

of unpriced items obtained from:

The World Bank Hindustan Times Building, 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg New Delhi – 110 001

Tel: +91-11-4924 7753 Email: [email protected]

PRINCIPAL DISTRIBUTOR

Viva Books Pvt Ltd

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World Bank Publications – New Additions

This is a select listing of recent World Bank publications – reports, policy research working papers and project documents – that are available at the World Bank’s New Delhi Office.

These can also be downloaded from the website – www.worldbank.org – ‘Documents and Reports’ and ‘Publications.’


Women Business and the Law 2020

Published: January 2020

(Available Online)

Women, Business and the

Law 2020, the sixth edition

in a series, analyzes laws

and regulations affecting

women’s economic

inclusion in 190 economies.

The Women, Business and

the Law Index, composed

by eight indicators structured around women’s

interactions with the law as they begin, progress through

and end their careers, aligns different areas of the law

with the economic decision’s women make at various

stages of their lives.

The indicators are: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage,

Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.

Women, Business and the Law makes an important

contribution to research and policy discussions about

the state of women’s economic opportunities and

empowerment. While celebrating the progress made,

the data and analysis emphasize the work still to be

done to ensure economic empowerment for all.

The Global Waves of Debt: Causes and Consequences

By M. Ayhan Kose, Peter

Nagle, Franziska Ohnsorge

and Naotaka Sugawara


(Available Online)

The global economy has

experienced four waves of

debt accumulation over the

past fifty years. The first

three debt waves ended

African countries to analyze the causal links between

pollution exposure experienced during the very earliest

stages of life and later-life health.

The results show that pollution exposure experienced in

the critical years of development—from birth until age

three—is associated with decreased height as an adult.

WPS9119

Regional Integration in South Asia: Implications for

Green Growth, Female Labor Force Participation,

and the Gender Wage Gap

By Muthukumara S.

Mani, Badri Narayanan

Gopalakrishnan and

Deepika Wadhwa

The study aims to provide

insights to policy makers

in measuring the impact

of trade liberalization

and regional integration

measures on gender

employment and wages. The study incorporates gender-

differentiated employment and wages for selected South

Asian economies across sectors to identify targeted

value chains and economic activities, particularly among

green trade sectors.

This is the first major attempt to develop a gender-

differentiated data set for South Asian countries,

within the widely used Global Trade Analysis Project

framework, to examine the nexus between trade, green

economy, and gender.

The results indicate that a free trade agreement

signed by all countries is likely to be more beneficial

compared with only some countries signing the free

trade agreement. Women’s employment grows faster

than men’s employment, as most of the sectors that

benefit due to these free trade agreements are women

intensive. Growth in women’s employment and wages in

South Asia is consistent with growth in green sectors.

WPS9106

The Spillovers of Employment Guarantee Programs

on Child Labor and Education

By Tianshu Li and Sheetal

Sekhri

Many developing

countries use employment

guarantee programs to

combat poverty. This

paper examines the

consequences of such

employment guarantee

programs for the human

Other Publications

capital accumulation of children. It exploits the phased

roll-out of India’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National

Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) to

study the effects on enrollment in schools and child

labor. Introduction of MGNREGA results in lower relative

school enrollment in treated districts.

The authors find that the drop in enrollment is driven by

primary school children. Children in higher grades are

just as likely to attend school under MGNREGA, but

their school performance deteriorates. Using nationally

representative employment data, they find evidence

indicating an increase in child labor highlighting the

unintentional effects of the employment guarantee

schemes for Human capital.

19


and the changing nature

of work. In a world in

which working lives will

be increasingly longer,

and demands for social

care services will expand,

pension systems will need

to be reformed to ensure

workers are protected and

do not fall into poverty in

old age.

This is the third publication to analyze progress,

challenges, and adjustment options of this reform

revolution for mandated public pension schemes.

Fragility and Conflict: On the Front Lines of the Fight

against Poverty

By Paul Corral, Alexander

Irwin, Nandini Krishnan,

Daniel Gerszon Mahler, and

Tara Vishwanath

Published : February 2020

(Available Online)

Under SDG 1, all countries

have pledged to end

extreme poverty by 2030.

