PREM Notes

176 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

This note series is intended to summarize good practices and key policy findings on poverty reduction and economic management (PREM) topics.
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 ...

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Publication
    Establishing a National M&E System in South Africa
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-09) Goldman, Ian; Engela, Ronette; Akhalwaya, Ismail; Gasa, Nolwazi; Leon, Bernadette; Mohamed, Hassen; Phillips, Sean
    South Africa has a number of actors with legal or constitutional mandates for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). There has been a major shift in emphasis concerning M&E since 2009, partially stimulated by a political need to improve service delivery, but also from the extensive exposure of both technocrats and political leadership to international experiences. As a result, the Ministry of Performance M&E was created in the Presidency in 2009, and the Department of Performance M&E (DPME) in January 2010. The DPME has introduced a number of initiatives since its establishment, including a focus on 12 government priority outcomes; the assessment of the quality of management performance of national and provincial departments; a new system of monitoring front-line services; a national evaluation system; and a municipal performance assessment tool, which is still in development. These tools have contributed to a major increase in the availability of evidence for policy and decision making. Rapid recent progress is due to strong support at the onset from South Africa s President, learning from international experience, and strong teams in DPME and the National Treasury. Despite these positive developments, significant challenges remain in ensuring the coherence of reform initiatives conducted by central government departments, improving administrative data quality, and establishing M&E as a core role of management.
  • Publication
    The Economic Participation of Adolescent Girls and Young Women : Why Does It Matter?
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-12) Morrison, Andrew; Sabarwal, Shwetlena
    This note summarizes available research on the impact of schooling and employment of adolescent girls and young women on earnings and poverty reduction, demographic outcomes, child development outcomes, and female empowerment. It identifies key implications of this research for the formulation of public policy.
  • Publication
    Pro-Poor Public Spending Reform : Uganda's Virtual Poverty Fund
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-03) Williamson, Tim; Canagarajah, Sudharshan
    The Poverty Action Fund (PAF) was introduced in Uganda in 1998 to reorient government expenditures towards implementing its Poverty Education Action Plan (PEAP) as well as to account for Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) resource use. This paper notes the successes of the PAR, the negative aspects, and the key lessons learned. Successes include: reorienting budget allocations towards pro-poor service delivery and demonstrating the additionality of debt relief; mobilizing donor resources and harmonizing conditions; and improved budget predictability, transparency, and accountability. The negative aspects include: unbalanced budget allocations, biased budget implementation, partial monitoring and evaluation, and no exit strategy. The key lessons were: To be effective, a Virtual Poverty Fund (VPF) should be simple and limited to the identification of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) priority expenditures in the budget classification system; a VPF should be introduced in a way that supports rather than replaces the implementation of such comprehensive improvements in budget preparation and implementation; and a VPF does not bypass the need to have a PRSP and an effective budget process that identify priority pro-poor expenditures to be included in the VPF as part of a broader policy framework for growth and poverty reduction.
  • Publication
    Estimating Financing Needs for Local Services in Madagascar
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-11) Fengler, Wolfgang; Wietzke, Frank Borge
    This note presents the methodology and findings of a field study on the financing needs of Madagascar's communes-the country's lowest but most institutionally advanced level of subnational government. Following a first round of municipal elections in 1995, more than 1,500 communes are now formally responsible for maintaining basic administrative services and social and economic infrastructure, including local waste disposal and sanitation. In addition, communes are responsible for identifying and coordinating local investments and for supporting implementation of the national Poverty Reduction Strategy at the local level. To finance these activities, communes receive population-based transfers and small conditional transfers, and can collect revenue from property, market, and consumption taxes as well as user charges. Yet little is known about how much these fiscal assignments satisfy local needs. As part of its policy dialogue with the government of Madagascar, the World Bank is engaged in extensive research that includes geographic mapping of social spending and a review of opportunities and obstacles to fiscal and sectoral decentralization. This research generated the following analysis of local and cross-sectoral service needs and available financing.
  • Publication
    Introducing a Value Added Tax : Lessons from Ghana
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-12) Chapman, Emma
