The World Bank work program on rural-urban transformation, co-sponsored by the Poverty Reduction ... more The World Bank work program on rural-urban transformation, co-sponsored by the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Network and Sustainable Development (SD) Network vice presidencies, spanned two years, from mid-2008 to mid-2010, and benefited from the contributions of development analysts and practitioners from the World Bank and other international organizations and academic institutions. The authors would like to thank the Poverty Reduction and Equity Group, led by Ana Revenga, sector director, Jaime Saavedra, sector manager, and Louise Cord, former sector manager, and the Finance, Economics, and Urban Department, led by Zoubida Allaoua, sector director, for their ongoing support of this work program. Special thanks go to Marisela Montoliu, who initiated the cross-sectoral work program as head of the Spatial and Local Development team in the SD Network. Her intellectual leadership and hands-on engagement throughout the research and writing process-including her own contribution of the overview chapter-enhanced the relevance and impact of the work program. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the substantial contributions of the panel of peer reviewers
This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link e... more This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link employment and social cohesion. For example, despite harsh working conditions, retail garment manufacturing contributed to the transformation of gender relationship in Bangladesh by giving women the opportunity to acquire skills, control over resources, and greater independence. Conversely, the downsizing of industries in the US, Argentina, Bulgaria, and Guyana not only hurt households financially; it undermined their sense of dignity, self-worth, and trust in institutions, and severely weakened social ties within their communities. Chronic unemployment and underemployment does more than erode social cohesion—in the Arab Spring, it helped catalyze a broad-based social movement that overturned regimes; in the UK, a pervasive sense of exclusion from economic life provoked a disorganized and violent reaction. Since the relationship between jobs and social cohesion is mediated by institutions...
This paper reflects the view of the author only. It was commissioned as background paper for the ... more This paper reflects the view of the author only. It was commissioned as background paper for the World Bank work program on Missing Girls in the South Caucasus.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the intensive process of preparing this Review, many people have provided... more ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the intensive process of preparing this Review, many people have provided assistance and support. We would like to start by thanking Luca Barbone, Lilia Burunciuc and Tamara Solyanyk for providing the initial impetus for the Review. We are grateful to our sector manager, Alexandre Marc, for his enthusiastic encouragement and guidance to us in carrying out the first gender review in the ECA Region. From the beginning, the Government of Ukraine also endorsed the review, and we are grateful to the many national and regional government officials who met with us during our mission. During the preparation period, representatives from Washington and Kyiv-based donor and non-governmental organizations responded to our invitation to the round-table discussions and video-conferences we organized in order to flesh out the findings from our desk review of studies, and prepare a list of organizations and individuals with whom to meet during the mission. The Resident Missi...
The aim of this study is to provide an operationally relevant regional study of the key cross-bor... more The aim of this study is to provide an operationally relevant regional study of the key cross-border conflict issues that affect communities in Central Asia and the ways in which these conflicts are mitigated. More specifically, the study aims to: 1) develop a greater understanding of the dynamics of everyday conflict in Central Asia; 2) analyze underlying institutional factors that escalate disagreements into conflicts; and 3) identify local conflict management approaches. The first chapter of this report offers an overview of the study. The second chapter provides a brief regional perspective on the historical roots of socio-political identities and the growing socio-economic cleavages in these post-Soviet states. The third chapter draws on field data to present a detailed analysis of everyday conflicts related to the movement of people, goods and water across borders. It briefly describes the political and economic context of these border problems, including the triggers that int...
This report, Europe and Central Asia - Missing Women in the South Caucasus : Local perceptions an... more This report, Europe and Central Asia - Missing Women in the South Caucasus : Local perceptions and proposed solutions, discusses research conducted on skewed sex ratios in the South Caucasus. It discusses (i) the factors that encourage sex selection in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, (ii) whether and how these might be changing; (iii) public awareness of and attitudes regarding skewed sex rations; and to propose potential policy responses. The report examines the following: factors contributing to smaller families and unbalanced sex rations in the South Caucasus, the reasons for underlying son preference, attitudes toward daughters, factors that make women vulnerable to pressures to produce sons. It also describes how intergenerational and gender relationships are starting to change and proposes some recommendations for addressing the factors that underlie unbalanced sex rations.