This book examines what

are likely to be the most

intractable barriers to reaching that goal: conflict and

state fragility.

The report aims to show why addressing fragility

and conflict is critical for poverty goals. It presents

new estimates of welfare in economies in fragile and

conflict-affected situations (FCS), filling gaps in previous

knowledge, and analyzes the multidimensional nature

of poverty in these settings. It discusses the long-term

consequences of conflict and introduces a data-driven

classification of countries by fragility profile, showing

opportunities for tailored policy interventions and the

need for monitoring different markers of fragility.

Citizen Engagement: Emerging Digital Technologies

Create New Risks and Value

By Tiago Carneiro Peixoto

and Tom Steinberg

Published: November 2019

(Available Online)

The recent rapid evolution

of digital technologies has

been changing behaviors

and expectations in

countries around the world.

These shifts make it the

right time to pose the key question this paper explores:

with financial crises in many emerging and developing

economies. The latest, since 2010, has already

witnessed the largest, fastest and most broad-based

increase in debt in these economies. Their total debt

has risen by 54 percentage points of GDP to a historic

peak of almost 170 percent of GDP in 2018. Current

low interest rates mitigate some of the risks associated

with high debt. However, emerging and developing

economies are also confronted by weak growth

prospects, mounting vulnerabilities, and elevated global

risks. A menu of policy options is available to reduce the

likelihood of the current debt wave ending in crisis and,

if crises were to take place, alleviate their impact.

To shed light on the implications of the rapid debt

accumulation, Global Waves of Debt presents the first

in-depth analysis of the main features of global and

national debt accumulation episodes, analyzes the

linkages between debt accumulation and financial

crises, and draws policy lessons.

International Debt Statistics 2020


(Available Online)

International Debt

Statistics (IDS) is an annual

publication of the World

Bank featuring external debt

statistics and analysis for

the 122 low- and middle-

income countries that

report to the World Bank

Debt Reporting System (DRS). It focuses on financial

flows, trends in external debt, and other major financial

indicators for low-and middle-income countries. Includes

over 200 time series indicators from 1970 to 2018, for

most reporting countries, and pipeline data for scheduled

debt service payments on existing commitments to 2026.

This edition of International Debt Statistics features

for the first time a breakdown of public and publicly

guaranteed debt – government and other public

sector debt, as well as private debt that is government

guaranteed. As a result, information is available not only

about government debt but also the explicit contingent

liabilities of governments.

Progress and Challenges of Nonfinancial Defined

Contribution Pension Schemes

By Robert Holzmann, Edward Palmer, Robert Palacios,

and Stefano Sacchi

Published: October 2019 (Available Online)

The publication on pension reform examines

nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) pension

schemes as an approach to help policymakers meet

the challenges brought on by rapidly aging populations

20


Will digital technologies, both those that are already

widespread and those that are still emerging, have

substantial impacts on the way citizens engage and the

ways through which power is sought, used, or contested?

The authors address this question both to mitigate

some of the World Bank’s operational risks, and to

initiate a conversation with peers about how those risks

might require policy shifts. Digitally influenced citizen

engagement is, in short, one of those “leapfrog” areas

in which developing nations may exploit technologies

before the wealthier parts of the world. But countries

can leapfrog to worse futures, not just better ones.

This paper explores what technology might mean for

engagement, makes predictions, and offers measures

for governments to consider.

Ready to Learn : Before School, In School, and

Beyond School in South Asia

By Beteille, Tara Beteille,

Namrata Tognatta, Michelle

Riboud, Shinsaku Nomura,

and Yashodhan Ghorpade

South Asia is home to

40 percent of the world’s

school-age population,

and 34 percent of the

world’s youth population

(ages 15−24). The region’s

education system has a

lot to celebrate. But South Asia also has a lot to worry

about. South Asia’s record is especially deficient in

early childhood development. Today, 89 million children

under age 5 in South Asia are at risk of not reaching

their development milestones, a colossal risk for the

region. This is no surprise, as governments spend only

1−3 percent of their education expenditures on early

childhood care. Consequently, millions of children

are off to a bad start even before they enter school.

