Economics & Development

The development objective of the Emergency Equity and System Strengthening in Education for Democratic Republic of the Congo is to lower the burden of school fees on households and increase access to primary schooling in the selected provinces, and to strengthen core education systems. Building on strong progress and verified results under the parent project, the additional financing is proposed to sustain, consolidate, and scale up the free primary education reforms nationwide, complete pending verifications, and embed institutional capacities for long-term sustainability in a fragile context. The Bank will expand equitable, formula-based school operating grants to sixteen additional provinces; extend and verify merit-based recruitment for new primary teachers and school directors so that at least seventy five percent of hires in each new province are selected on merit; and deepen safe and inclusive school environments by rolling out a revised Code of Conduct for all teachers and directors, appointing school-level focal points, strengthening prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse/sexual harassment, and operationalizing the Allo-Ecole Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) across all provinces. The operation will further strengthen core systems through nationwide reinforcement of the Education Management Information System (EMIS), including decentralized data collection, publication of timely statistical yearbooks, and an internship program for statisticians and information technology specialists; improved human resource management and payroll controls; and enhanced public financial management and budget transparency at central and provincial levels. Citizen engagement and behavior change activities will be scaled up, including a satisfaction survey and community communications, and a new online training platform will certify civil servants, educators, and partners in violence prevention and psychosocial support. While the project does not finance civil works, it will help schools use operating grants and planning tools to improve climate resilience and inclusion, including measures that support continued learning during shocks. The project intends to maintain reduced household fee burdens, enroll about one million additional students during the additional financing period, ensure that reliable education data are regularly disclosed nationwide, deliver equitable grants to all public primary schools in the new provinces, and strengthen grievance handling and accountability to protect children and improve school governance.

This guide introduces two tools (one for foundational literacy and one for foundational mathematics) designed to address this gap. These structured, criterion-based frameworks assess the content, sequencing, and pedagogical quality of teaching and learning materials (TLMs) for pre-primary through grade 3 in literacy and mathematics. They equip governments and education practitioners to identify weaknesses, guide revisions, and ensure classroom TLMs are genuinely fit for purpose and aligned with evidence-based instructional practices.

This paper shows that infrastructure investments enhance local tax outcomes. The analysis draws on a novel dataset combining information on the location and timing of all road upgrades in Rwanda with 12 years of administrative tax and census records, it estimates large and significant increases in tax revenues in municipalities near upgraded roads. These effects are driven by firm entry as well as land value appreciation, captured through taxes on rental income at the local level. Finally, the paper shows that although the additional revenues do not fully recover the central government’s initial investment, local municipalities’ revenues more than double within five years following the upgrades.

Psychological constructs related to agency—such as the ability to set goals or feel in control—are increasingly recognized as determinants of economic outcomes and well-being. Yet validated measures are scarce outside Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) contexts. This paper introduces four scales measuring goal-setting capacity, locus of control, generalized livelihoods self-efficacy, and agricultural self-efficacy, tested through representative and specialized surveys in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda. All the scales demonstrate strong psychometric properties, although locus of control shows weaker internal reliability. Five-point Likert scales outperform three-point alternatives. Using these tools, the paper documents significant associations between all four agency constructs and subjective well-being, labor supply, earnings, food security, and intra-household decision-making. Generalized livelihoods self-efficacy shows the strongest and most consistent associations across outcomes. For women, agency's links to labor supply and intra-household decision-making are stronger and hold across more contexts than they do for men. Across constructs, the relationship with expected life satisfaction tends to be larger than with current life satisfaction, suggesting that agency may be particularly relevant for predicting aspirations. These scales are recommended for descriptive surveys and impact evaluations related to well-being, economic livelihoods, and empowerment.

Labor Market Observatories (LMOs) convert data into actionable intelligence for policymakers, employers, educators, and job seekers. Despite their recognized importance, many countries remain locked in fragmented, survey-dependent systems that fall short of the integrated, forward-looking functions that effective labor mar ket governance demands. This paper develops a practical framework for designing and strengthening LMOs across institutional contexts. Drawing on case studies of advanced LMO functions in five high-income countries – Australia Germany, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and the United Kingdom – it distills transferable lessons organized around five building blocks: mission and policy intent, governance, data infrastructure, analytics capacity, and dissemination. A maturity assessment framework helps countries identify where they stand and how to progress. High-performing LMOs consistently demonstrate a clear legal mandate, interoperable data systems, and credible analytical capacity. There is no single institution al model, but context-sensitive application of these building blocks can substantially strengthen a country's capacity for evidence-based labor market policymaking