Gladys Lopez-Acevedo

Sewing success? : employment, wages, and poverty following the end of the multi-fibre arrangement

The global textile and apparel sector is critically important as an early phase in industrialization for many developing countries and as a provider of employment opportunities to thousands of low-income workers, many of them women. The goal of this book is to explore how the lifting of the Multi-fibre Arrangement/ Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (MFA/ATC) quotas has affected nine countries Bangladesh, Cambodia, Honduras, India, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam with the broader aim of better understanding the links between globalization and poverty in the developing world. Analyzing how employment, wage premiums, and the structure of the apparel industry have changed after the MFA/ATC can generate important lessons for policy makers for economic development and poverty reduction. This book uses in-depth country case studies as the broad methodological approach. In-depth country studies are important because countries are idiosyncratic: differences in regulatory context, history, location, trade relationships, and policies shape both the apparel sector and how the apparel sector changed after the end of the MFA. In-depth country studies place broader empirical work in context and strengthen the conclusions. The countries in this book were chosen because they represent the diversity of global apparel production, including differences across regions, income levels, trade relationships, and policies. The countries occupy different places in the global value chain that now characterizes apparel production. Not surprisingly, the countries studied in this book represent the diversity of post-MFA experiences. This book highlights four key findings: the first is that employment and export patterns after the MFA/ATC did not necessarily match predictions. This book shows that only about a third of the variation in cross-country changes in exports is explained by wage differences. While wage differences explain some of the production shifts, domestic policies targeting the apparel sector, ownership type, and functional upgrading of the industry also played an important role. Second, changes in exports are usually, but not always, good indicators of what happens to wages and employment. While rising apparel exports correlated with rising wages and employment in the large Asian countries, rising exports coincided with falling employment in Sri Lanka. Third, this book identifies the specific ways that changes in the global apparel market affected worker earnings, thus helping to explain impacts on poverty. Fourth, in terms of policies, the countries that had larger increases in apparel exports were those that promoted apparel sector upgrading; those that did not promote upgrading had smaller increases or even falling exports.

Impact evaluation of small and medium enterprise programs in Latin America and the Caribbean

This report was co-funded by research grant from the World Banks research committee for a regional study evaluating Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Support Programs in Latin America and support from the poverty reduction and economic management division of the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank. The objective of the study was to rigorously evaluate SME programs in four Latin American countries Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru to gain insights into whether SME programs work, which programs perform better than others, and why. This report should be of interest to country governments, policymakers with responsibilities for SMEs, local researchers and the private sector in the region, as well as World Bank staff and bilateral donors. However, the findings and conclusions expressed in this report are entirely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the World Bank, its Board of Directors or the countries it represents.

Building Better Policies: The Nuts and Bolts of Monitoring and Evaluation Systems

Governments around the world face ongoing pressures from citizens to provide more and better services, and to do this under a tight fiscal environment. This provides the context for government efforts to ensure their policies and programs are as effective, and as efficient, as possible. An emphasis on government performance has led a number of governments to create formal systems for monitoring and evaluating (M&E) their performance on a regular, planned, and systematic basis with the objective of improving it. The focus of this book is on these government M&E systems: what they comprise, how they are built and managed, and how they can be used to improve government performance. M&E systems focus on measuring the results produced by government its outputs, outcomes, and impacts. The M&E system may exist at the level of an individual agency, entire sector, or the government as a whole. M&E can provide unique information about the performance of government policies, programs, and projects at the national, sector, and sub-national levels. It can identify what works, what does not, and the reasons why. M&E also provides information about the performance of a government, of individual ministries and agencies, and of managers and their staff. This book endeavors to expand the frontiers of issues that have been researched and analyzed. However, there are still a number of issues that are still not understood well enough. This book presents case studies on several countries that have succeeded in achieving high levels of utilization of M&E information, including Australia, Canada, Chile, and Mexico.

Stitches to Riches? Apparel Employment, Trade, and Economic Development in South Asia

South Asia must create good-quality jobs for a rapidly expanding young population and bring more women into the labor force. The apparel sector in South Asia is labor intensive, employs more women on average than other manufacturing sectors, and provides jobs that allow for the acquisition of skills. Apparel already constitutes approximately 40 percent of manufacturing employment. And, given that much of apparel production continues to be labor intensive, the potential to create more and better jobs is immense. Despite these development benefits, the sector has not reached its full potential because of inefficiencies that affect its competitiveness. As a creator of jobs that are good for development and an illustration of the distortions that stifle productivity in light manufacturing in South Asia, this sector merits careful analysis. This report is aimed at better informing that debate by demystifying the global and South Asian apparel markets, estimating the potential gains in exports and jobs (including for women), and identifying policies that can unleash South Asia’s export and job potential. The main message of this report is that it is important for South Asian economies to address existing impediments and to facilitate growth in apparel to foster the creation of good jobs for development.

South Asia’s turn : policies to boost competitiveness and create the next export powerhouse

South Asia is at a turning point. The region is benefiting from a confluence of positive internal and external forces. South Asian countries are starting to receive the competitiveness dividends from the economic reforms and public investments in infrastructure and education carried over the last 25 years. Rising labor costs in East Asia are steering global investors towards South Asia as a possible cheaper alternative. This report looks in detail at the drivers and constraints impacting South Asia’s competitiveness. It outlines the four policy levers which will help the region become more globally competitive across a broader spectrum of industries,accelerating growth and reducing poverty, especially for women. The report combines a critical mass of quantitative analysis, using the latest data and tools available, with a rich set of industry and company case studies to draw new insights on what South Asia needs to do to boost competitiveness. And it proposes a number of specific policy solutions drawn from relevant international good practices (including from within the region). The authors very much hope that this report will help the countries of South Asia, individually as well as collectively, take a turn toward realizing their great competitiveness potential. The full report together with the extended versions of the four industry case studies are freely available online at: www.worldbank.org/SouthAsiaCompetes.