In school, low-quality teaching, inadequate teaching-

learning material, and poor school management result

in students learning little. Things do not improve

much beyond school. When young people enter the

world of work—whether after attending school, skills

development programs, or higher education programs—

many are reportedly unemployable.

This report is noteworthy in that it makes policy

recommendations for a strategic approach to building

human capital through improved education in South Asia.

Leveraging ICT Technologies in Closing the Gender

Gap

By Marie Sicat, Ankai Xu, Ermira, Mehetaj, Michae

Ferrantino and Vicky Chemutai

Published: January2020 (Available Online)

In recent decades, the

growth of information

and communications

technologies (ICT) and

the move toward the

digitalization of trade and

global value chains has

been radically transforming

the global trade scene, with

important implications for

women engaged in trade. In order to identify adequate

measures to reduce gender disparities, this paper reviews

and discusses evidence from the existing literature, as

well as presents evidence from several new empirical

analyses. It also introduces two new frameworks to

analyze the gender dimensions of e-commerce.

Digital technologies have the potential to empower

women socially and economically by creating new

employment and entrepreneurial opportunities,

removing trade barriers for women, enhancing access

to finance and information and optimizing their

business processes. Yet, technology is not the silver

bullet in resolving all the gender gaps in trade. This is

because women’s access and use of ICTs and digital

technologies tend to lag in contrast to men. The benefits

of digital technologies hinges on well-designed and

specifically targeted policies.

The Impact of Water Quality on GDP Growth:

Evidence from Around the World

By Sebastien Gael

Desbureaux, Richard

Damania, Aude-Sophie

Rodella and et.al.

Published: December 2019

(Available Online)

This report examines

how declining water

quality can impact the

economy in various ways.

Impacts can be found in the health sector, where labor

productivity can be affected, in agriculture, where the

quality and quantity of food produced can be reduced,

and in tourism, real estate, aquaculture/fisheries and

other sectors which rely on environmental quality and

ecosystem services. Despite these well-known impacts,

finding economy-wide affects of water quality on

economic activity can be elusive.

This paper attempts to fill this gap by using a

conventional empirical approach in contemporary

environmental economics and new data on economic

activity and water quality for nineteen countries

from 1990-2014. The authors find that when rivers

become very heavily polluted, regions downstream see

reductions in economic growth, losing between 0.8 and

2.0 percent of economic growth.

21


From the Blogworld

How South Asia can protect life and assets against landslides

Masatsugu Takamatsu, Julian Palma

Imagine you live in a house with a beautiful view of

downhill greens. One day after a storm you come

out of the house and find the entire ground from

the tip of your house is washed out for hundreds

of meters – this is a real landslide that occurred in

Kerala, India in August 2018.

5 million people in Kerala the most southwestern

State of India, were affected by extreme and

prolonged rainfall of August 2018. The monsoon

caused widespread floods and more than 3,000

landslides across the state. The seismically active

Himalayan-Hindu Kush mountain belt with the world-

most challenging terrain also affects other South

Asian countries. Earthquakes, landslides, and heavy

rainfall often cause long-term disruption of transport

systems in the region, resulting in economic setbacks

affecting internal trade and regional integration.

Communities affected by landslides are often socially

vulnerable to homelessness and, they rely on few

roads for evacuation or for sourcing food and water.

In 2016, with the objective of empowering countries

in South Asia Region (SAR) in building a resilient

road transport network, the World Bank launched,

with support from the Global Facility of Disaster Risk

Reduction (GFDRR) and the European Union (EU),

its Building Resilience to Landslides and Geo-hazard

Risk in the South Asia Region program to support

policy makers and technical agencies.

The South-to-South learning workshop series is

one of the key vehicles employed in this program

to provide South Asian countries with knowledge

learning and experience sharing opportunities. These

workshops focused on geohazard risk management

(GRM), including resilient road asset management

and disaster preparedness to help strengthen the

GRM capacity of policymakers and practitioners and

support the development of country-specific action

plans.

