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Guinea-Bissau is a small state in West Africa with a population of around 1.8 million. It is rich in natural resources (fisheries, forestry and agriculture) and biodiversity. Guinea-Bissau is host to a large variety of ethnic groups, languages and religions, with communal and ethnic-based violence remaining low. The country has a history of political and institutional fragility dating back to its independence from Portugal in 1973. Guinea-Bissau continues to face formidable development challenges, but resources remain very limited. Government spending on the social sectors is low, which, combined with low efficiency, translated into weak outcomes. The objective of the Guinea-Bissau Public Expenditure Review (PER) is to analyze government expenditure, fiscal revenue, and public financial management in selected sectors (education, health, and security). The sectors for analysis were selected based on a combination of factors, including spending trends, budget size, the country's development program, and World Bank engagement. The PER has been initiated by the World Bank and the team worked closely with the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), and line ministries throughout the process. The PER is well aligned with the FY2018-2021 Country Partnership Framework (CPF). The first two objectives of the CPF are increased access to and quality of primary education, and increased access to and quality of maternal and health services. The CPF identifies limited fiscal space and weak PFM systems as being among the key challenges to improving access to quality social services. The PER also supports the fourth pillar of the Government's National Development Plan, Terra Ranka (Fresh Start), which aims to develop the human capital potential of the population. The three sectors under consideration together account for over thirty percent of government expenditure; thus, any efficiency improvements and/or expenditure savings in those sectors are likely to be substantial.

Civil Service --- Public Spending

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Progress in child mortality reduction and education attainment varies widely among oil-rich countries. This paper investigates the causes of this variation using an empirical model that departs from the available literature in allowing for explicit measurement of the impact of initial levels of child mortality and education attainment. The results show that the following four variables are statistically significant and robust across various specifications: public spending on health and education, economic growth rates, caloric sufficiency, and initial levels of child mortality and education attainment. Further analysis was conducted to determine the economic significance of these factors by examining the contribution of each to the fitted growth rates (as a deviation from the sample mean) of child mortality and secondary school enrollment for 14 oil-rich developing countries. The analysis reveals some interesting patterns. First, initial conditions dominate the results for education attainment: the initial level of secondary school enrollment in 1980 is the dominant factor in explaining subsequent improvements in 10 of the 14 oil-rich developing countries for which calculations could be performed. Second, policy factors worked in different ways in different countries. A high degree of caloric sufficiency enabled countries in the Middle East and North Africa to reduce child mortality faster, while low levels of caloric sufficiency prevented African oil-rich countries, such as Angola and the Republic of Congo, from making progress. Third, levels of public spending were not economically critical for gains in school enrollment, although they were important in a few country cases for improvements in child mortality rates.

Child Mortality --- Public Spending --- School Enrollment

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Considering its regional economic position, natural endowment, and its socio-economic development aspirations, it is becoming imperative to Angola to develop a safe, clean, and efficient transport sector. The government has recognized that the Angola's economy needs the support of a well-integrated and efficient transport sector and made significant efforts to reconstruct its dilapidated road infrastructure and it has established a road maintenance fund. This study has made good use of the Angola's Ministry of Finance BOOST data base to review and analyze the volume and structure of public spending in the road sector and identify any trends. The road network evaluation tools model (RONET), developed by the World Bank, is used to evaluate the preservation (maintenance and rehabilitation) requirements of the Angola road network. This road sector public expenditure review (PER) examines the size and composition, allocation, and implementation of public expenditure on roads and assesses the efficiency and effectiveness of these expenditures both at the national and sub-national levels. It also reviews the overall policy and institutional framework and makes relevant recommendations. The objectives of this road sector PER are fully aligned with the objectives of the World Bank's country partnership strategy for Angola, which places a strong emphasis on supporting Angolan institutions.

Public Sector Development --- Public Spending --- Roads and Highways --- Transport

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Existing evidence forms a body of "conventional wisdom" on the redistributive impact of fiscal policies that has been recently questioned by more disaggregated analyses. This paper proposes an additional extension to the traditional benefit incidence analysis to explore further the extent to which the conventional wisdom holds, as well as to provide effective guidance in fiscal decision making. The benefit incidence analysis extension includes linking fiscal policies with the concept of equality of opportunities. The paper describes this approach and showcases the application of the proposed "opportunity incidence analysis" to six pilot countries: Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Zambia, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Paraguay. Three main contributions stand out: first, opportunity incidence analysis complements traditional benefit incidence analysis by applying its mechanics to a more forward looking concept of equal opportunity. Second, opportunities can be used to target public spending with higher precision. Third, micro-simulations can be used to understand the cost-effectiveness of alternative spending interventions that seek to improve equality of opportunities. All of these results complement the diagnosis produced by traditional incidence analysis and provide useful information to guide specific policy decisions.

Distribution --- Equality of opportunities --- Incidence --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Microsimulations --- Poverty Reduction --- Public spending --- Targeting

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The main purpose of this Guiding Framework document is to present the key elements of a Nutrition Public Expenditure Review (NPER) and offer guidance, practical steps, and examples on carrying out an NPER. It targets a wide-ranging audience, including country nutrition policy makers, development partners (DPs), government technical staff, and advocates and practitioners who are tasked with carrying out NPERs (who are also the main target audience). The Guiding Framework draws upon good practices from the growing body of NPERs as well as common practices and expertise from Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs). However, given the limited number of existing NPERs, this document should be considered as a starting point, or a 'living document,' and is not meant to provide a comprehensive coverage of a standard methodology for NPERs, as this would require further work and analysis. Specifically, this Guiding Framework aims to be a useful tool for practitioners involved in developing an NPER. It does this by: (i) situating NPERs within the context of other similar efforts such as a nutrition budget analysis or sector-specific PERs; (ii) presenting the literature of existing NPERs and related literature to serve as reference; (iii) providing guidance on preparatory work before beginning an NPER (i.e., defining the scope, setting up an NPER team, and identifying data sources); (iv) providing guidance on conducting the core analysis (i.e.,framing the analysis, analyzing the institutional framework, and linking the analysis to the policy dialogue); and (v) clearly identifying knowledge gaps and necessary additional work to enhance the robustness of future NPER analysis.

Health Economics and Finance --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Nutrition --- Public Sector Development --- Public Spending