Other Infrastructure Study

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Sub-Saharan Africa

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Digital Economy for Zimbabwe: Country Diagnostic Report

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03) World Bank

A diagnostic assessment of Zimbabwe's digital economy has been launched as part of the World Bank Group's Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) Initiative, which leverages an integrated and foundations- based diagnostic framework to examine the present level of digital economy development across Africa. The assessment maps the current strengths and weaknesses that characterize the national digital economy ecosystem in Zimbabwe as well as identifies the challenges and opportunities for future growth.
Malawi: Mobilizing Long-Term Finance for Infrastructure

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-02) World Bank

Malawi has a large infrastructure gap, which is beyond what the government can afford. Over the period of two decades (1998-2017), the total public investment in Malawi averaged 4.18 percent of GDP per year while in the energy and water and sanitation sectors alone, a similar level of investment, about 4 percent of GDP annually, will be required to meet the growing infrastructure demand. At the same time, the fiscal space has been decreasing as evidenced by the growing public debt, total public debt increased from 28 percent of GDP in 2007 to 63 percent of GDP in 2019. In this context, Malawi needs to make well though-out choices in prioritizing its investment program, improve the efficiency of infrastructure planning and implementation, and crowd-in financing from both foreign and domestic private investors. The report argues that the preconditions for enabling the needed transformation exist. Improvements in the macro-economic environment in the past five years makes private investment more possible, although in the short-term, the COVID-19 pandemic will have a negative impact as risk aversion increases. The regulatory framework for public-private partnerships (PPPs) is in place and further evolving, and a large PPP in the energy sector (about $1 billion) is currently under development. Domestic long-term investors (pension funds and life insurance companies) have been rapidly accumulating long-term funds in the past few years (especially after regulatory reforms to introduce a mandatory pension system) and are looking for long-term investment opportunities. The report proposes that the Government of Malawi (GoM) undertakes reforms to improve the fiscal space and in turn increase infrastructure investments through its own resources and encourage the role of the private sector in the financing of infrastructure. More specifically, the GoM can (a) improve the efficiency of the public investment management framework and integrate it with the PPP framework, (b) improve the efficiency of infrastructure delivering state-owned enterprises, (c) advance the PPP program by allocating resources to develop the needed capacity, and (d) deepen the domestic long-term finance market by availing long-term liquidity facilities to catalyze bank lending to infrastructure, issuing regulations to expand the range of long-term finance instruments and vehicles, and introducing a program of transaction testing, piloting, and market sounding to systematically link supply and demand side of the infrastructure finance, among others.
Lesotho Digital Economy Diagnostic

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-02) World Bank

Lesotho is a landlocked country with a population of about 2.0 million people. Lesotho’s private sector makes limited use of digital technologies. In the private sector, digital technology can change the way economies of scale are achieved, particularly through e-commerce and digital payments. The digital economy may provide the better matching of buyers and sellers in a competitive marketplace. The digital economy offers potential for enhanced service delivery in the public sector, but the Lesotho government’s efforts in this field appear fragmented and slow moving. Improved digital infrastructure can only achieve the desired transformational impact if combined with a capable public sector, investments in digital skills and literacy, increased access to digital financial services, and ramped up support for digital start-ups and existing businesses. A holistic view to developing the digital economy is required. This report will provide a diagnostic and offer recommendations on the five foundations of the digital economy in Lesotho. The report will examine, in turn, challenges concerning the policy and legal environment, digital infrastructure, public digital platforms, private digital platforms, digital financial services, digital entrepreneurship, and digital skills. This report reviews how the digital divide affects the foundations of the digital economy and provides policy options for bridging the digital divide.
Accelerating Digital Transformation in Zambia: Digital Economy Diagnostic Report

