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This paper follows the World Bank Group's approach to Jobs and Economic Transformation (JET) which identifies economic transformation as key to creating more and better jobs. It builds on the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) approach to developing a digital economy to create the jobs of the future, which is aligned with the African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy, 2020-2030. Helping countries build new digital This section is prepared in the context of Covid-19 pandemic that threatens decades of hard-won development gains and is likely to have triggered the deepest global recession since the World War II. The economic crisis is generating massive unemployment, particularly affecting the poor and vulnerable, and highlights the importance of jobs and economic transformation. The HoA countries already faced the challenge of a population growth at a rate around 3% preinfrastructure, and to develop regulations, skills and platforms that are compatible with neighboring countries should enable them to develop a larger and more efficient digital market that can facilitate economic transformation by enabling technological leapfrogging, and the creation of new jobs in old and new sectors. New forms of market connectivity can bring opportunities for new services and regional economic development in the Horn of Africa.

E-Commerce --- ICT Economics --- Information and Communication Technologies --- Information Technology --- Mobile Money --- Private Sector Development

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An assessment of South Africa's digital economy has been launched as part of the World Bank Group's digital economy for Africa (DE4A) initiative, which leverages an integrated and foundations-based diagnostic framework to examine the present level of digital economy development across Africa. The assessment will map the current strengths and weaknesses that characterize the national digital economy ecosystem, as well as identify challenges and opportunities for future growth. Rapid digital transformation is now re-shaping the global economy, permeating virtually every sector and aspect of daily life - changing the way one learns, work, trade, socialize, access public and private services and information. Well-functioning digital economies are thus expected to achieve faster economic growth, offer innovative products and services, as well as create more job opportunities. Assessing where strategic investments and interventions need to be made is a critical first step to enabling digital economy growth. This background paper will provide an overview of digital entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Digital Divide --- ICT Economics --- Information and Communication Technologies --- Information Technology --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics

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Iraq, once again, is facing a combination of acute shocks which the country is ill-prepared tomanage. The collapse in oil prices has considerably reduced budgetary revenues and reversed the fiscal surpluses accumulated since 2018. COVID-19, and the lockdown measures needed to contain the pandemic have dealt a severe blow to economic activities especially the services sectors like transport, trade, banking and religious tourism, which constitute around half of the non-oil economy. The growing discontent over poor service delivery, rising corruption, and lack of jobs persists and is coupled with political impasse over the formation of a new government. Iraq's pre-existing conditions going into this crisis limit its ability to manage and mitigate the socio-economic impact. A large dependency on oil revenues coupled with built-up budget rigiditieslimit Iraq's fiscal space to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and offer a stimulus package to re-start the economy. An undiversified economy, highly dependent on oil outcomes, as well as large presence of the state in economic and commercial activities, make it hard to create the needed private sector jobs for a predominantly young population. Furthermore, rampant corruption and weak governance and service delivery fueled large scale protests across the country calling for better public service delivery and jobs. As a result, all signs indicate that this multifaceted crisis will have a protracted impact. The outlook for Iraq, which was already negative prior to the COVID-19 shock, has markedly worsened since. Near-term economic growth will be subdued by low oil prices, a new OPEC agreement that has reduced oil production quotas, and unfavorable global and domestic conditions including disruptions from COVID-19 spread. As a result, the economy is projected to contract by 9.7 percent in 2020, down from a real GDP growth of 4.4 percent in 2019, with both oil and non-oil sectors contracting by 13 and 4.4 percent respectively. This special focus on digital economy (DE) highlights the importance of digital transformation for Iraq and the urgency behind it. Iraq's economic condition was gradually improving following the deep economic strains of the last three years. However, the recent protests and unrest highlight the continued fragility of the country and the high priority of improving economic opportunities, particularly for youth. Leveraging the DE will help Iraq address some of its citizens' concerns as well as accelerate the achievement of its development objectives.

Digital Divide --- Economic Growth --- Fiscal and Monetary Policy --- ICT Economics --- Information and Communication Technologies --- Information Technology --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth

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The increasing importance of the Internet, not only for tasks related to information search, storage, and sharing, but also for connecting people and business, domestic and international trade, education, entertainment and social interactions, has led governments around the world to include Internet connectivity in their priority policy agendas and infrastructure plans. Today, access to the Internet is no longer a luxury, but is increasingly considered an essential service, as important as building transportation and utility networks. However, more than four billion people, overwhelmingly in developing countries, still lack Internet access. For the past decade, policy makers have sought ways to best create an enabling environment to direct national resources and engage the private sector to effectively expand access to the Internet. In doing so, policy makers and regulators face a unique combination of priorities, resources, market structures, and geographies that will affect their national plans. Experience shows that no one-size-fits-all approach exists, but past and current experience can be analyzed for common factors contributing to success or failure to support similar endeavors in the future. This report reviews and provides guidance on innovative business models and approaches to the deployment of high-speed broadband networks and highlights global trends related to terrestrial spectrum resources that can be leveraged to meet expected future demand and close existing Internet access gaps. It is intended to serve as a reference tool to help policy makers and regulators assess alternatives for infrastructure deployment and adopt decisions tailored to their country's circumstances and needs.

Digital divide --- ICT economics --- Information and communication technologies --- Information technology --- Infrastructure economics --- Infrastructure economics and finance --- Infrastructure finance --- Telecommunications

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A better understanding of how individual wealth and time use are linked-across paid, unpaid, and leisure activities-is important for targeting widespread gender inequalities in time allocation, as well as in accessing economic opportunities. The lack of reliable, individual-level data on asset ownership across different subpopulations, however, has limited discussions of these issues in the literature. Using a unique nationally representative survey from Cambodia, this paper shows that individual wealth, as measured through self-reported ownership of physical and financial assets, is significantly associated with time allocation to different activities. The role of asset ownership in time use is also stronger, particularly among women, vis-a-vis the competing proxies for socioeconomic status. Ownership of financial accounts, motorized vehicles, and mobile phones-all of which can improve access to networks, markets, and services-is associated with less time in unpaid work, and in some cases greater time in paid work, specifically among women in off-farm jobs. There are also distinct gender differences in how men and women shift their time away from leisure and childcare, highlighting the importance of social norms in choices over time use. The analysis highlights the utility of integrated, intra-household, individual-disaggregated data collection on asset ownership, time use, and employment in lower-income contexts.

Asset Ownership --- Employment --- Employment and Unemployment --- Gender --- Gender and Development --- Household Survey --- ICT Economics --- Inequality --- Information and Communication Technologies --- Labor --- Poverty Reduction --- Time Allocation --- Time Use --- Wealth