This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link e... more This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link employment and social cohesion. For example, despite harsh working conditions, retail garment manufacturing contributed to the transformation of gender relationship in Bangladesh by giving women the opportunity to acquire skills, control over resources, and greater independence. Conversely, the downsizing of industries in the US, Argentina, Bulgaria, and Guyana not only hurt households financially; it undermined their sense of dignity, self-worth, and trust in institutions, and severely weakened social ties within their communities. Chronic unemployment and underemployment does more than erode social cohesion-in the Arab Spring, it helped catalyze a broad-based social movement that overturned regimes; in the UK, a pervasive sense of exclusion from economic life provoked a disorganized and violent reaction. Since the relationship between jobs and social cohesion is mediated by institutions and policies, policy makers should be more proactive in considering policies to help cushion the impacts of changing labor markets and/or joblessness in the interests of maintain social stability and cohesion. 1 This paper has benefited from the guidance of Dena Ringold and Jesko Hentschel from the WDR 2013 team, Jimena Luna for unearthing many useful sources, and Arjan de Haan and Andy Norton, peer reviewers, for their thoughtful and constructive comments. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Development Report 2013 team, the World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
This paper is a contribution to the draft social development strategy for the World Bank. The fin... more This paper is a contribution to the draft social development strategy for the World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are the author's own and should not be attributed to the World Bank, its management, its Board of Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. i
In the past fifteen years, most countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of I... more In the past fifteen years, most countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have shifted from predominantly collective to more individualized agriculture. These years also have witnessed the largest fall in agricultural production, yields, and rural employment on record, while the deterioration and dissolution of collective and state farms have been accompanied by a significant drop in rural public services. Land Reform and Farm Restructuring provides a structured and comparative review of important aspects of land reform and documents important differences in policies between countries to examine why the reforms have not yet lived up to their potential. It is based on data from farm and household surveys and interviews conducted in 2003 and 2004. Case studies from Bulgaria, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan - countries that have had particular difficulties in land reform, farm restructuring, farm performance, or rural poverty - each highligh...
In 1999, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced poverty reduction st... more In 1999, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) as a condition for highly indebted countries to receive debt relief under the HIPC initiative. Since then, PRSPs have become a condition for aid to International Development Association (IDA) countries, for which they are considered instrumental in refocusing attention on poverty, democratizing policy making, and improving donor coordination. While PRSPs may play that role in many IDA countries, their usefulness in fragile states, including those just emerging from conflict, has been questioned. Increased donor attention to the specific problems of such states was the impetus for a Poverty Reduction Group (PRMPR) stocktaking of PRSPs in fragile environments.
Over the past decade the rural sector in nearly all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (... more Over the past decade the rural sector in nearly all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has undergone a shift from predominantly collective agriculture to more individualized agriculture. Over a ten year period, between 1990 and 2000, over 145 million hectares of land were transferred to private ownership. This paper presents such a stocktaking of land reform and farm restructuring in four countries of the Europe and Central Asia region that have had particular difficulties in land reform, farm restructuring, farm performance or rural poverty. It is organized by case studies. Much of the information presented in this review derives from farm and household surveys conducted in each of the four countries in 2003 and 2004. The surveys were designed to provide information that would be comparable across countries. Surveys were supplemented by individual and focus group discussions. Analysis of land reform and farm restructur...