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020) World Bank

Zambia’s seventh national development plan (7NDP) sets ambitious targets for economic growth and poverty reduction. Technology can play an important role as Zambia advances this vision for economic transformation. The introduction of digital systems can also have a transformative effect on government. Improved access to digital technologies and effective use of data and digital systems can thus be powerful tools in the quest to increase private sector productivity, enhance public sector efficiency and effectiveness, and improve the accountability of both the public and private sectors. This digital economy diagnostic assesses Zambia’s strengths and weaknesses with respect to five pillars that together form the foundation upon which the benefits of digital transformation can be realized. These pillars are digital infrastructure, digital skills, digital entrepreneurship, digital platforms, and digital financial services. This analysis finds that Zambia has made significant strides on its path to digital transformation over the past few years. Progress is particularly evident in digital infrastructure, digital financial services, and digital platforms, while more significant gaps remain in digital skills and digital entrepreneurship. This report suggests that the digital transformation strategy include four strategic: (1) promoting greater use of digital technologies in the economy, (2) reducing government transaction costs and reducing the cost of doing business through digitally optimized government systems, (3) improving the adoption of innovative digital solutions by enabling entrepreneurship, and (4) leveraging data and digital systems to improve sector-specific outcomes in secondary towns and rural areas.
Infrastructure Development in Edo State: Adapting to Constraints and Creating Capabilities

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-04-29) Porter, Douglas John ; Rasool Cyan, Musharraf ; Lee, Panthea ; Brisson, Zack ; Itegboje, Osione ; Talsma, Adam

Governor Adams Oshiomhole assumed office in November 2008 following a successful court appeal to retrieve the mandate given to him by the people of Edo. Widespread support from a variety of interest groups buttressed the legal challenge and helped create the political space for the Governor’s pursuit of an agenda focused on both reform and speedy delivery. Popular demand for reform was evident, but responding to this presented major challenges. Historically,Edo had been one of the best performing states in the country. Expectations were high that he would restore this status and address the perceived poor performance and allegations of corruption leveled against previous administrations. This case study is an attempt to better understand the process through which the Administration was able to maximize its delivery. This report is one product of several ongoing efforts by the World Bank to better understand how to better tailor its interventions to local realities with the overarching objective of improving its impact. To do this in the case of capital spending in Edo, it was necessary to craft a study method that suspended judgments about actual practices. Thus, rather than holding these practices up to international standards, and highlighting deficits and shortcomings in relation to those standards, the study purpose was to depict how the State administration had responded to the political priorities of the new Governor by adapting to the constraints it faced and creating new ways to deliver through infrastructure spending. This case study underlines the very rich and often messy reality that leaders frequently find when assuming office and the trade-offs that they are forced to make. In doing so, it reminds us of the political realities within which we work and, like other case studies recently undertaken to inform Bank engagements in Nigeria, finds that traditional blue print approaches in such circumstances are unlikely to work and that sequencing, tailoring to local contexts and adaptation along a non-linear road to reform is more feasible path.
Growth Poles Program : Political Economy of Social Capital

(Washington, DC, 2014-04) World Bank

The Government of Sierra Leone (GosL) and the World Bank (WB) have agreed upon the design and implementation of a growth poles program (GPP) in support of the agenda for prosperity (A4P), the GoSL's third poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSPIII). With support from the European Union competitive industries and innovation practice trust fund, the WB has been undertaking a series of scoping and diagnostic analyses on the GPP since early 2013, and to date this work has constituted the main part of the first phase of the approach (the initial diagnostic stage). This diagnostic work was completed in August 2013 and the diagnostic report confirmed that the growth pole approach can feasibly support and facilitate economic development in two geographical areas of the country. This analytical report attempts to provide a window into the undercurrents and the nuances that affect and shape the characteristics of host communities into which investment takes place. The report also highlights the various input considerations that need to be acknowledged (land, labor, community relations), the governance framework into which the future growth poles approach will fit - central, local, and community and finally concludes with a series of recommendations around key policy, institutional, cross linkages, and contextual challenges that the growth poles approach must consider as it attempts to underpin the government's growth by foreign direct investment agenda.
Development of 13 Mozambican Municipalities in Central and Northern Mozambique : Summary report

