Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

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Embedding Climate Resilience into Energy Projects

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-05) World Bank

The Africa Climate Resilience Investment Facility (AFRI-RES) is a partnership between the Africa Union, African Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the World Bank Group, established with support from the Nordic Development Fund (NDF). The partnership seeks to assist governments, planners, and private developers in integrating climate resilience in project planning and design, thereby attracting funding from both development and climate finance sources. This note summarizes lessons and practices deployed in embedding climate resilience into the design of projects that received catalytic funds from 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.
Financing Food Insecurity Risk - A Proactive Approach: The Mauritania National Fund for Food and Nutrition Crisis Response

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-26) Van der Borght, Rafael ; Ishizawa, Oscar A. ; Lefebvre, Matthieu

Mauritania is highly exposed to recurrent and extreme droughts resulting in food security crises. The Government of Mauritania, with support from the World Bank, has introduced a new institutional and operational framework for the coordination and funding of responses to food security crises in the country. Established as part of this reform, as the financial backbone of this framework, The National Fund for Food and Nutrition Crisis Response (FNRCAN) aligns and optimizes the financing for responses to food security crises. The key outcomes of FNRCAN will be to enhance ex-ante financial planning for a more efficient and transparent use of resources; optimize the use of public resources through a comprehensive risk financing strategy; and secure the national budget from the fiscal impacts of climate-related shocks and contribute to the sustainability of public finances.
Monitoring Impacts of COVID-19 and Other Shocks: Uganda High Frequency Phone Survey (UHFPS), Round 9, August 2022

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-08) Atamanov, Aziz ; Cochinard, Frédéric ; Ilukor, John ; Kemigisha, Audrey ; Kilic, Talip ; Mupere, Andrew ; Ponzini, Giulia

In June 2020, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, with the support from the World Bank, has launched the High-Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19 to track the impacts of the pandemic on a monthly basis for a period of 12 months. In June 2022, the scope of the survey was expanded to monitor economic sentiments and the socioeconomic impact of other shocks such as the Russia-Ukraine war and extreme weather events. The survey aimed to recontact the entire sample of households that had been interviewed during the Uganda National Panel Survey 2019/20 round and that had phone numbers 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 between August 5th and August 29th, 2022.
Psychological Distress One Year into the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from the Fifth Round of the Household High-Frequency Monitoring Survey (HFS) in Sudan

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06) Farfán, Gabriela ; Gayoso de Ervin, Lyliana ; Osman, Eiman ; Aziz, Azza Ahmed Abdel

The outbreak of COVID-19 coincided with a period of significant economic, social, and political challenges in Sudan. The most significant of these were related to the recent establishment of a transitional government in August 2019 after the fall of the ruling regime due to the revolution that started in December 2018 and succeeded in toppling the government in April 2019. But the optimism around the political developments were accompanied by marked fluctuations in the economy that were further exacerbated by the pandemic. Between March 2020 (the first wave of the pandemic) and June 2021 (the time of this survey) inflation went from 81.64 percent to 412.75 percent, and the Sudanese pound severely depreciated. While the government introduced a package of reforms aiming at restoring macro-economic stability, soaring commodity prices and shortages of power and fuel, are some of the economic challenges that fueled social and political unrest during this period. The first COVID-19 case in Sudan was confirmed on March 13 of 2020, and soon after, cases started to increase. As in many developing countries, evidence suggests that COVID-19 exposure was significantly more prevalent than that indicated by officially reported cases. The speed of propagation of the coronavirus and the uncertainty around how to prevent it led to the implementation of different preventive and control measures in the first quarter of 2020, including restrictions on activities and the promotion of preventative health measures. 3,4 The government implemented two lockdowns aiming to restrict mobility. The first lockdown implemented from March to June 2020 was strict. Initially it only allowed activity until 10am, and it gradually extended to 1pm and eventually to 6pm. The second lockdown (September - December) was more lax. Furthermore, adherence to the timeframes set by the government was highly correlated with socio-economic status. Middle-class segments of Sudanese society were able to comply more readily than their less economically privileged counterparts. As a result, only the major thoroughfares were empty. In contrast, gatherings, public prayers, social life, and market congregations were largely maintained in neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status.
Monitoring COVID-19 Impacts on Households in Sudan: Results from a Panel Household High-Frequency Phone Survey

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06) Osman, Eiman ; Rahasimbelonirina, Ando ; Etang, Alvin

