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Documented examples

Each record describes something a country built that the indicators do not capture. The source provides the published number; the mechanism is our interpretation.

Scores describe outcomes. These records describe how a country acted, what it needed and what happened. 784 of 784 records include a mechanism. They do not affect scores.

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3 of 784 deliveries

Adaptability

2 deliveries linked to Institutional responsiveness, Disaster preparedness and recovery.

North Macedoniasince 2020delivered and closedbears on Institutional responsiveness

COVID-19 wage subsidy scheme for private employers

The Government of North Macedonia answered the March 2020 shutdowns with decrees that paid private employers up to 14,500 denars a month per employee for April, May and June 2020, funding 155,082 monthly salary subsidies across 24,331 monthly company payments, with the World Bank share fully disbursed by 6 October 2020.

155,082 employee-months, salary subsidies paid, employees summed across april, may (residual) and june, April to June 2020. 24,331 company-months, companies paid a salary subsidy, summed across april, may (residual) and june, April to June 2020. World Bank, Local Roads Connectivity Project Additional Financing project paper (P175841), retrieved 2026-10-16.

The move, and what it needed

The government issued decrees within weeks of the shutdown that paid employers a net minimum wage per retained employee, conditional on keeping headcount, and drew pre-negotiated contingency money from an unrelated World Bank loan to fund part of it.

Preconditions

  • A tax and social contribution register able to identify employers, employees and paid hours monthly
  • A contingency emergency component already embedded in an existing World Bank loan, which could be triggered without a new negotiation
  • A government willing to publish the list of recipient companies as a transparency condition

Limits: The numbers sit in a PDF (Tables 1 and 2, printed page 12, PDF page 16) and the project paper itself calls them inclusive of duplications: the 155,082 adds the employees paid in each month, so the number of distinct workers is lower. The paper elsewhere describes the target as about 20,000 SMEs and 155,000 employees, and a World Bank brief of November 2020 says over 120,000 employees, so the distinct headcount is uncertain. The World Bank financed 37 million euros of the 80 million euro scheme through a contingency component of a roads loan, so the money was partly external, although the decrees and the payments were the government's. The figures come from the project's own reporting, through its implementation unit. The claim that the scheme preserved 80 percent of the most vulnerable jobs comes from a local think tank cited in the paper and is not carried here. The record does not show whether firms kept the workers after the retention period, and the Public Revenue Office later pursued firms that misused the subsidy.

North Macedoniasince 2015delivered and closedbears on Disaster preparedness and recovery

Compensation for the early 2015 flood damage

The Government of North Macedonia, through the Ministry of Finance, paid 144.24 million denars in flood-damage compensation to 2,218 persons in nine flood-hit municipalities, among them Mogila, Novaci, Bitola and Stip, by 15 September 2015, after the storms and floods of early 2015.

144.24 million denars, flood-damage compensation paid so far, 2015-09-15. 2,218 persons, persons compensated so far, 2015-09-15. Government of North Macedonia, Ministry of Finance press release, republished by ReliefWeb (UN OCHA), retrieved 2026-10-16.

The move, and what it needed

After the floods, the central government paid compensation for household damage out of the state budget through the Ministry of Finance, municipality by municipality, as local damage assessments were completed.

Preconditions

  • Municipal commissions able to assess and certify damage to individual households
  • Budget room for unplanned transfers in the year of the disaster
  • Recipients reachable through bank accounts or an alternative payment channel

Limits: The source is a government press release about its own payments, republished by ReliefWeb, not an audited account. The same release reports a further 29.9 million denars paid that day to 394 persons and does not say whether the 144.24 million total includes it. It gives no estimate of total damage, so the share of losses covered is unknown, and no dates for the damage, the claims or the payments, so the speed of recovery cannot be read from it. Compensation after the event shows recovery financing, not preparedness: a State Audit Office performance audit published on 22 September 2026 found that the national protection and rescue strategy expired in 2018 without replacement, that the national vulnerability assessment dates from 2007, and that the Skopje City Fire Brigade had 172 of 384 approved firefighter positions filled.

Building

1 delivery linked to Large project delivery.

North Macedoniasince 2014still operatingbears on Large project delivery

Kicevo to Ohrid motorway, and its cost and time overrun

North Macedonia's Public Enterprise for State Roads contracted Sinohydro in November 2013 to build the 56.7 km Kicevo to Ohrid section of motorway A2 for EUR411 million by January 2018; by December 2021 five annexes had moved completion to December 2023 and raised the contract value by EUR187 million (45 percent) to EUR598 million, and the State Audit Office found works 72 percent complete by value in August 2023.

598 million euros, contract value after annexes, 2021-12. 411 million euros, contract value at signing (contracted completion january 2018), 2013-11. State Audit Office of North Macedonia, Final report on the financial and compliance audit of the Public Enterprise for State Roads for 2022, February 2024, retrieved 2026-10-02.

The move, and what it needed

The government named a Chinese contractor by statute under a bilateral loan agreement and started construction on an old design, then absorbed the redesign of tunnels, cuttings and landslide sections through successive annexes that raised the price and moved the deadline.

Preconditions

  • A loan-tied contractor selection that skips competitive tendering
  • A basic design old enough to be out of step with ground conditions
  • Parliamentary approval of annexes rather than a fixed-price baseline

Limits: The figures are in a PDF in Macedonian, in the key audit matter section 5.1 (printed pages 25 to 27); the 45 percent increase is also stated in the summary (printed page 4). The road was still under construction when the audit was written, so the record shows an overrun in progress, not an outturn; later annexes and deadlines reported in the press (a further increase and a 2027 deadline) were not checked against an official document. The EUR598 million is the contract value; the audit puts total investment, including expropriation, interest and exchange differences, at about EUR575 million spent by November 2023, and financing at US$685 million in two Chinese loans. The audit attributes the overrun to a basic design drawn up between 2002 and 2010 that did not match the terrain, giving 42 variations, which is the auditor's reading. The contractor was named by a 2013 law rather than chosen by open tender, so the record also reflects a procurement choice. 'Operating' means the build is still running, not that the road is open.