The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) is The World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.
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Total publications: 37,590
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Publication Mozambique - Agriculture Support Policy Review(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-26) World BankVarious efforts have been made to comprehensively assess agricultural policies in countries worldwide using diverse methodologies, including some generated by several international organizations. Since first applied in the 1980s, the OECD’s methodology has been regarded as a practical policy monitoring and evaluation tool. It has been frequently used as a reference to establish a dialogue at the national and international levels since it allows comparisons among countries and their economies, measuring the impact of policies on the gross income of both consumers and producers. The OECD methodology focuses on estimating the value of monetary transfers made by taxpayers and consumers, specifically to agricultural producers, as a direct result of the implementation of agricultural policies. This study aims to apply the OECD methodology to measure monetary transfers to the agricultural sector and the producers between 2019 and 2022.Publication The European Union-South Asia Capacity Building for Disaster Risk Management Program: Results and Achievements - Building Resilience : Stories of Regional Integration for DRM in South Asia Empowering Countries and Communities, Enhancing Preparedness(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-26) World BankSouth Asia, a region of immense cultural and geographical diversity and economic vitality, is also confronted with significant disaster risk management (DRM) challenges. Launched in 2015, the European Union-South Asia Capacity Building for DRM Program (EU-SAR DRM Program) supported countries and institutions to improve preparedness, contingency planning, and service delivery to mitigate the impacts of disasters. By enhancing the capacity of organizations operating at national, sub-national, and regional levels tasked with disaster preparedness, response, and early warning, the Program actively supported the implementation of the South Asia Regional Integration Strategy. This strategic framework underscores the critical importance of enhancing hydro-meteorological services, disaster preparedness, and climate resilience as pivotal components to facilitate regional integration. The Program effectively implemented 16 grants, each contributing significantly to the overarching goal of enhancing resilience in the region. The achievements stemming from these grants are numerous and diverse, reflecting the multifaceted nature of DRM. This booklet offers a selection of activities to showcase the program’s breadth and impact. From regional knowledge sharing and institutional capacity building in hydromet and climate services to national applications of landslide risk screening using remote sensing, these actions highlight the significant progress made in strengthening the resilience of South Asian nations and communities to weather- and climate-related disasters and underscore the impact of collaborative efforts in DRM.Publication Understanding the Role of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Carbon Sequestration: White Paper(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-26) World BankThis white paper Aprovides the current state of scientific understanding of the field and suggests next steps forward in terms of how modeling can contribute to filling this gap. The report is structured to support the future development or enhancement of models, featuring a map of the key stocks and flows, an analysis of how fish transform and ‘produce’ carbon, an exploration of the carbon biochemical transformations in the marine environment, and an examination of physical transport within the marine ecosystem. Additionally, it includes dedicated sections on the implications of sediment interactions with mobile demersal fishing gears for carbon sequestration, the significance of marine macroalgae-kelp ecosystems in the biological carbon pump, and noteworthy policy initiatives related to marine carbon sequestration. The research conducted here identified general gaps, such as the need to better characterize how different fish contribute to and consume the various carbon flows identified in the marine realm, or the need to better characterize the interrelation between trawling activities and sedimentary ecosystems. Specific difficulties have been identified arising from the fact that most fishing activities take place on the marine shelf, where key physicochemical and biological processes are often more complex than in the open ocean where carbon flows are better understood, leading to a higher level of complexity in evaluating carbon sequestration times in coastal areas. This white paper concludes with a summary how existing models could be enhanced to overcome some of the identified knowledge limitations. To accomplish this, the development of coupled food-web models with carbon sequestration models is proposed, aiming to attain a more realistic understanding of the implications of fishing activities for carbon sequestration. In the final section, this vision is elaborated on with recommendations for next steps.Publication Early Warning Systems in Fragility, Conflict, and Violence-affected Settings: Shielding Communities from Natural Hazards Amid Compounded Crises - World Bank White Paper for EWS Implementation in FCV Settings, 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-26) World Bank; GFDRRThis study, led by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) teams working on the Disaster-FCV Nexus thematic area and the Hydromet Services and Early Warning Systems thematic area, aims to contribute to GFDRR’s overarching objective: to help low- and middle income countries understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. More specifically, the purpose of this report is to provide valuable insights into the nuances of early warning systems (EWS) implementation within fragile, conflict, and violence (FCV)-affected contexts against growing natural hazards, offering practical recommendations and identifying entry points for enhancing stakeholder coordination, optimizing resource allocation, and fostering community resilience. It is aimed at development practitioners, especially World Bank staff, who work with communities and governments to enhance the scaling-up of EWS coverage to populations living in contexts affected by FCV.Publication Electricity Transition in MFMod: A Methodological Note with Applications(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-25) Jooste, Charl; McIsaac, Florent; Haider, AlexanderThis paper describes power sector modeling methodologies for the World Bank’s macrostructural model — MFMod. Macrostructural models generally do not model sectors, such as the power sector, in detail, limiting their capacity to represent deep system transformation (for example, low-carbon energy transitions). The main constraints to adequate sector modeling are data availability and technological representation of the power system. Time-series data for specific production factors across sectors do not exist consistently for most countries in World Bank models. This paper describes two distinct methods to overcome this constraint: (i) using a more granular representation of the production function and (ii) linking the macrostructural model with the World Bank's electricity planning models. These methods provide a more nuanced technical representation of deep transformations, enabling discussions on their macroeconomic consequences. The paper provides results for Mauritania and South Africa. These methodologies serve as a blueprint for macroeconomic modeling of energy transitions in this class of models.
