Sustainable Infrastructure

This report estimates the funding needs to close the service gap in water and sanitation, transportation, electricity, irrigation, and flood protection in developing countries. It finds that costs vary greatly depending on service goals and policy choices, and that low carbon trajectories do not cost most more than polluting alternatives.

During the 1990s, a new paradigm for power sector reform was put forward emphasizing the restructuring of utilities, the creation of regulators, the participation of the private sector, and the establishment of competitive power markets. Twenty-five years later, only a handful of developing countries have fully implemented these Washington Consensus policies. Across the developing world, reforms were adopted rather selectively, resulting in a hybrid model, in which elements of market orientation coexist with continued state dominance of the sector. This book aims to revisit and refresh thinking on power sector reform approaches for developing countries. The approach relies heavily on evidence from the past, drawing both on broad global trends and deep case material from 15 developing countries. It is also forward looking, considering the implications of new social and environmental policy goals, as well as the emerging technological disruptions. A nuanced picture emerges. Although regulation has been widely adopted, practice often falls well short of theory, and cost recovery remains an elusive goal. The private sector has financed a substantial expansion of generation capacity; yet, its contribution to power distribution has been much more limited, with efficiency levels that can sometimes be matched by well-governed public utilities. Restructuring and liberalization have been beneficial in a handful of larger middle-income nations but have proved too complex for most countries to implement. Based on these findings, the report points to three major policy implications: First, reform efforts need to be shaped by the political and economic context of the country. The 1990s reform model was most successful in countries that had reached certain minimum conditions of power sector development and offered a supportive political environment. Second, countries found alternative institutional pathways to achieving good power sector outcomes, making a case for greater pluralism. Among the top performers, some pursued the full set of market-oriented reforms, while others retained a more important role for the state. Third, reform efforts should be driven and tailored to desired policy outcomes and less preoccupied with following a predetermined process, particularly since the twenty-first-century century agenda has added decarbonization and universal access to power sector outcomes. The Washington Consensus reforms, while supportive of the twenty-first-century century agenda, will not be able to deliver on them alone and will require complementary policy measures

This report analyzes the transformative opportunities and challenges associated with developing robust cloud and data infrastructure markets in low- and middle-income economies.

Fiscal risks associated with infrastructure are both more frequent and larger than previously assumed. This report quantifies the magnitude and prevalence of these risks in electricity and transport and identifies their root causes across a range of low- and middle-income countries.

Despite the reduction in transport costs over the past few decades, creating a single integrated economy remains elusive. Low- and middle-income countries face higher transport prices than high-income countries for both international and domestic shipments, and shipping times are longer and less reliable. Tackling the problem can increase income and general welfare in low- and middle-income countries, improving the lives of the people who live there. Shrinking Economic Distance: Understanding How Markets and Places Can Lower Transport Costs in Developing Countries makes a unique contribution by assessing the main determinants of shippers' economic costs of freight transport-economic distance-and identifying the frictions that keep transport prices above an efficient level, shipping times high, and reliability low. Drawing on new analyses and compiling many others, the book provides important evidence to inform the design of policies to reduce the economic costs of transport and deepen the economic integration of developing countries. This book shows how understanding the frictions driving the economic costs of freight transport can help policy makers target reforms in the areas in which they can have the greatest impact and avoid unintended consequences. It lays out the building blocks for a reform agenda to reduce economic distance, which includes first making markets and then making places efficient. Shrinking Economic Distance will be of enormous value to policy makers, practitioners, and academics interested in freight transport and economic integration.

The global race for implementing 5G mobile technologies has seen countries riding a new wave of wireless technologies. 5G--the next generation of mobile technologies--can enable a significantly higher level of performance over 4G mobile communications, providing a new layer of connectivity to support innovative, data-intensive applications. With the estimated impact of 5G on global gross domestic product to be in the trillions of US dollars, 5G's deployment will drive innovation, job creation, worker productivity, and competitiveness across various sectors. Several use cases are already being tested, and deployment is under way in many countries. For some countries, 5G may seem a distant future prospect given the costs of infrastructure deployment and the need for expensive handsets; for other countries, 5G is an on-ramp to Industry 4.0 and has been folded into national strategy planning. 5G trials, pilots, and commercial deployments have been progressing around the world, but most deployments are in higher-income countries. Significant barriers remain for developing countries, many of which pertain to the challenges faced by the broader telecommunications sector and all of which threaten to further widen the digital divide and limit access to the economic opportunities that 5G connectivity enables. What does this reality mean for developing countries, and how can national governments prepare? The Path to 5G in the Developing World: Planning Ahead for a Smooth Transition surveys the technical capabilities of 5G and explores how countries can reach connectivity goals by using 5G as a layer of connectivity along with 4G and other technologies. This report also provides a guide for policy makers to better understand the opportunities, challenges, and risks posed by 5G so that they can plan for a policy and regulatory ecosystem that supports the path to advanced mobile network deployment, access, and adoption.

This report sheds light on the economics of electric mobility transition by addressing three questions: why is electric mobility for passenger transportation relevant to the developing world; when does it make sense to proactively pursue the transition; and how can policymakers accelerate adoption of electric passenger vehicles.

The Global Comparative Assessment of Legal and Institutional Frameworks for Dam Safety explores a range of legal, institutional, technical, and financial options along a continuum to provide a decision support tool for dam safety assurance appropriate for a range of different economic, political and cultural circumstances.

This report lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience - the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users? needs during and after a natural hazard.