Diagnostics & General Design

This report is a product of a two-year engagement between the World Bank team and Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). It aims to overview the Ejo Heza scheme, a local term that translates to ‘a better future,’ not only holds the promise of income security at older ages but can also be a much-needed source for domestic resource mobilization in the country. The report highlight its key strengths, and provide recommendations to improve coverage, adequacy, operational efficiency, and long-run viability. 

This Note highlights the challenges of providing financial services to underserved gig workers through online platforms. While these platforms offer a potential channel, innovators recognize that digital skills alone might not be enough. Building trust and understanding requires a balanced approach, combining technology with a human touch. The Note showcases four successful examples from industry leaders who have carefully designed, developed, and piloted solutions to deliver financial services to platform workers.

This report aggregates extensive solid waste data at the national and urban levels. It estimates and projects waste generation to 2030 and 2050. Beyond the core data metrics from waste generation to disposal, the report provides information on waste management costs, revenues, and tariffs; special wastes; regulations; public communication; administrative and operational models; and the informal sector.

This report proposes a new approach to tackling plastic pollution. It focuses on empowering informal waste recovery systems (IWRS) and their workers. These workers, often overlooked, possess valuable skills and knowledge in waste collection. The report argues that current solutions often exclude them, harming their livelihoods and hindering waste management. Instead, it proposes using resources to support a smooth transition for these workers and their communities,essentially bringing them into the fold as key players in solving plastic pollution.

The Informal Economy Monitoring Study (IEMS) is designed to provide in-depth understanding of how informal workers are affected by and respond to economic trends, urban policies and practices, value chain dynamics, and other economic and social forces.

This report explores how to maximize the economic value of skills in a dynamic job market. It emphasizes that a skill's worth depends heavily on how well it complements other skills, particularly those in high demand. The value of any skill is also relative to the worker's existing skillset, with the greatest value often arising from combining skills from different areas. Focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills, the report finds them especially valuable due to their strong complementarity and rising demand, boosting worker wages by an average of 21

The report identfies areas of opportunity to improve insurance schemes for the self-employed in Latin America, and uses the case of gig economy workers (from interviews with platforms such as Workana, DiDi, and Beat) to identify a new category of workers that often lack social protection.

This Note is part of the Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) Knowledge Brief series that focuses on integrating a youth employment dimension and identifying opportunities in emerging sectors. Building upon S4YE’s Discussion Note on the Circular Economy, which aims to integrate the jobs agenda within the environment agenda, and the World Bank publication, "What a Waste 2.0”, this note focuses specifically on the waste sector.

This S4YE Knowledge Brief describes how The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation (the Foundation), an international charity and licensing body of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award (the Award); a Non-Formal Education and Learning framework for young people aged 14-24 years old, uses the Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework and has developed a social value methodology (SVM) to measure the impact that the Award has on its stakeholders, such as Award holders, adults who support Award delivery, and wider society.

This Short Note is part of a series building on the report Working Without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work. This note aims to provide some practical tips for practitioners like World Bank task team leaders in implementing online gig work programs to enable vulnerable populations - such as youth, women, persons with disabilities - to access online gig jobs to support their social and economic inclusion.