    In 1998 Ghana's government successfully introduced a value added tax (VAT). But this success followed a failed attempt in 1995, when the country's first VAT was repealed after just three and a half months. Ghana's experience provides several lessons for the successful introduction of a VAT-particularly the importance of recognizing public sensitivity to changes in the tax system and of securing public acceptance when introducing a VAT. A VAT's introductory rate has a big influence on public opinion, but so do public education and management of public expectations. In addition, political commitment- in terms of both an enabling macroeconomic environment and the enactment of legislation-is crucial for securing popular support and ensuring the timely introduction of a VAT.
  • Publication
    Decentralization and Governance : Does Decentralization Improve Public Service Delivery?
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-06) Kahkonen, Satu; Lanyi, Anthony
    Decentralization holds a lot of promise, but whether it improves public service delivery depends on the institutional arrangements governing its implementation. Several conditions must be met before the full benefits of decentralization can be reaped. First, for decentralization to increase allocative and productive efficiency, local governments need to have the authority to respond to local demand as well as adequate mechanisms for accountability. Because granting authority without accountability can lead to corruption and lower productive efficiency, decentralization needs to be accompanied by reforms that increase the transparency and accountability of local government. Second, functions need to be devolved to a low enough level of government for allocative efficiency to increase as a result of decentralization. Low-level governments are likely to be aware of local preferences and, if able to do so, are likely to adjust service delivery accordingly. Third, citizens should have channels to communicate their preferences and get their voices heard in local governments. But the existence of such channels is not enough. To effectively influence public policies and oversee local governments, citizens need to have information about government policies and activities. The media play a crucial role in this area.
  • Publication
    Promoting Good Governance with Social Funds and Decentralization
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-01) Parker, Andrew
    Bad governance undermines development. Two important types of World Bank support for local governance are social funds and broadly based support for governments committed to decentralizing responsibility and power to local governments and other local institutions. But there are concerns that these two approaches, which address different elements of governance, sometimes work at cross-purposes. A study was therefore commissioned to examine the interaction between social funds and decentralization in Bolivia and Honduras (advanced decentralization), Peru and Zimbabwe (some decentralization), and Cambodia, Malawi, and Zambia (little or no decentralization). This Note is based on the findings of the study.
  • Publication
    Conditionality Revisited : A New Approach in Burkina Faso
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-01) Emblad, Stefan; Hervio, Gilles; Humphreys, Chuck
    Donors have typically linked quick-disbursing assistance programs to conditions related to policy reforms. But there is growing frustration with how conditionality has worked in practice. Research has shown that traditional conditionality usually does not "buy" reforms. Moreover, because aid funds are fungible within government budgets, a results-based approach is needed to enhance aid effectiveness. At the initiative of the European Commission, the Strategic Partnership with Africa is piloting a new approach to conditionality in Burkina Faso to explore changes that enhance donor coordination, foster country ownership of reforms, and smooth aid flows--and so increase aid effectiveness. A driving feature of the approach is a focus on the outcomes of government reforms and policies.
  • Publication
    Understanding Poverty Reduction Impacts with Innovative Monitoring and Evaluation
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-10) Garcia, Marito; Alderman, Harold; Rudqvist, Anders
    Monitoring and evaluation systems are often the least addressed component of project design, and implementation. Yet, such systems have considerable potential for enhancing the impact of projects, and the understanding of poverty reduction impacts. This note addresses what makes effective monitoring and evaluation, where both quantitative, and participatory methods are needed to assess a project's impact on poverty. It examines the case of the Uganda Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Project, a process-driven, locally prioritized program, being implemented by a network of nongovernmental organizations, that motivates communities, and provide information to project participants. The project relies on systematic monitoring of inputs and outputs, and, community participation in planning, and monitoring facilitates bottom-up feedback. The note further highlights a randomized experimental design, i.e., a baseline and follow-up surveys, that assess the impact of project activities, of communication and information, and of grassroots management training, and income generation activities for community welfare. The benefits of proactive monitoring and evaluation are that it enables timely inputs into management decision making, and that the quantitative methods used, are important determinants for assessing, and verifying a project's impact.
  • Publication
    Using Surveys for Public Sector Reform
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-05) Reinikka, Ritva
    Diagnostic surveys can provide vital information for decisionmakers when institutional weaknesses inhibit a more regular flow of information. If strategically designed, a survey can help induce policy change by pointing directly to the main bottlenecks, making it easier for policymakers to find solutions. This note summarizes two cases in Uganda where diagnostic surveys proved particularly useful. The first case involves public spending on health and education; the second considers tax administration from the perspective of taxpaying firms.