(World Bank, 2011-04-01) World Bank

The objective of this study on the Development of 13 Mozambican Municipalities in Central and Northern Mozambique is to assess the impact that the 2008 reforms on own-source revenues is having on the municipal revenue potential. To do so, it calculates the revenue potential of four fiscal and three non-fiscal revenue sources. The analysis shows that there is substantial untapped revenue potential at the municipal level, with estimates indicating that -in the case of the most buoyant local revenue sources- municipalities are only collecting about half of the revenue potential. In the worst cases, municipalities are collecting far less than 10 percent of the total revenue potential of a local revenue source. The fact that a revenue gaps exists is not only an indication of weak municipal performance. Municipalities have relatively recently been created and it takes time, capacity, and effort, to consolidate their revenue functions. Tax administration is overall still weak and a series of vacuums exist on the municipal fiscal legislation. The analysis reveals that the current revenue instruments at the disposal of municipalities are generally appropriate municipal revenue instruments, so that efforts at the national and municipal levels should be made to build the capacity of the local tax administration to collect these revenues. The report provides specific suggestions on ways to strengthen the revenue collection for the main municipal revenue instruments. However, in addition to increasing municipal tax effort, the expenditure needs of municipalities are so demanding that additional intergovernmental transfers and tax sharing arrangements should also be considered as a building block of municipal finances in Mozambique. The results of this study aim to become part of the ongoing dialogue with the municipalities and national tax authorities to expand the understanding of municipal revenues in Mozambique on the basis of more sound empirical evidence. The scope of this analysis was limited to a sample of six municipalities. In-depth case studies were prepared for each of these municipalities, upon which the current Summary Report is based. The six case municipalities include: Beira, Cuamba, Marromeu, Nacala, Ribaue, and Vilankulo. To bring the Summary Report and the six municipal cases together in the most effective way, the current report follows the same structure as each of the municipal cases. The diagnosis of the current situation is presented in Section 2, followed by a discussion on the estimation of municipal revenue potential in Section 3. Proposals and recommendations regarding the strengthening of municipal revenue collection are presented in Section 4.
Evaluation of Proposed Ouagadougou-Donsin Airport Development, Burkina Faso

(Washington, DC, 2010-08) World Bank

The Government of Burkina Faso (GoBF) has indicated that it wishes to relocate the current international airport of Ouagadougou, which lies close to the centre of the capital, to an alternative site at Donsin, 35 km northwest of the city. This report briefly describes the economy of Burkina Faso within which the airport operates, the current infrastructure of the existing airport and examines the reasons why the GoBF believes that it is inadequate to meet the projected future demand for aviation services. It also considers the proposed relocation of the existing airport within the context of the Government s overall policy for the strategic development of the country s transport infrastructure and tourism; the current institutional and regulatory structure of civil aviation in Burkina Faso and the division of responsibilities between key statutory and supra-national bodies; the urban development plan for the city of Ouagadougou and the area of Grand Ouaga; and the Government s broader policy objectives relating to economic reform, decentralization and social development.
Transport Strategy to Improve Accessibility in Developing Countries

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-05-01) Roberts, Peter ; Babinard, Julie

In developing countries disabled people and the elderly are more likely to be among the poor. Moreover, exclusion increases the costs associated with disability to constrain disabled people from breaking out of poverty. Improved access and mobility are important factors in reducing poverty and can facilitate the participation of people with disabilities in economic, social, and political processes. Many countries have legislation requiring that these challenges be addressed but effective responses are generally very limited. Action to improve the situation is constrained by the serious shortage of data on the access and mobility needs of disabled and elderly people as well as by resource constraints. This paper outlines guidance for addressing the access and mobility needs of disabled and elderly people in the context of the World Bank's mission to reduce poverty and discusses the main challenges for providing inclusive transport. It draws attention to opportunities to learn from transport interventions and to current research. The paper describes the main activities being fostered by the transport sector in the World Bank. These aim to raise awareness of proven good practice in setting policies and strategies.