This GRM capacity building program is one small tool

to help each government develop a comprehensive

and robust geohazard risk management policy and

technical framework to make a big impact on the

safety of people from geohazards.

To learn more, visit:

blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia

22

https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/how-south-asia-can-protect-life-and-assets-against-landslides


From the Blogworld

Empowering South Asian artisans

Nasirra Ahsan

Can greater regional integration, knowledge

exchange programs and cross-border trade,

improve economic opportunity and livelihood for the

poor, and empower women at the same time?

With the right approach, yes!

South Asia is the world’s least economically

integrated region, with intraregional trade standing

at a mere 5 percent of total trade, compared to

22 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and 25 percent

among Southeast Asian nations.

Also, at 36 percent, female workforce participation

in the region is also far below global average and it’s

declining. South Asian women who are not formally

employed often hold vulnerable or low skill-jobs

where they earn less and have few to no benefits.

However, political momentum for regional

cooperation between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,

and Nepal (BBIN) has recently picked up, promising

greater economic opportunity for South Asian

citizens, especially women.

To that end, the Business, Enterprise and

Employment Support for Women in South Asia

(BEES) was formally registered with the help of the

World Bank a few weeks ago to support cross-

border learning, collective action, and advocacy to

empower South Asian women.

The World Bank facilitated a producer-to-producer

(P2P) learning event for 18 grassroots producers

and artisans from Bhutan, India, and Nepal. These

cross-country training sessions allow for learning

or honing of important skills such as product

development, merchandising and marketing.

The goal is to help women participants make better

products, increase their sales, or include more

women in their enterprise.



23

https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/empowering-south-asian-artisans


From the Blogworld

Whenever I open a newspaper in India, I come

across stories of lives needlessly lost in road

crashes.

Children riding their bicycles to after-school classes

mowed down by speeding vehicles, young fathers

on two-wheelers cut down by reckless drivers, cars

24

India’s states need to fully embrace the new road safety law to save precious lives

Hartwig Schafer

crashing on badly-lit roads or into wrongly-placed

dividers, each heartrending incident leaving a family

grieving and traumatized forever. India’s roads are

among the most dangerous in the world.

Every year, they claim the lives of about 150,000

people, leaving more than five times that number

injured or maimed for life. Apart from the enormous

suffering they cause, road crashes cost the economy

between 3-5% of GDP a year.

The country’s recent enactment of the Motor Vehicles

(Amendment) Act, 2019 is, therefore, a timely step in

the right direction.

But legislation is just the beginning; a lot will depend

on how it is implemented, mainly by the states who

are primarily responsible to deliver.

The time is right for India to raise the bar on road

safety. Motorization is growing, road construction is

booming, and legislation of international standards is

in place.The government will now need to act quickly

and effectively, while states and cities will need to

embrace the law in both letter and spirit to improve

the quality of life of their people.

Hartwig Schafer, Vice President, South-Asia Region,

World Bank writes on the importance of prioritizing

road safety in India.



https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/indias-states-need-fully-embrace-new-road-safety-law-save-precious-lives

The World Bank in India • January 202012 The World Bank in India • January 2020 12 25

World Bank Policy Research Working Papers

WPS9144

Salt of the Earth: Quantifying the Impact of Water

Salinity on Global Agricultural Productivity

By Jason Daniel Russ, Esha Dilip Zaveri, Richard

Damania, Sebastien Gael Desbureaux and et.al.

WPS9143

The Nitrogen Legacy: The Long-Term Effects of Water

Pollution on Human Capital

By Esha Dilip Zaveri, Jason Daniel Russ, Sebastien Gael

Desbureaux, Richard Damania and et.al.

