The impacts of World Bank education programs in alleviating Middle East economies within Syrian refugee crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nessrin Shaya ◽  
Rabih Shayya
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

Purpose This study aims to investigate the World Bank achievements in reinforcing Middle Eastern economies in the light of the Syrian refugees’ crisis. It aims to analyze the influence of the World Bank activities in sustaining and developing a key Lebanese sector under pressure, namely, education. Design/methodology/approach Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted, followed by thematic analysis of gathered data. The study participants included senior Lebanese World Bank professionals and education experts, who once held major leadership roles in the World Bank. Findings Data analysis revealed major contributions in human development, substantial governmental support and controlling damaging consequences of the Syrian crisis, which helped in supporting economic stabilization and prevented education sector from collapsing. Originality/value The desire of evaluating the World Bank activities in the education sector will help in understanding the World Bank’s role in the development process of the education sector and the associated local government support. In addition, the study seeks to assess governmental performance in adapting the required changes to achieve development and revealing strategies used for refugee crisis. Due to a shortage of relevant studies, this study seeks to fill the associated gap with implications and recommendations guiding educational development in the Middle East, in addition to operational recommendations and indications for further studies in the field.

Adverse EU demographics will hinder potential growth

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
World Population ◽  
Potential Growth ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Eu

Subject Europe's demographic changes. Significance The world population should approach 10 billion in 2050, according to the World Bank. It reached 7.5 billion in 2017. The trend veils large differences across continents, with the populations of Africa, the Middle East and Asia expected to rise sharply, although China’s population will start declining soon. The EU population is expected to drop from 512 million in 2017 to 500 million in 2050. Impacts The EU is not prepared for a future migration crisis. Low potential growth due to adverse demographics will cause public debt-to-GDP ratios to remain sticky in most EU countries. The EU labour market may be close to peak employment, as growth is too low to create more jobs.

Comparative CSR decision-making in the Middle East: an exploratory study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre El Haddad ◽  
Alexandre Anatolievich Bachkirov ◽  
Olga Grishina
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Managerial Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Nodal Model ◽  
Comparative Csr ◽  
High Level ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose This study aims to explore the commonalities and differences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions among business leaders in Oman and Lebanon, two Middle Eastern countries forming a comparative dyad with a high level of cultural variance within the Arab cluster. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were used to elicit qualitative data that were analyzed by means of multilevel analysis. Findings The findings provide empirical evidence that CSR is a powerful factor in managerial decision-making in the Middle East with the national cultures of Oman and Lebanon exerting partially differing effects on CSR decision-making. Practical implications The study enlightens practicing managers and policymakers in terms of the salience of multiple actors’ influence on CSR decision-making processes and the responses they may receive when developing and implementing CSR initiatives in the Middle East. Originality/value The study proposes a seven nodal model, which captures the flow of CSR decision-making in the research contexts.

The IMF, its mandate and influence in prevention of financial sector abuse

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 987-1011
Author(s):  
Norman Mugarura
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Financial Sector ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Secondary Data Sources ◽  
Work Done ◽  
The Imf

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to articulate the mandate of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not least in promoting a sound legal regulatory environment for markets to operate globally and its inherent challenges. While acknowledging the plausible work done by the IMF in supporting countries to achieve their macro-economic stability, the paper articulates some of its shortcomings as a global institution. It is evident that the post-war climate in which the World Bank and IMF were created has drastically changed – which presupposes that these institutions now need to reposition themselves to reflect on contemporary global challenges accordingly. The author has argued in the past that a robust regulatory system should be devised taking into account the dynamic challenges in the market environment but also to prevent them from happening again. Design/methodology/approach The paper has utilized empirical evidence to evaluate the mandate of the IMF in addressing its dynamic challenges such as the global financial and debt crises in Europe and the USA and prevention of financial sector abuse globally. The IMF is one of the Bretton Woods Institutions charged with the oversight responsibility to enforce policies and enable countries to manage their macro-economic challenges efficiently. Findings The findings demonstrate that the IMF is as relevant and important as it was when it was created in 1945. However, there is a need for intrinsic and structural changes within this institution to continue discharging its mandate in a changed global regulatory landscape. The IMF is still crucial in fostering a fundamental stabilization function to fragile global economies in areas of financial and technical assistance, and developing requisite legal and supervisory infrastructure within fledging member countries. Research limitations/implications The paper was written by analysis of both theoretical and empirical data largely based on secondary data sources. It would have been better to first present the findings in an international conference to solicit wide views and internalize them accordingly. Practical implications While acknowledging the plausible work done by the IMF and its counterpart the World Bank in facilitating global financial markets regulation and prevention of financial sector abuse, as oversight institutions, they need to constantly review their mandate to respond robustly to their dynamic challenges such as the global and debt crises and financial sector abuse. Oversight institutions need to constantly review and adapt their mandate accordingly, if they are to discharge their varied responsibilities efficiently. They cannot stand still in the face of challenges because they will be superseded and kept at a back foot. Social implications Markets and states are embedded in each other, and the way they are regulated is of a significant importance to varied stakeholders and people. Originality/value This paper is one of its kind, is unique in its character and evaluates embedded issues using empirical evidence in a way not done in its context before. Secondary data sources have been evaluated to achieve a thoughtful analysis of the objectives of the paper.

