Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
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Publication Ensuring Efficient Provision of Teaching and Learning Materials: The Case of Mozambique(Washington, DC, 2023-11-15) World BankBooks are one of the most important inputs in student learning and are generally considered a cost-effective input for increasing the quality of primary education (Fredriksen et al., 2015). After salaries, which typically account for around 80 percent of spending on basic education in Sub-Saharan Africa, textbooks are in many countries the next largest area of recurring spending on basic education, accounting for 5–10 percent on average (ibid.). For textbooks to be beneficial for learning, they need to be appropriate to students’ language needs, and teachers need to be adequately trained to utilize them (Glewwe, Kremer, and Moulin, 2009); textbooks need to be utilized by teachers in class instead of simply being stored at school (Sabarwal, Evans, and Marshak, 2014). Where they are appropriately designed and utilized, however, providing textbooks has been found to be one of the most cost-effective inputs for learning at primary level (Michaelowa and Wechtler, 2006; McEwan, 2014). Despite their importance for learning, many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa struggle to deliver an adequate number of textbooks to students on time. Among 38 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, 21 had pupil-textbook ratios in reading and math higher than 1.5 in the period 2010-15, with 12 having very high ratios of three or more (Bashir et al., 2018). As education systems have grown rapidly across Sub-Saharan Africa in response to the introduction of free education policies, governments have found it increasingly difficult and expensive to ensure that every student has the books they need to learn.Publication Building Climate Resilient and Environmentally Sustainable Health Systems in Africa: A Summary of Findings and Recommendations from Climate and Health Vulnerability Assessments (CHVAs) Funded by AFRI-RES Across Four Countries(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-06) World BankThis note summarizes lessons and practices deployed in embedding climate resilience into the design of projects that received catalytic funds from The Africa Climate Resilience Investment Facility (AFRI-RES). It draws from application of the Resilience Booster Tool to specific projects, as relevant, Compendium Volume on Climate Resilient Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank (2023) and Guidance, Standards, and Good Practice Notes developed under the program.Publication Embedding Climate Resilience into Urban and Transport Projects(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-05) World BankThis note summarizes lessons and practices deployed in embedding climate resilience into the design of projects that received catalytic funds from The Africa Climate Resilience Investment Facility (AFRI-RES). It draws from application of the Resilience Booster Tool to specific projects, as relevant, Compendium Volume on Climate Resilient Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank (2023a) and Guidance, Standards, and Good Practice Notes developed under the program.Publication Embedding Climate Resilience into Ecosystem and Water Projects(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-05) World BankThis note summarizes lessons and practices deployed in embedding climate resilience into the design of projects that received catalytic funds from The Africa Climate Resilience Investment Facility (AFRI-RES). It draws from application of the Resilience Booster Tool to specific projects, as relevant, Compendium Volume on Climate Resilient Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank (2023a) and Guidance, Standards, and Good Practice Notes developed under the program.Publication Embedding Climate Resilience into Agriculture Projects(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-05) World BankThis note summarizes lessons and practices deployed in embedding climate resilience into the design of projects that received catalytic funds from The Africa Climate Resilience Investment Facility (AFRI-RES). It draws from application of the Resilience Booster Tool to specific projects, as relevant, Compendium Volume on Climate Resilient Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank (2023a) and Guidance, Standards, and Good Practice Notes developed under the program.Publication Who is Disabled in Sub-Saharan Africa?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04) Montes, Jose; Swindle, RachelDespite significant recent advances in research on people with disabilities in many developed countries, little is known about their counterparts living in the developing world. With the goal of helping to improve the state of knowledge on disability, the United Nations commissioned the Washington Group to develop a short set of questions to measure disability in official household surveys. This note uses the resulting data from ten recent surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to profile the characteristics of people with disabilities, briefly describing their welfare, gender, age, geographic characteristics, educational attainment, and labor force participation.Publication Barriers to Accessing Medical Care in Sub-Saharan Africa in Early Stages of COVID-19 Pandemic(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03) Swindle, Rachel; Newhouse, DavidEighty-two percent of respondents in a sample of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries were able to access medical care despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the remaining 18 percent, about one-third reported that the COVID-19 pandemic impaired their access, either due to lockdown restrictions, facility closures, or fear of contracting the virus. 'Lack of money' was by far the most frequently reported barrier to accessing care across countries, especially for food-insecure households, two-thirds of which cited 'lack of money' as the main healthcare access constraint. Continued monitoring can help shed light on who is most at risk of not being able to access healthcare during crises. This note makes use of newly harmonized data to summarize reasons why respondents in 11 SSA countries were unable to access medical care during early COVID-19 stages.Publication The Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Four African Countries (April to October 2020): Evidence from LSMS-Supported High‑Frequency Phone Surveys on COVID-19(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10) Contreras-Gonzalez, Ivette; Siwatu, Gbemisola Oseni; Palacios-Lopez, Amparo; Pieters, Janneke; Weber, MichaelAs part of a global effort led by the World Bank to track the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the living standards measurement study (LSMS) team supports high-frequency phone surveys in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda (among other countries). This brief focuses on the early impacts of COVID-19 on the labor market and their evolution from April to October 2020 using phone surveys in four African countries.