WPS9142

Global Corporate Debt during Crises: Implications of

Switching Borrowing across Markets

By Juan Jose Cortina Lorente, Tatiana Didier Brandao

and Sergio L. Schmukler

WPS9141

The Power of Believing You Can Get Smarter: The

Impact of a Growth-Mindset Intervention on Academic

Achievement in Peru

By Ingo Outes-Leon, Alan Sanchez and Renos Vakis

WPS9140

Assessing the Longer Term Impact of Community-

Driven Development Programs: Evidence from a Field

Experiment in the Democratic Republic of Congo

By Eric Mvukiyehe and Peter van der Windt

WPS9139

Assessing the Returns on Investment in Data

Openness and Transparency

By Megumi Kubota and Albert G. Zeufack

WPS9138

Bank Capital and Risk in Europe and Central Asia Ten

Years After the Crisis

By Deniz Anginer, Asli Demirguc-Kunt and Davide

Salvatore Mare

WPS9137

Borrow with Sorrow? The Changing Risk Profile of

Sub-Saharan Africa’s Debt

By Cesar Calderon and Albert G. Zeufack

WPS9136

Cost Recovery and Financial Viability of the Power

Sector in Developing Countries: Insights from 15 Case

Studies

By Joern Torsten Huenteler, Denzel J. Hankinson,

Nicole Rosenthal, Ani Balabanyan and et.al.

WPS9135

Cyber Resilience of Autonomous Mobility Systems:

Cyber Attacks and Resilience-Enhancing Strategies

By Bo Zou, Pooria Choobchian and Julie Rozenberg

WPS9134

Reverse Mortgages, Financial Inclusion, and

Economic Development: Potential Benefit and Risks

By Peter Knaack, Margaret J. Miller and Fiona Elizabeth

Stewart

WPS9133

Toward Successful Development Policies: Insights

from Research in Development Economics

By Erhan Artuc, Robert J. Cull, Susmita Dasgupta,

Roberto Fattal and et.al.

WPS9132

Trade Integration, Export Patterns, and Growth in

Sub-Saharan Africa

By Cesar Calderon, Martha Catalina Cantu Canales and

Albert G. Zeufack

WPS9131

Religion and Sanitation Practices

By Anjali Adukia, Marcella Alsan, Kim Babiarz, Jeremy

D. Goldhaber-Fiebert and Lea Prince

WPS9130

Taxing Tobacco in Georgia: Welfare and Distributional

Gains of Smoking Cessation

By Alan Fuchs Tarlovsky and Maria Fernanda Gonzalez

Icaza

WPS9129

Inflation and Public Debt Reversals in Advanced

Economies

By Ichiro Fukunaga, Takuji Komatsuzaki and Hideaki

Matsuoka

WPS9128

Recall Length and Measurement Error in Agricultural

Surveys

By Philip Randolph Wollburg, Marco Tiberti and Alberto

Zezza

WPS9127

Do Weak Institutions Prolong Crises? On the

Identification, Characteristics, and Duration of

Declines During Economic Slumps

By Richard Bluhm, Denis de Crombrugghe and Adam

Szirmai

WPS9126

Narrow Incumbent Victories and Post-Election

Conflict: Evidence from the Philippines

By Benjamin Crost, Joseph H. Felter, Hani Mansour and

Daniel I. Rees

WPS9125

Beneficiary Views on Cash and In-Kind Payments:

Evidence from Ethiopia’s Productive Safety

By Kalle Valtteri Hirvonen and John Hoddinott


WPS9124

Digital Innovation in East Asia: Do Restrictive Data

Policies Matter

By Martina Francesca Ferracane and Erik Leendert Van

Der Marel

WPS9123

Up before Dawn: Experimental Evidence from a

Cross-Border Trader Training at the Democratic

Republic of Congo–Rwanda Border

By Kevin Croke, Maria Elena Garcia Mora, Markus P.

Goldstein and et.al.