Major obstacles facing business enterprises in an emerging economy: the case of Ghana using the World Bank Enterprise Survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-487
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Mohammed ◽  
Alhassan Bunyaminu
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Business Enterprises ◽  
World Bank Enterprise Survey ◽  
Enterprise Survey

PurposeThis paper aims at identifying the major obstacles to business enterprise in an emerging economy and how these obstacles are associated with different characteristics of the enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe study relied on the World Bank Enterprise Survey data on Ghana and applied binary and ordinal probit regression techniques to estimate the associations between the characteristics of the enterprises and the identified obstacles. Significance testing of the associations is also conducted.FindingsThe five main obstacles perceived by most of the enterprises in the study are access to finance, electricity, access to land, customs and trade regulations and tax rates. These obstacles are associated in different ways to growth rate (high vs low growth), scale (small and medium vs large), age, size of employees, the experience of the top manager and ownership (wholly domestic vs foreign ownership).Research limitations/implicationsAs a cross-sectional study focusing on Ghana, the findings are informative about the major obstacles facing business enterprises in an emerging economy; however, the ecological validity of these findings may be limited to factors specific to Ghana.Originality/valueGiven the representativeness of the Enterprise Survey, policymakers can rely on these findings to formulate useful policies to promote the operations of business enterprises.

East and West will divide over new Bosnian viceroy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
East And West ◽  
Dayton Agreement ◽  
Negative Behaviour ◽  
Roll Out ◽  
The Eu

Significance The summit’s avowed aim was to renew the EU-US ‘Transatlantic partnership’, including committing to upholding the international rules-based order built around the UN. It called for cooperation with Russia in areas of common interest despite its repeated “negative behaviour”. Such strains include Russia’s opposition to appointing a new high representative for Bosnia. Impacts Vucic’s call for regular reports from the high representative recognises his legitimacy while asserting Serbian interest in BiH. Croatian President Zoran Milanovic’s support for the 1995 Dayton agreement weakens outside backing for Bosnian Croat separatism. The World Bank has left its growth forecast for BiH unchanged from January, provided vaccine roll-out accelerates.

Cognitive abilities and income: preliminary evidence from a developing country

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raufhon Salahodjaev ◽  
Ziyodakhon Malikova
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Unconditional Model ◽  
The World

Purpose Related literature finds that human capital proxied by cognitive abilities is an important antecedent of numerous specific life outcomes. The purpose of this study is to extend existing evidence by investigating the link between cognitive skills and income in Tajikistan. Tajikistan is a landlocked low-income country situated in Central Asia. Its population is 9.1 million people and gross domestic product per capita of US$822. According to the World Bank, Tajikistan has made significant progress in decreasing poverty levels from 83% in 2000 to 29.5% in 2017. Design/methodology/approach The data for this study comes from the 2013 Jobs, Skills and Migration Survey conducted by the World Bank and the German Society for International Cooperation. The main explanatory variable of the study is the cognitive abilities index of the respondents. The survey used item response theory (IRT) approach to estimate the ability of respondents. IRT is a method or a set of statistical frameworks, used to explore assessment item data, such as cognitive abilities assessment data. The wage function was estimated using the ordinary least squares method because the results are easier to interpret (Jencks, 1979; Bowles et al., 2001; Groves, 2006). Findings The baseline results are reported in Table 2. The results in Column 1 demonstrated the link between cognitive abilities and income without control variables (unconditional model). As expected, cognitive abilities are positively and significantly related to income (a1 = 0.0715, p < 0.01). The results from the unconditional model suggest that one standard deviation increase in cognitive abilities is associated with a nearly 17% increase in income. Research limitations/implications However, the study has a number of limitations. First, the dependent variable measures the overall income of the respondent, which includes the profit from other businesses. The survey does not provide data on monthly wages of respondents. Second, the sample may not perfectly represent the overall population of Tajikistan. To partially resolve this issue, this paper re-estimated out results for various sub-samples. Another important limitation of this study is the lack of respondent’s family background, which is an important correlate of human capital and income. Practical implications The results in the study offer preliminary evidence on the link between cognitive abilities and income in Tajikistan. However, the results of the study also suggest that both measures of human capital are positively related to income. Therefore, policymakers in Tajikistan should invest greater resources to health care, education and training programs as cognitive skills can be built in particular in the early stages of the life cycle. Indeed, Tajikistan has a significant potential for economic growth model driven by human capital. According to the World Bank, the adult literacy rate in Tajikistan is 100%, which is significantly above of what is observed in other developing countries. This may imply that the human potential in this country is considerable, and further investment in soft and hard skills would have a positive impact on economic growth. Originality/value This paper offers new evidence on the link between cognitive abilities and income, using data from Tajikistan. First, this paper finds that cognitive abilities are positively and significantly correlated with income. Second, this paper finds that this link remains robust even when this paper control for a large set of personal and job-related characteristics. The results from the unconditional model suggest that one standard deviation increase in cognitive abilities is associated with nearly a 17% increase in income.

Global reduction in 'unbanked' numbers to gather pace

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Financial Access ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Credit Creation ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Reduction

Subject Progress in the reduction of the number of unbanked people. Significance The World Bank has set an ambitious goal of universal financial access for everyone by 2020. The latest statistics show that many countries are making significant progress towards this goal. Some technological measures that increase access to financial services may increase transparency, stemming corruption and curtailing money laundering. However, by making it easier to spot corruption, these measures may boomerang, leading to the withdrawal of some institutions, particularly international ones, from problematic markets. Impacts Lack of access to financial services will remain a global problem that traps individuals in cycles of poverty. The World Bank encourages people to use bank accounts; having one in name only has little positive impact. Countries that mistake credit creation for improving financial access risk exacerbating financial and economic instability.

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