Weekly wire: The global forum

The World Bank
Darejani Markozashvili



These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.

Fragile States Index 2017 – Annual Report
Fund for Peace
The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, The Fragile States Index—and the social science framework and software application upon which it is built—makes political risk assessment and early warning of conflict accessible to policy-makers and the public at large.

Inclusive Growth Opportunities Index 2017
The Economist Intelligence Unit
Technological advances and globalization have led to major advances for many, but have seen others’ income and well-being stagnate or even decline. These disparities, both real and perceived—and, more broadly, how to make growth inclusive—are some of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Support for inclusive growth—that is, economic growth that is broad-based, sustainable, and provides opportunities for all to participate in its benefits—is gaining momentum. The hoped-for result: dramatic reduction of poverty and inequality. As the world seeks to address these challenges, there is significant potential for private sector actors to pursue unique opportunities that support inclusive growth.

Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth
OECD
This report provides an assessment of how governments can generate inclusive economic growth in the short term, while making progress towards climate goals to secure sustainable long-term growth. It describes the development pathways required to meet the Paris Agreement objectives and underlines the value of well-aligned policy packages in mobilising investment and social support for the transition while enhancing growth. The report also sets out the structural, financial and political changes needed to enable the transition.

More than 1.2 million adolescents die every year, nearly all preventable
World Health Organization
More than 3000 adolescents die every day, totalling 1.2 million deaths a year, from largely preventable causes, according to a new report from WHO and partners. In 2015, more than two-thirds of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and South-East Asia. Road traffic injuries, lower respiratory infections, and suicide are the biggest causes of death among adolescents. Most of these deaths can be prevented with good health services, education and social support. But in many cases, adolescents who suffer from mental health disorders, substance use, or poor nutrition cannot obtain critical prevention and care services – either because the services do not exist, or because they do not know about them. In addition, many behaviours that impact health later in life, such as physical inactivity, poor diet, and risky sexual health behaviours, begin in adolescence.

Taxation and the Sustainable Development Goals: do good things come to those who tax more?
ODI
This briefing note has three objectives. These are to discuss:

1. the reasons for the renewed interest in domestic resource mobilisation in developing countries;
2. the reasons why tax revenues tend to be lower in the poorer countries; and
3. the potential risks associated with trying to squeeze too much taxation out of the poorest economies.

The purpose is not to argue the merits of more versus less taxation, but rather to provide food for thought on the management of expectations around taxation and the development agenda, as articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Also check out the World Bank’s 2017 Spring issue of the Research Digest, which is now online at: http://econ.worldbank.org/research_digest . The Research Digest is a quarterly newsletter informing researchers and practitioners in the development community about new findings from World Bank research. It features brief summaries of ten to twelve research articles published by the World Bank. The current issue of the Research Digest showcases recent articles on labor market issues produced by the World Bank.