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This report examines the extent of gender gaps and their economic impact in Chad. It proposes policies for improving gender equality, taking into account the challenges posed by COVID-19. Although the Government of Chad has taken actions designed to boost gender equality, significant challenges persist. Child marriage is widespread among girls, reducing girls' education and resulting in one of the highest rates of early childbearing worldwide. Girls reaching adulthood have, on average, lower literacy, education levels, wages, and agricultural productivity compared to men. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to exacerbate gender gaps both in adolescence and in adulthood. According to the results ofestimations from a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, reducing gender inequality could potentially increase per capita GDP by up to 13.5 percent by 2050 (i.e., a real rate of return to investment of 9 percent per year) compared to baseline levels. To boost gender equality, the Government should focus on reforms intended to: i) enhance the productivity for adult women; ii) increase learning outcomes for girls; and iii) reduce the prevalence of child marriage and early childbearing.

Gender --- Gender and Economic Policy --- Inequality --- Maternal Mortality --- Poverty Reduction --- Social Conflict and Violence --- Social Development

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This study assesses the impact of the crisis on economic and social outcomes in Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest regions as of 2019. Conflicts destroy tangible and intangible assets and strain surrounding areas, and subnational conflicts leave deep scars on a country's social fabric, culture, and collective memories. The NWSW crisis is a particularly poignant example of this, as it has directly targeted official symbols of the state, including schools and courts of law, and the resulting large-scale displacement has had secondary impacts on neighboring regions and at the national level. As of the end of 2019, the conflict was still active, and some longer-term outcomes and political, social, security, and institutional impacts were not yet observable beyond anecdotal evidence. The ongoing crisis, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, has kept the two regions largely inaccessible. This has complicated data collection, as well as efforts to generate a more detailed understanding of conflict dynamics and actors. Given these constraints, this study has pursued a pragmatic strategy of analyzing pertinent issues in a systematic manner and relying on available information from a range of sources, including national and local governments, humanitarian assessments, existing surveys, press and newspaper articles, key stakeholder interviews, and remote sensing to gauge the impact of the ongoing crisis. Because no primary data collection has been carried out, the study does not measure the impact as of a specific date in 2019. Rather, it has tried to identify the most up-to-date and relevant sources to illustrate the impact, including the analysis of satellite images.

Armed Conflict --- Conflict and Development --- Social Analysis --- Social Cohesion --- Social Conflict and Violence --- Social Development

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Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the vision of a world free of poverty by 2030, resolving to boost the prosperity of the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. Addressing the root causes of conflict and insecurity is a core priority of the World Bank Group. He raised six questions and challenges. First, fragility is no longer mostly limited to low-income states. Second, weak states have great difficulty delivering services to their citizens. Third, development and humanitarian groups have long worked separately. Fourth, refugees are no longer largely living in camps. Fifth, we now know that we will not have enough ODA - official development assistance - to pay for helping communities and refugees. Sixth, we don't know enough about the refugees themselves.

Conflict and development --- Fragile states --- Inequality --- Official development assistance --- Poverty reduction --- Refugees --- Social cohesion --- Social conflict and violence --- Social development

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Iraq is facing daunting challenges of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgency, political upheaval, and profound economic and humanitarian crises. Compounding the ISIS-related crisis, the sharp decline in global oil prices has resulted in significant decline in oil export revenues. Implementation of political reforms, announced in August 2015, has been slow due to constitutional constraints and systemic resistance to changes. Iraq's economic prospects are subject to significant risks. Iraq has recently achieved some important steps towards strengthening its investment climate, but much remains to be done. An attractive investment climate is integral to economic growth and poverty reduction. A key task of the government is to balance the interests of society and individual firms. A stronger investment climate does not equate with a more comfortable life for individual firms. The government must manage these trade-offs: global analysis of the World Bank's investment climate surveys shows that firms facing strong competition are on average fifty percent more likely to innovate than firms reporting no such pressure. Innovation, in turn, is a key ingredient for productivity improvement. The special focus section explores the different aspects of the investment climate in order to better understand their importance. With this background, the authors then look at Iraq's investment climate and recent efforts to strengthen it. Finally, the authors look at priorities for improving Iraq's investment climate going forward.

Conflict --- Conflict and Development --- Disaster Management --- Finance --- Management --- Post Conflict Reconstruction --- Social Conflict and Violence --- Social Development

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This background paper addresses four questions. They may seem to be independent, but I hope to show they are closely connected. The questions are: 1) What did Weber say when he defined the modern state as the organization with a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence? 2) What conceptual framework might we bring to understand the dynamics of stability and growth in developing countries? Why do developing countries seem to be so susceptible to shocks and reversals? 3) What is the empirical evidence on economic shrinking (short run declines in annual per capita income), economic growing (short run increases in annual per capita income), and economic performance over the long run as measured by per capita income? 4) Is there a trade-off between security and growth, and how should we think about such a trade-off? All four points address in one way or another stability, instability, and social order. Weber may seem to be the least connected, but given the widespread use of his definition of the state and the focus on "monopoly of violence" in the social science literature surrounding the political economy of development, it is the right place to start.

Conflict and Development --- Economic theory & Research --- Governance --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Social Conflict and Violence --- Social Development --- Violence