Education reform has become an extraordinarily important issue fur Albania, as it from a closed, ... more Education reform has become an extraordinarily important issue fur Albania, as it from a closed, centrally planned economy to a global market economy, and from a closed, authoritarian political regime to one that is more open. In modern economies, the level and quality of education affects the probability of finding employment and level of earnings. Education increases social mobility, since more educated people have greater chances of receiving on the job training. Conversely, in modern economies, lack of education is an important determinant of poverty. Education also plays a central role in shaping national ideology and identity and notions of citizenship. Attempts to reform the education system must therefore factor in a range of explicit and implicit values and attitudes, in addition to importing cutting edge practices in curriculum development, methods of evaluation, and forms of community involvement which may not be appropriate to the socio-cultural context. Finally, and ver...
This study answers two questions about power sector reform in Moldova. First, did reform affect t... more This study answers two questions about power sector reform in Moldova. First, did reform affect the poor and the non-poor differently? Second, are household consumption patterns different for private and public distribution networks? The study concludes that reforms have not disproportionately affected the poor. The gap in electricity consumption between poor and non-poor is closing, as a result of improvements in the supply of electricity, particularly in rural areas, and the significant growth in income over the past four years. Moldova's residential electricity consumption remains exceptionally low and is probably highly inelastic, especially for the very poor. This implies that unless they are accompanied by increases in income, future tariff increases could create large potential consumer welfare losses-as well as large revenue gains for the utility. It also implies that there may be room for substantial welfare gains by helping households better manage their electricity ex...
This document provides concrete suggestions for using qualitative methods to explore six sometime... more This document provides concrete suggestions for using qualitative methods to explore six sometimes overlapping dimensions of social capital:2 (i) groups and networks, (ii) trust and solidarity, (iii) collective action and cooperation, (iv) information and communication, (v) social cohesion and inclusion, and (vi) empowerment and political action. These dimensions reflect two different ways of thinking about social capital. The first focuses on how social relationships act as a means through which individuals, households, or small groups secure (or are denied) access to resources. From this standpoint, individuals, households, or small groups who have access to important resources, or who occupy key strategic positions in a network, are said to have more social capital than others, because their social relationships and position in these networks give them better access to and control over valued resources. Implicit in this approach is the recognition that the distribution of social ...
The World Bank work program on rural-urban transformation, co-sponsored by the Poverty Reduction ... more The World Bank work program on rural-urban transformation, co-sponsored by the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Network and Sustainable Development (SD) Network vice presidencies, spanned two years, from mid-2008 to mid-2010, and benefited from the contributions of development analysts and practitioners from the World Bank and other international organizations and academic institutions. The authors would like to thank the Poverty Reduction and Equity Group, led by Ana Revenga, sector director, Jaime Saavedra, sector manager, and Louise Cord, former sector manager, and the Finance, Economics, and Urban Department, led by Zoubida Allaoua, sector director, for their ongoing support of this work program. Special thanks go to Marisela Montoliu, who initiated the cross-sectoral work program as head of the Spatial and Local Development team in the SD Network. Her intellectual leadership and hands-on engagement throughout the research and writing process-including her own contribution of the overview chapter-enhanced the relevance and impact of the work program. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the substantial contributions of the panel of peer reviewers
This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link e... more This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link employment and social cohesion. For example, despite harsh working conditions, retail garment manufacturing contributed to the transformation of gender relationship in Bangladesh by giving women the opportunity to acquire skills, control over resources, and greater independence. Conversely, the downsizing of industries in the US, Argentina, Bulgaria, and Guyana not only hurt households financially; it undermined their sense of dignity, self-worth, and trust in institutions, and severely weakened social ties within their communities. Chronic unemployment and underemployment does more than erode social cohesion—in the Arab Spring, it helped catalyze a broad-based social movement that overturned regimes; in the UK, a pervasive sense of exclusion from economic life provoked a disorganized and violent reaction. Since the relationship between jobs and social cohesion is mediated by institutions...
