Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

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

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse ...

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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.
Epidemic Projections and Opportunities to Accelerate Control of Tuberculosis in Mozambique: Findings from an Optima Modelling Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-09-08) World Bank
Mozambique is one of the thirty highest tuberculosis (TB) burden countries in the world with respect to total incidence. Active case finding programs in Mozambique have been expanding, and community-based efforts now account for around twenty-five percent of detected cases. This involves both contact tracing of notified cases and other community-level interventions such as active house-to-house screening and testing, mobile van outreach in TB hotspots, and screening and testing of community health workers. However, there are opportunities for further expansion. This policy brief summarizes the findings of an allocative efficiency analysis using the Optima TB model, and highlights opportunities to maximize the impact of TB spending in Mozambique.
COVID-10 Impact Monitoring: Malawi, Round 12
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-09) World Bank
In May 2020, the National Statistical Office (NSO), with support from the World Bank, launched the High-Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19 (coronavirus), which tracks the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic on a monthly basis for a period of 12 months. The survey aimed to recontact the entire sample of households that had been interviewed during the Integrated Household Panel Survey (IHPS) 2019 round and that had a phone number for at least one household member or a reference individual. This report presents the findings from the twelfth round of the survey that was conducted during the period of June 14 - June 30, 2021.
COVID-19 Impact Monitoring: Malawi, Round 11
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07) World Bank
The COVID-19 pandemic has socio-economic impacts on Malawians and there is need for timely data to monitor these impacts and support response efforts to the pandemic. In May 2020, the National Statistical Office (NSO), with support from the World Bank, launched the High Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19; a monthly survey of a nationally representative sample of households previously interviewed as part of the Malawi Integrated Household Panel Survey to monitor the economic impact of the pandemic and other shocks. This brief presents the findings from the tenth and eleventh rounds of the Malawi High-Frequency Phone Sur-vey on COVID-19 (HFPS COVID-19) conducted between the 29th of April and the 9th of June 2021.
COVID-19 Impact Monitoring: Malawi, Round 9
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) World Bank
In May 2020, the National Statistical Office (NSO), with support from the World Bank, launched the High-Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19, which tracks the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic on a monthly basis for a period of 12 months. The survey aimed to recontact the entire sample of households that had been interviewed during the Integrated Household Panel Survey (IHPS) 2019 round and that had a phone number for at least one household member or a reference individual. This report presents the findings from the ninth round of the survey that was conducted during the period of April 07 - April 23, 2021.
Harnessing Momentum: Priority Areas of Intervention to Further Strengthen Malawi’s Health Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11) World Bank
Malawians are healthier and live longer than they ever have. Achieving universal health coverage in a sustainable and equitable way is the main goal of Malawi’s health sector reform plan, and an essential health package (EHP) free at the point of use is the government’s primary tool to achieve this. Malnutrition also remains an ongoing challenge. Malawi’s Second Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) for 2017-2022, identifies a set of interventions necessary to further improve health outcomes, and to ensure the delivery of quality, equitable, affordable and patient-centred health care services. Malawi’s 2018-2019 Harmonised Health Facility Assessment (HHFA), conducted by the government of Malawi with support from international health and development agencies, provides a comprehensive including government, faith-based, CHAM (Christian Health Association of Malawi) and private for-profit facilities between November 2018 and March 2019. This policy brief draws from this assessment, as well other research, identifying the most important policy interventions needed to achieve key health targets over the coming years.
Innovation in Education: Improving Learning Outcomes through ICT Technology
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-24) World Bank
Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa identify technology as a viable complementary tool to improve learning outcomes in primary and secondary education. New research evidence from The Gambia suggests that a student-centered computer-assisted learning (CAL) program significantly improves student performance and teaching effectiveness in secondary schools. Policy action to complement traditional pedagogical methods with interactive technology in classrooms can help countries translate their gains in access to education into greater achievements in learning and skills.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Workers in Hawassa Industrial Park
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-03) World Bank
As part of the World Bank Group’s analytical work program on More, better, and more inclusive jobs: Preparing for successful industrialization in Ethiopia (funded by the UK Department for International Development), a team of researchers led by Morgan Hardy (New York University Abu Dhabi) and Christian Johannes Meyer (University of Oxford) is deploying high-frequency phone surveys on a representative sample of garment factory workers in Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) to document how their lives are changing during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. This Rapid Briefing Note reports the preliminary baseline results from 3,163 female respondents, summarizing the more detailed “Living Paper” written by the team of researchers. The data collection took place between April 28 and May 26, 2020.
Mozambique: Lessons from a Pilot to Assess the Effectiveness of Performance-Based Grants in Primary Schools
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) World Bank
Many developing countries have invested substantial resources in expanding their primary and secondary education systems, resulting in large gains in the number of students completing basic education. However, in many countries this growth has outpaced the ability of education ministries to effectively monitor the quality of their schools. This has resulted in limited progress in improving teacher attendance in the classroom and has resulted in limited learning time and poor learning outcomes. Results-based financing (RBF) has been used in to address these challenges by creating stronger incentives to achieve better results. The World Bank provided technical assistance to the ministry of education of Mozambique to design and implement a pilot to assess the effectiveness of performance-based school grants in 552 primary schools. A rigorous impact evaluation should be implemented to monitor the program’s effectiveness in securing desired education results.
Zambia: Can Financial Incentives and Better Communication Improve the Last-Mile Delivery of Textbooks?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-01) World Bank
Zambia has invested heavily on education with an allocation of about 20 percent of the government budget, but this investment has not translated into better student learning outcomes in primary education. Among the main reasons for this is the severe shortage of learning materials, particularly textbooks in both English and local languages. A public expenditure review of the Zambian education system has shown that 91 percent of schools lack textbooks and on average five to six pupils share less than one textbook, including textbooks in local languages To address this shortage, the REACH Trust Fund provided a grant to investigate the factors related to the availability of textbooks in schools and to evaluate a set of financial incentive mechanisms for improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks. The questions that the research set out to answer were: What is the current status of textbook distribution in Zambia and what are the factors that influence their availability? Do financial incentives have any impact on textbook distribution and availability? What kind of financing scheme might be effective in improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks? Does providing information to schools about textbook availability increase the numbers that are available in schools? A study was conducted in 2018–2019 with the objective of answering these questions. It focused on textbooks procured for use in Zambian literacy and English courses for students in grade two in 2016 and grade four in 2018. The study surveyed 243 schools in 27 districts in Zambia that had not received grade four Zambian language literacy course books until July 2019 as a result of the severe resource constraints that they were experiencing. The study used the difference-in-difference estimation methodology to identify the causal links among the factors contributing to availability and delivery of textbooks to schools.