This Technical Assistance Report discusses the recommendations given by the IMF mission on improving the public investment management in Jordan. Jordan’s public finances have deteriorated since the mid-2000s, resulting in a significant reduction in public investment. In response to several negative external shocks, notably the Iraq and Syria crises and the 2008 global financial crisis, the government has reduced public investment and stepped up the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs). It is recommended to improve the quality of strategic planning by clarifying roles and responsibilities, enhancing coordination mechanisms between the institutions involved, and ensuring that strategic projects go through the Executive Development Plan cycle. The oversight and disclosure practices of PPPs should also be strengthened.

This Technical Assistance Report on The Gambia highlights that the government has highlighted infrastructure development as a key element of National Development Plan, 2018–21. The report discusses that the need for increased public investment in the Gambia should be balanced against potential fiscal risks related to future Public–Private Partnerships and State-Owned Enterprise investments. Analysis of public investment patterns shows a fragmented picture, in which external financing dominates. Measures of the efficiency of infrastructure investments show mixed results and considerable room for improvement. The analysis explains that the Gambia’s performance across different Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) indicators is mixed and does not compare favorably with regional counterparts. Nevertheless, there are many indicators where the PIMA rating is poor. Prevailing weaknesses include the presence of many information gaps and non-transparent disclosure policies. The mission’s main recommendations focus on five priority areas and are designed to complement reforms that are already being undertaken.

Strategic investment funds (SIFs) have gained prominence over the past two decades as governments and other public sponsors globally have increasingly co-opted the investment fund model to further policy objectives. Since 2000, more than 30 SIFs have been formed at the national level, typically to boost economic growth through infrastructure or small and medium enterprise investment. In the current COVID-19 pandemic environment, governments have frequently turned to sovereign investment vehicles to address the economic effects of the pandemic, echoing the emergence of new SIFs in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. However, SIFs are not devoid of challenges, and the setup and operation of such funds can be fraught with risks, particularly in contexts of weaker governance, inadequate rule of law, and limited financial market regulation. The intent of 'Strategic Investment Funds: Establishment and Operations' is to provide guidance to practitioners and policy makers considering a SIF model where little widely available, practice-based experience has been documented and disseminated. The book provides a reference for policy makers who are creating or strengthening the operations of SIFs, particularly as governments examine the value of such funds as a policy instrument in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Environmental costs of electric power generation are receiving increasing attention as an important input to planning and decision processes. Since the outstart of the discussion on the monetized environmental costs of electricity in 1988 a number of studies have been conducted on the subject, producing partially contradictory results. Simultaneously political action has resulted from the first stage on this discussion process. In Germany the higher rates which have to be payed to autoproducers based on renewable energy sources have been explicitly justified by the existence of external environmental costs of conventional electricity generation. At the same time some state regulatory commissions in the United States have introduced adders for environmental costs in the utility planning process. This book reports on the first international workshop on the subject, bringing together practically all experts in the field of research and political implementation from the United States and Germany, the two pioneering countries. The more than thirty contributed papers contained in this volume give the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the field. Some papers already outline the future course of research by giving an overview over some major research projects, which have just started.