• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
• Open Access close
• Research data close
• Research software close
• Other research products close
• Open Knowledge Repository close

Although World Bank projects in the cultural heritage field are subject to the usual assessments that are applied to any project implementation, little is known about the subsequent performance of these projects in the years post-completion. This study was undertaken to provide some empirical evidence for the economic impacts of cultural heritage investment. Two case studies were chosen for this purpose, in the historic town centers of Skopje, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Tbilisi, Georgia, respectively. The economic principles those are important for the analysis of cultural heritage investment decisions make use of concepts such as scarcity, opportunity cost, and public preferences. The study confirms the positive impacts of the investments. In the Macedonian case, the project helped to stimulate an ongoing investment of US$2.5 million in the project site, the Skopje old bazaar. Tourist numbers increased compared to the control site in Prilep; between 2005 and 2010, daily tourist numbers in the Skopje Old Bazaar increased by 90 percent compared to a slight decline in Prelip. Employment also grew more rapidly in the target site than in the control area. This study leads to some lessons for the design of heritage projects and for the conduct of an ex post economic impact evaluation.

In conformity with its objective of functioning as a local Government, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) sought the assistance of the World Bank for the preparation of a City Development Strategy (CDS) for Kathmandu. The various sectoral as well as integrated strategies presented in this document seem to be an overwhelming demand on KMC with its limited manpower and money. However, a CDS is essential if KMC is to focus its development potential. The optimism lies in political leadership, enabling environment and necessary support that will be rendered to KMC from civil society. The vision for Kathmandu stresses the need to develop the valley as administrative, cultural and tourism center. The strategy to move towards that vision through improvement in the overall situation of the KMC, however, is likely to be a long drawn struggle, yet achievable. The urban planning study strongly recommends that Kathmandu should be accorded special status as a capital city and large polluting and manufacturing industries should be discouraged immediately and if possible, re-location plans be drawn for existing industries in the near future. Alternatively, service and light industries should be promoted to replace the economic opportunities. Urban areas in KMC are not designated by a functional and occupational structure or contiguity criteria for managing housing and squatter settlements. Housing problems are a serious challenge in a situation where a historically planned city is fast transforming itself into a trade-cum-service center. On the other hand, it is encouraging to note that despite the absence of city specific policies and programs for housing, slums and squatters, the communities are highly organized and are gradually improving their conditions at their own costs, which show their potential for mobilization in participatory home improvement programs.

The dialogue initiated at Lambeth -- continued at a second meeting of faith and development leaders in November 1999 and then at the third meeting in Canterbury, on which this booklet is based -- has endeavored to bridge these gaps. Organizers of the Canterbury meeting documented some case studies of partnerships between faith and development institutions, summarized in this booklet, as background for the gathering. These cases, many of which had previously been only partially documented, reveal a diversity of experience across countries, regions, and sectors on which to build. The Canterbury meeting sought to move beyond dialogue to ideas for specific joint faith-development initiatives and programs. The Millennium Development Goals -- which represent a new global determination to mobilize energy, passion, and resources to fulfill tangible, measurable imperatives for human health and well-being-served as a springboard for discussion and provide a framework for future partnerships. The goals are straightforward: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. Global leaders and institutions such as the World Bank are committed to judging their performance against these goals.

Socioeconomic segregation is often decried for denying poorer children the benefits of positive 'peer effects'. Yet standard, linear-in-means models of peer effects (a) implicitly assume that segregation is zero sum, with gains and losses to rich and poor perfectly offsetting, and (b) rule out theories of 'social distance' whereby peer effects are strongest among similar pairings. The paper exploits the random assignment of pupils between classes to identify more general peer effects in Argentine test-score data. Estimates violate both assumptions (a) and (b), and provide micro foundations for the correlations between school segregation, average test-scores, and test-score inequality in municipality-level data.

This report reviews the tools and mechanisms which could contribute to offsetting the negative effects of the current crisis on primary school outcomes in Madagascar. In a context of rapid deterioration of key education indicators, including enrollment and survival, key education stakeholders are faced with the challenging task of identifying tools and mechanisms that may contribute to rapidly restoring access to education. While a variety of programs have been implemented in the past, limited evidence exists on their potential impact on key factors influencing school outcomes. In addition, given the limited domestic and international resources at the disposal of policy-makers, priorities need to be established that will focus on the most urgent and important aspects of the current situation. This report aims at providing key stakeholders in the sector with information on existing tools and mechanisms that could potentially be used to put a halt to the rapid decline of the sectors. The analysis also identifies interventions with a strong potential to offset the effects of the crisis over the short and medium term.

