Regional Differences and Challenges

Regional Differences

Significant differences exist among ECA countries across economic and social indicators. Some countries, such as Moldova, have high rates of poverty (63.7 percent of the people lived under $2 PPP per day in 2000) and yet have relatively low rates of inequality (the Gini Index, a measure of inequality, was 30.3 percent in 2000). In contrast, countries such as Belarus have low poverty rates (less than 2 percent) but relatively high inequality (40 percent). Others like Croatia are successful in keeping both poverty and inequality low (poverty in Croatia was under 2 percent and inequality was 26.8 percent in 2000). The chart below presents the poverty headcount and Gini Index for select countries in the region.



Clearly there can be no one standard index or formula that can be used to evaluate a country's development performance, since the rankings would vary according to the development indicators used. Thus, some countries fare better than others in health status, some have better educational achievements, and yet others have better economic indicators. Comparisons across the region therefore require careful analysis and understanding of multi-sectoral issues, and this constitutes an important premise of the analytical and advisory work undertaken in the Economic Analysis and Evaluation sector in ECA.


Human Development in Eastern Europe – Economic Analysis and Evaluation Work Program

• Public finance and decentralization. Develop and implement appropriate analytical work, leading to lending, in areas relating to effective public expenditures in social sectors, and improving decentralized service delivery, in major client countries in ECA.
• Poverty analysis and related operations. Lead and contribute to poverty related work, including poverty assessments, and regional initiatives.
• Cross-sectoral and programmatic lending. Undertake country and regional sector work on HD sectors, particularly on cross-sectoral products, such as Country and Sector Assistance Strategies, Development Policy Lending, Country Economic Memoranda, and HD components of economic management lending and Economic Sector Work.
• Operational leadership to lending activities, especially, but not exclusively, adjustment operations. Develop country-level projects in one or more sectors. Lead or contribute to project preparation and supervision; on the latter, provide economic input, and policy advice.
• Represent ECSHD on multi-sectoral operational teams, taking the lead for the HD economic issues.
• Lead or participate in public expenditure reviews across ECA countries, as well as participate in region-wide activities that involve the economic issues in the HD sectors. Work collaboratively with other units within the World Bank, the IMF and other players from the region to analyze the sectoral and economic policy issues as well as compile expenditure data.
• Participate in Regional Sector Strategy exercises and cross-country analyses of policy and program effectiveness in the region.

Challenges ahead

• Strengthen Economic Sector Work (ESW) in preparation of projects and policy development.
• Build capacity within ECA countries to undertake high quality analytical work.
• Develop elements of monitoring and evaluation into education, health and social protection projects undertaken within the region.
• Anticipate and identify future issues that are of regional importance and have a substantive impact on social services.
• Develop cross-sectoral partnerships to bring about an improvement in welfare of people.