This paper reflects the view of the author only. It was commissioned as background paper for the ... more This paper reflects the view of the author only. It was commissioned as background paper for the World Bank work program on Missing Girls in the South Caucasus.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the intensive process of preparing this Review, many people have provided... more ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the intensive process of preparing this Review, many people have provided assistance and support. We would like to start by thanking Luca Barbone, Lilia Burunciuc and Tamara Solyanyk for providing the initial impetus for the Review. We are grateful to our sector manager, Alexandre Marc, for his enthusiastic encouragement and guidance to us in carrying out the first gender review in the ECA Region. From the beginning, the Government of Ukraine also endorsed the review, and we are grateful to the many national and regional government officials who met with us during our mission. During the preparation period, representatives from Washington and Kyiv-based donor and non-governmental organizations responded to our invitation to the round-table discussions and video-conferences we organized in order to flesh out the findings from our desk review of studies, and prepare a list of organizations and individuals with whom to meet during the mission. The Resident Missi...
The aim of this study is to provide an operationally relevant regional study of the key cross-bor... more The aim of this study is to provide an operationally relevant regional study of the key cross-border conflict issues that affect communities in Central Asia and the ways in which these conflicts are mitigated. More specifically, the study aims to: 1) develop a greater understanding of the dynamics of everyday conflict in Central Asia; 2) analyze underlying institutional factors that escalate disagreements into conflicts; and 3) identify local conflict management approaches. The first chapter of this report offers an overview of the study. The second chapter provides a brief regional perspective on the historical roots of socio-political identities and the growing socio-economic cleavages in these post-Soviet states. The third chapter draws on field data to present a detailed analysis of everyday conflicts related to the movement of people, goods and water across borders. It briefly describes the political and economic context of these border problems, including the triggers that int...
This report, Europe and Central Asia - Missing Women in the South Caucasus : Local perceptions an... more This report, Europe and Central Asia - Missing Women in the South Caucasus : Local perceptions and proposed solutions, discusses research conducted on skewed sex ratios in the South Caucasus. It discusses (i) the factors that encourage sex selection in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, (ii) whether and how these might be changing; (iii) public awareness of and attitudes regarding skewed sex rations; and to propose potential policy responses. The report examines the following: factors contributing to smaller families and unbalanced sex rations in the South Caucasus, the reasons for underlying son preference, attitudes toward daughters, factors that make women vulnerable to pressures to produce sons. It also describes how intergenerational and gender relationships are starting to change and proposes some recommendations for addressing the factors that underlie unbalanced sex rations.
This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link e... more This paper uses selected case studies to illustrate some of the complex relationships that link employment and social cohesion. For example, despite harsh working conditions, retail garment manufacturing contributed to the transformation of gender relationship in Bangladesh by giving women the opportunity to acquire skills, control over resources, and greater independence. Conversely, the downsizing of industries in the US, Argentina, Bulgaria, and Guyana not only hurt households financially; it undermined their sense of dignity, self-worth, and trust in institutions, and severely weakened social ties within their communities. Chronic unemployment and underemployment does more than erode social cohesion-in the Arab Spring, it helped catalyze a broad-based social movement that overturned regimes; in the UK, a pervasive sense of exclusion from economic life provoked a disorganized and violent reaction. Since the relationship between jobs and social cohesion is mediated by institutions and policies, policy makers should be more proactive in considering policies to help cushion the impacts of changing labor markets and/or joblessness in the interests of maintain social stability and cohesion. 1 This paper has benefited from the guidance of Dena Ringold and Jesko Hentschel from the WDR 2013 team, Jimena Luna for unearthing many useful sources, and Arjan de Haan and Andy Norton, peer reviewers, for their thoughtful and constructive comments. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Development Report 2013 team, the World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
This paper is a contribution to the draft social development strategy for the World Bank. The fin... more This paper is a contribution to the draft social development strategy for the World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are the author's own and should not be attributed to the World Bank, its management, its Board of Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. i
In the past fifteen years, most countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of I... more In the past fifteen years, most countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have shifted from predominantly collective to more individualized agriculture. These years also have witnessed the largest fall in agricultural production, yields, and rural employment on record, while the deterioration and dissolution of collective and state farms have been accompanied by a significant drop in rural public services. Land Reform and Farm Restructuring provides a structured and comparative review of important aspects of land reform and documents important differences in policies between countries to examine why the reforms have not yet lived up to their potential. It is based on data from farm and household surveys and interviews conducted in 2003 and 2004. Case studies from Bulgaria, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan - countries that have had particular difficulties in land reform, farm restructuring, farm performance, or rural poverty - each highligh...