WPS9122

The Role of Income and Substitution in Commodity

Demand

By John Baffes, Alain Ntumba Kabundi, Peter Stephen

Oliver Nagle

WPS9121

Inequality, Poverty and the Intra-Household Allocation

of Consumption in Senegal

By Philippe H. De Vreyer and Sylvie Lambert

WPS9120

Assessing Deprivation with an Ordinal Variable:

Theory and Application to Sanitation Deprivation in

Bangladesh

By Suman Seth and Gaston Yalonetzky

WPS9119

Regional Integration in South Asia: Implications for

Green Growth, Female Labor Force Participation, and

the Gender Wage Gap

By Muthukumara S. Mani, Badri Narayanan

Gopalakrishnan and Deepika Wadhwa

WPS9118

Intimate Partner Violence: The Influence of Job

Opportunities for Men and Women

By Sonia R. Bhalotra, Uma Kambhampati, Samantha

Rawlings and Zahra Siddique

WPS9117

Returns to Education in Azerbaijan: Some New

Estimates

By Vicente A. Garcia Moreno and Harry Anthony Patrinos

WPS9116

Debt and Financial Crises

By Wee Chian Koh, Ayhan Kose, Peter Stephen Oliver

Nagle and et.al.

WPS9115

Heterogeneous Effects of the de jure and de facto

Business Environment: Findings from Multiple Data

Sets on the Business Environment

By Christine Zhenwei Qiang, He Wang and L. Colin Xu

WPS9114

Conceptual Aspects of Global Value Chains

By Pol Antras

WPS9113

Gender Differences in Agricultural Productivity in Cote

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Marie Rouanet

WPS9112

Does Democratization Promote Competition?:

Indonesian Manufacturing Pre and Post Suharto

By Mary C. Hallward-Driemeier, Anna Kochanova and

Bob Rijkers

WPS9111

Migration and Remittances in the Former Soviet

Union Countries of Central Asia and the South

Caucasus: What Are the Long-Term Macroeconomic

Consequences?

By Martin Brownbridge, Sudharshan Canagarajah

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Migration in Libya: A Spatial Network Analysis

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Macro-Financial Aspects of Climate Change

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What Aspects of Formality Do Workers Value?

Evidence from a Choice Experiment in Bangladesh

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and Shanthi Nataraj

WPS9107

Free Movement and Affordable Housing: Public

Preferences for Reform in Uzbekistan

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The Spillovers of Employment Guarantee Programs on

Child Labor and Education

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WPS9105

Free Primary Education, Fertility, and Women’s

Access to the Labor Market: Evidence from Ethiopia

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Stages of Development of Payment Systems:

Leapfrogging across Countries and MENA’s Place in

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Rostom and Chahir Zaki

26


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Using Labor Supply Elasticities to Learn about

Income Inequality: The Role of Productivities versus

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The Targeting Benefit of Conditional Cash Transfers

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Gender Bias in SME Lending: Experimental Evidence

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Firms Far Up: Productivity, Agglomeration, and High-

Growth Firms in Ethiopia

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Trade and Female Labor Participation: Stylized Facts

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Decline in Wage Inequality in Brazil: A Survey

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How Technology Adoption and Trade Are Shaping

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D. Mason

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Effects over the Life of a Program: Evidence from an

Education Conditional Cash Transfer Program for Girls

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Lights Off, Lights On: The Effects of Electricity

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Factor Market Failures and the Adoption of Irrigation

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Trade, Global Value Chains and GDP Comovemement:

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Alexandre Gwen Simon Gaillard

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Inflation Dynamics and Global Value Chains

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An Empirical Investigation of Trade Diversion and

Global Value Chains

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Luc Yvon Maire and Guillaume Sublet

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Can Medium-Resolution Satellite Imagery Measure

Economic Activity at Small Geographies? Evidence

from Landsat in Vietnam

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Yonatan Vaizman

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Group Incentives for the Public Good: A Field

Experiment on Improving the Urban Environment

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The Medium Term Impacts of Cash and In-kind Food

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Meilman Lomaz Cohn

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Addressing High School Dropouts with a Scalable

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Navarro and Julian C Jamison

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Product Market Competition, Productivity, and Jobs:

The Case of South Africa

By Seidu Dauda, Sara Nyman and Aalia Cassim

WPS9083

Foreign Direct Investment and Female

Entrepreneurship

By Sheng Fang, Heba M.M. Shamseldin and L. Colin Xu

27

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