Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

664 items available

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https://hdl.handle.net/10986/9388

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Addressing Inefficient Distribution of Teachers Between Schools: The Case of Tanzania With Malawi and the Gambia
(Washington, DC, 2023-11-20) World Bank
Teachers are the single most important input to learning, and in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa teachers’ emoluments account for most of the spending on basic education (Bold et al., 2017). However, in many countries in the region teachers are poorly distributed between schools. Schools in remote areas are frequently understaffed compared to those closer to towns and large villages, reflecting a reluctance among teachers to accept postings in areas with significant hardship (Mulkeen, 2010). By contrast, schools in or close to towns and larger villages, where more facilities and amenities are available, often have more teachers than required by government standards, even where the overall supply of teachers nationwide is inadequate. An estimated 28 percent of the variation in staffing between schools in the region cannot be explained by variation in the size of enrollments in schools (Majgaard and Mingat, 2012). This represents a major source of inefficiency in public education expenditure, with significant shares of finance being spent to maintain teachers in comparatively overstaffed schools where they have limited marginal impact on learning outcomes. The impacts of these inefficiencies may be exacerbated by the need to ensure a suitable range of subject expertise among the teachers at a school.
Ensuring Efficient Provision of Teaching and Learning Materials: The Case of Mozambique
(Washington, DC, 2023-11-15) World Bank
Books 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.
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 Bank
This 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.
Embedding Climate Resilience into Urban and Transport Projects
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-05) World Bank
This 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.
Embedding Climate Resilience into Ecosystem and Water Projects
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-05) World Bank
This 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.
Embedding Climate Resilience into Agriculture Projects
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-05) World Bank
This 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.
The Enabling Environment for Menstrual Health and Hygiene: Case Study - Kenya
(Washington, DC, 2022-08) World Bank
Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) is essential to the well-being and empowerment of women and adolescent girls. Attaining adequate MHH requires access to at least three intersecting elements: (i) access to female-friendly facilities; (ii) access to information and knowledge on sexual reproductive health; and (iii) access to quality and affordable menstrual products. Each of these three elements is in turn influenced by an enabling environment that influences product availability and pricing, discriminatory practices on social stigmas, or the standards on design of public sanitary facilities. Kenya stands out with its comprehensive policies and regulations related to menstrual health and hygiene, including being one of the first countries to have introduced tax reforms on menstrual hygiene products in an effort to make such products more affordable. Despite momentum at the national policy level, women and girls in Kenya continue to face significant challenges in adequately and safely managing their menstrual health and hygiene. The experience and lessons learned in Kenya can therefore benefit other countries at earlier reform stages
Financing Basic Education: The Financial Implications of Zambia’s Education for All Policy
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-07-31) World Bank
Zambia introduced free and compulsory general education in 2011, but its implementation has been incomplete. In 2021, the government introduced the “Education for All” policy which abolished all formal and informal fees in general education (pre-primary, primary, and both lower and upper secondary levels), with fees replaced by compensatory increases in grants to schools. This note presents simulation results of the fiscal implications of the Education for All policy from 2022 to 2035. However, the introduction of measures to reduce costs and increase further the share of the budget allocated to education are likely to make the successful implementation of Education for All achievable. The note presents a range of cost-saving policies, similar to those employed by other countries to reduce costs during periods of rapid system expansion without negatively impacting learning. These include rationalized use of teachers’ housing, administrative offices, and laboratories and improved utilization of secondary school teachers. Implementing these policies, alongside the increases in education outlined in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) would make the Education for All policy more affordable. However, our most expansive enrollment scenario would only be affordable if these cost-saving policies were coupled with further increases in education’s share of the government budget.
Assessment of Trends in General Education Public Expenditure in Zambia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-07-01) World Bank
Over the past decade, Zambia’s gross domestic product (GDP) has been decreasing as a result of a devastating combination of external and domestic shocks. The country’s macroeconomic environment was weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the worsening fiscal outlook, the need for better investments in human capital has never been greater. Building human capital is made more challenging because quality services need to cover a large proportion of the population. The main objective of this policy brief is to assess the funding of pre-primary to tertiary education and how effectively resources are utilized. The 2016 to 2021 period is used for review.
Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini: Study Brief
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12-17) World Bank
This study brief on “Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini” examines the performance of Eswatini’s main social assistance programs. These programs employ varying combinations of categorical and self-targeting to reach the poor and vulnerable.