The study presents an analysis of the situation of the Pygmies in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including their history and relations with the other, mainly Bantu, populations. It provides a brief description of their lifestyle, their socioeconomic status, and a participatory diagnosis of the key factors that lead to their current impoverishment and marginalization. The study discusses the rationale for protecting Pygmy culture and analyzes the results of the field survey and consultations. Based on this field work, diagnosis and inputs received in the two country workshops, the study presents a number of options and recommendations to address constraints faced by Pygmy communities. The recommendations are not intended as prescriptive, but as options to be discussed and agreed on in the process of preparing a Government Pygmy development program. It develops six priority focal points, or areas of intervention, around which a Pygmy development program could be articulated by the Government. The study concludes with suggestions on institutional arrangements for a long-term phased implementation of such a program.

Participation in social programs, such as clubs and other social organizations, results from a process in which an agent learns about the requirements, benefits, and likelihood of acceptance related to a program, applies to be a participant, and, finally, is accepted or rejected. The authors propose a model of this participation process and provide an application of the model using data from a social program in Mexico. Their empirical analysis illustrates that decisions at each stage of the process are responsive to expectations about the decisions and outcomes at the subsequent stages and that knowledge about the program can have a significant impact on participation outcomes.

Global investment promotion best practices (GIPB) assess how well national investment promotion intermediaries (IPIs) from 189 countries attract investment. The assessment is carried out by a review of IPI websites and mystery shopper inquiries that mirror the process in which foreign investors decide the location of the next projects. GIPB 2012 assessment results revealed poor performance of a staggering majority of IPIs in providing information and assistance to prospective investors in the tourism sector (investment facilitation) - a core function of IPIs worldwide. It should also be noted that less than half of the IPIs that listed tourism as a priority sector responded to the inquiry, which even then was often with incomplete information. Based on international best practices, this report recommends that IPIs adopt five key steps in order to position their agencies and locations more competitively for new tourism investment: (1) develop more strategic, focused, and relevant approaches to tourism investment promotion; (2) improve overall capacity and skills to deliver effective investment promotion with an emphasis on developing better tourism-specific knowledge in-house, especially regarding the market and the product; (3) present tourism information succinctly, using up-to-date facts, and data as well as testimonials from successful tourism companies; (4) disseminate information to investors more effectively through a mixture of existing and customized instruments (such as websites, detailed sector profiles, and tailored presentations); and (5) learn to leverage partnerships to maximize results. This report provides practical recommendations, tips, and examples aimed at helping IPIs implement the five-step approach, and it highlights actual cases from some of the best performers.

In mining communities, women in particular often bear the negative consequences associated with mismanagement of extractive industries. Women need to be part of the processes and strategies aimed at transforming the negative aspects of the extractive industries into visible social and economic benefits in affected communities. With the permission of senior management of the Ok Tedi mining company, a World Bank consultant was included in the final 5-week long mine life extension (MLE) negotiations as an observer. The purpose was to observe women's roles in the negotiations and, through interviews with the participants, document the women negotiators' aspirations and expectations from the process. The ultimate goal is to provide a forward-looking assessment of the outcomes and draw lessons for analysis and program design not only in the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) regions but elsewhere in Papua New Guinea (PNG) resource areas. This report documents the unique and pioneering experience in PNG of women and their roles in negotiating mining operations' benefit streams for local communities. The lessons it draws for development policy-making, planning, and program implementations are relevant both for PNG and for other countries in their attempts to make policy decisions about translating mineral wealth into inclusive and sustainable development for local communities.

A comprehensive guide on disaster preparedness for cultural heritage was produced by the international center for the study of preservation and restoration and the committee of the blue shield about 10 years ago to provide guidelines for local and national authorities in countries and regions at risk of natural hazards. As seen in many countries where cultural assets are irreplaceably lost or severely damaged (e.g., the 2,500-year-old citadel of Bam in Iran was reduced to rubble by an earthquake in late 2003), practical precautionary measures can safeguard important cultural resources. For preventive conservation, risk management can provide a framework for decision making. There are four recognized steps to using a risk management approach for preservation issues: (i) identify all risks to heritage; (ii) assess the magnitude of each risk; (iii) identify possible mitigation strategies; and (iv) evaluate the costs and benefits associated with each strategy.