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This paper applies a growth diagnostics approach to identify the most binding constraints to private-sector growth in Malawi - a small, landlocked country in Southern Africa with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world. The approach aims to identify the constraints (in terms of public policy, implementation, and investments) most binding on marginal investment, and therefore whose relaxation would have the largest impact on growth through the investment channel. The authors find that growth in Malawi has been primarily driven by the domestic multiplier effect from export revenues. The multiplier effect is particularly pronounced due to the high number of smallholder farmers, which produce Malawi's main export crop, tobacco, and consequently results in the widespread and rapid transmission of agricultural export income. Furthermore, despite changes in the structure of agricultural production from estate to smallholder farming and liberalization of prices and finance, a longstanding relationship persists between exports in real domestic currency and overall gross domestic product. This central role of exports in creating domestic demand highlights the importance of the real exchange rate in Malawi's growth story, which directly increases the strength of the export multiplier. The most pressing constraint to growth in Malawi continues to be the regime of exchange rate management. Despite good progress, there is compelling evidence that the rate is still substantially overvalued. Furthermore, it is also likely that the inflow of foreign aid - in excess of 50 percent of exports -contributes to the overvaluation through its large component of recurrent expenditures.

Access to Finance --- Agriculture --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Debt --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Export growth --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- GDP --- GDP deflator --- GDP per capita --- Gross domestic product --- Human capital --- Income --- Inflation --- Interest rates --- Living standards --- Monopoly --- Multiplier effect --- Overvaluation --- Per capita incomes --- Private Sector Development --- Real GDP --- Total factor productivity --- Treasury bills

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's Goal for Gender Equality (SDG5 to: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower Women and Girls) sets a series of ambitious targets that will measure progress towards attaining this goal. One such target is to: 'eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation. In this paper we examine how efforts to achieve legal identity for all, including birth registration for all, can contribute to ending child marriage. The authors begin by setting out the current context presenting data on child marriage and its impacts and then turn to birth registration drawing out its links with fundamental human rights and development goals. We then present estimates of the numbers of unregistered children in the world's global regions based on the World Bank Identification for Development Initiative (ID4D) dataset. The authors turn next to the link between birth registration and child marriage rates6 using data on birth registration in the 106 countries for which authors also have data on child marriage. The authors find a correlation between high birth registration rates and low child marriage rates and discuss this link in the context of evidence on the underlying causes and drivers of child marriage. The authors explore the links between birth registration and child marriage in greater depth in two case studies: the first one examines the role of identity papers, particularly birth and marriage certificates, in the enforcement of minimum age of marriage laws for Syrian refugees in Jordan; the second one discusses how a recently adopted strategy to streamline the process for obtaining birth certificates in Indonesia can contribute to reducing child marriage. Despite evidence of a correlation, however, a policy pursuing universal birth registration is unlikely to have impact on child marriage rates unless it is embedded in broader efforts to end child marriage, including legal reform, advocacy, and national and local policies and programs which work with communities to change social norms and are designed to reach people that are at risk from being excluded from national efforts, for example refugees and internally displaced peoples.

Gender --- Gender and Social Policy --- Human Rights --- Information and Communication Technologies --- Law and Development --- Law Enforcement --- Refugees --- Social Protection and Labor Policy Systems --- Social Protection and Risk Management

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Little is known about how gender inequality influences poverty rates of forcibly displaced people. This paper uses a nationally representative survey to analyze poverty among internally displaced people and non-displaced people in Somalia. More than half of internally displaced people's households and 47 percent of non-displaced people's households are female headed. Although poverty rates are higher among internally displaced people than non-displaced people (77 versus 66 percent), male-headed households are poorer than female-headed ones among both groups. Extending the analysis beyond headship to demographic characteristics and by the gender and number of earners provides a more nuanced picture. Demographic characteristics are strongly associated with poverty rates for internally displaced people but not for non-displaced people. Having more income earners reduces poverty risk for all households. For internally displaced people's households, the largest decrease in poverty risk is associated with having more female earners, while having more male earners is associated with the lowest poverty for nondisplaced people's households. The analysis highlights that poverty reduction policies and programs must cover all households and lift barriers to women's economic opportunities. Programs that respond to women's care responsibilities and address barriers to women's economic opportunities are especially important for internally displaced people.

Displaced People --- Gender --- Gender and Development --- Gender and Economics --- Gender and Poverty --- Host Community --- Household Composition --- Inequality --- Internal Displacement --- Involuntary Resettlement Law --- Law and Development --- Poverty --- Poverty Reduction

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Intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women in conflict and non-conflict settings, but in conflict settings it often receives less attention than other forms of gender-based violence, such as conflict-related sexual violence. Using data from the 2008 and 2013 Domestic Violence module of the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey spatially linked to the Boko Haram actor file of the Armed Conflict Location and Events Database, this paper employs a kernel-based difference-in-difference model to examine the effect of the Boko Haram insurgency on women's experience of physical and sexual intimate partner violence. It also examines the effect of the Boko Haram insurgency on women's experience of controlling behavior from a husband or partner, women's autonomy in household decision making, and their control over their own earnings. The paper finds that the Boko Haram insurgency is associated with slower progress toward preventing and eliminating women's experiences of physical and sexual intimate partner violence. Controlling behaviors from husbands/partners and reductions in women's autonomy in household decision making are heightened in locations that are impacted by the Boko Haram insurgency, indicating that the Boko Haram insurgency adversely affects women's agency and exacerbates behaviors that are often precursors to intimate partner violence.

Armed Conflict --- Conflict and Development --- Conflict-Affected States --- Forced Displacement --- Gender --- Gender and Development --- Gender and Health --- Gender and Law --- Gender and Social Development --- Gender Policy --- Gender-Based Violence --- Intimate Partner Violence --- Social Conflict and Violence --- Social Development --- Violence --- Women