This brief focuses on the household survey component of the High-Frequency Phone Survey of Households (HFS). The sampling methodology adopted for the implementation of the household survey is probabilistic, and the sampling frame is provided by a compilation of a list of phone numbers collected during the implementation of various projects/surveys during the last few years at the household level across the country. The sample is representative of the 18 states of Sudan. This brief summarizes the main results of the core questions in the completed six rounds of the Sudan HFS of the same households (i.e., a panel survey). Results of the firm survey will be reported in a separate report.
Floods and Urban Connectivity: A Toolkit for Prioritizing Resilience Investments – Demonstration Note with Case Studies from Kinshasa and Kigali

(Washington, DC, 2022-06) Avner, Paolo ; Maruyama Rentschler, Jun Erik ; He, Yiyi ; Thies, Stephan Fabian ; Nell, Andrew David ; Avner, Paolo

Cities are intricately interconnected socioeconomic systems, with transport networks connecting people to their jobs, health, and education facilities, and ensuring the smooth functioning of supply chains. When floods happen, they isolate people and firms from these vital networks, causing cascading disruptions and losses. Such floods are not limited to rare and extreme events. Especially in developing country cities, the lack of resilient infrastructure systems means that even regular rainfall events, for example, during rainy seasons, can cause havoc. Attention is often biased towards direct asset losses from floods, rather than the wider economic costs of disrupted networks. This is due primarily to the complex dynamics of economic and infrastructure networks. But public transport and road usage data are also often limited, especially when the predominant modes of transport are informal and walking. So how can we identify and prioritize cost-effective measures for urban resilience This note describes an analytical approach that can help prioritize investments in urban transport resilience and public transport, while also strengthening the economic case for such investments.
Challenging Entrenched Marital Power in South Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-04-29) Arekapudi, Nisha ; Mazoni Silva Martins, Natália

This brief examines more than thirty years of legal reform aimed at removing husbands’ marital power at the expense of their wives from South African legislation. For decades, marital power relegated wives to a position akin to minors, with devastating effects on women’s economic empowerment. Removing the many components of this form of discrimination from national law has required not only a conducive political environment, but also sustained momentum from the women’s rights movement and selective, strategic litigation that challenges the varied effects. Such reforms have directly and positively affected women’s economic inclusion. While efforts to improve gender equality in South Africa are ongoing, the analysis offers important insights on optimal contexts for change, the role women play in advocacy efforts, and the benefits of reform for economic growth.
Key Ingredients to Women’s Legal Rights in Kenya

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03-24) Githae, Catherine Nyaguthii ; Galiano, Emilia ; Nyagah, Fredrick J.K. ; Recavarren, Isabel Santagostino

Legislative reforms to increase gender equality before the law are often long and complex processes. This brief focuses on a series of reforms in Kenya, specifically, the adoption of the Sexual Offenses Act of 2006, the Employment Act of 2007, and the Protection Against Domestic Violence Act of 2015. Strong evidence, broad coalitions, and incorporating the highest standards based on international best practice in early legal drafts are singled out as the key elements that led to the successful adoption of these landmark laws promoting women’s rights in Kenya. The lessons in this brief can provide important insights for policy makers, advocacy groups and international organizations involved in the pursuit of legal gender equality in Kenya and other countries.
Reforms to Enhance Gender Equality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: From Advocacy to Implementation

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-03-14) Braunmiller, Julia Constanze ; Dry, Marie

This brief examines two successful gender equality reforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo : the introduction of the Law on Parity in 2015 and an amendment to the Family Code in 2016. These two examples highlight three success factors: gender champions across local civil society groups; government and international actors making the economic case for reforming discriminatory provisions; and international obligations that allowed the reforms to pass. These legal reforms have had demonstrably positive effects on the lives of Congolese women and society. Yet, challenges remain for the Democratic Republic of Congo to achieve full gender equality in law and practice.
The World Bank’s Support for Subnational Governance through Conditional Grants: Lessons Learned from Brazil, Indonesia, and Tanzania

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022) Garoni, Samuel Ruben Alexander ; Stoykov, Petar Georgiev ; Yilmaz, Serdar

This note presents lessons learned from three ongoing World Bank PforR projects in - Brazil, Indonesia, and Tanzania - which were highlighted in the Primer Conditional Grants in ‘Principle, in Practice and in Operations’. It is aimed to complement the theory presented in the primer and it targets Task Team Leaders designing WB projects with a decentralization component or that wish to include conditional grant schemes to enhance results at the local level. The projects were all launched in the past few years and reflect the current understanding of the challenges and opportunities of conditional grants.