In 1999, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced poverty reduction st... more In 1999, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) as a condition for highly indebted countries to receive debt relief under the HIPC initiative. Since then, PRSPs have become a condition for aid to International Development Association (IDA) countries, for which they are considered instrumental in refocusing attention on poverty, democratizing policy making, and improving donor coordination. While PRSPs may play that role in many IDA countries, their usefulness in fragile states, including those just emerging from conflict, has been questioned. Increased donor attention to the specific problems of such states was the impetus for a Poverty Reduction Group (PRMPR) stocktaking of PRSPs in fragile environments.
Over the past decade the rural sector in nearly all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (... more Over the past decade the rural sector in nearly all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has undergone a shift from predominantly collective agriculture to more individualized agriculture. Over a ten year period, between 1990 and 2000, over 145 million hectares of land were transferred to private ownership. This paper presents such a stocktaking of land reform and farm restructuring in four countries of the Europe and Central Asia region that have had particular difficulties in land reform, farm restructuring, farm performance or rural poverty. It is organized by case studies. Much of the information presented in this review derives from farm and household surveys conducted in each of the four countries in 2003 and 2004. The surveys were designed to provide information that would be comparable across countries. Surveys were supplemented by individual and focus group discussions. Analysis of land reform and farm restructur...
Education reform has become an extraordinarily important issue fur Albania, as it from a closed, ... more Education reform has become an extraordinarily important issue fur Albania, as it from a closed, centrally planned economy to a global market economy, and from a closed, authoritarian political regime to one that is more open. In modern economies, the level and quality of education affects the probability of finding employment and level of earnings. Education increases social mobility, since more educated people have greater chances of receiving on the job training. Conversely, in modern economies, lack of education is an important determinant of poverty. Education also plays a central role in shaping national ideology and identity and notions of citizenship. Attempts to reform the education system must therefore factor in a range of explicit and implicit values and attitudes, in addition to importing cutting edge practices in curriculum development, methods of evaluation, and forms of community involvement which may not be appropriate to the socio-cultural context. Finally, and ver...
This study answers two questions about power sector reform in Moldova. First, did reform affect t... more This study answers two questions about power sector reform in Moldova. First, did reform affect the poor and the non-poor differently? Second, are household consumption patterns different for private and public distribution networks? The study concludes that reforms have not disproportionately affected the poor. The gap in electricity consumption between poor and non-poor is closing, as a result of improvements in the supply of electricity, particularly in rural areas, and the significant growth in income over the past four years. Moldova's residential electricity consumption remains exceptionally low and is probably highly inelastic, especially for the very poor. This implies that unless they are accompanied by increases in income, future tariff increases could create large potential consumer welfare losses-as well as large revenue gains for the utility. It also implies that there may be room for substantial welfare gains by helping households better manage their electricity ex...
This document provides concrete suggestions for using qualitative methods to explore six sometime... more This document provides concrete suggestions for using qualitative methods to explore six sometimes overlapping dimensions of social capital:2 (i) groups and networks, (ii) trust and solidarity, (iii) collective action and cooperation, (iv) information and communication, (v) social cohesion and inclusion, and (vi) empowerment and political action. These dimensions reflect two different ways of thinking about social capital. The first focuses on how social relationships act as a means through which individuals, households, or small groups secure (or are denied) access to resources. From this standpoint, individuals, households, or small groups who have access to important resources, or who occupy key strategic positions in a network, are said to have more social capital than others, because their social relationships and position in these networks give them better access to and control over valued resources. Implicit in this approach is the recognition that the distribution of social ...
Uploads
Papers by Nora Dudwick