Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs

415 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9389

These briefs report on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 53

Mozambique - Municipal Development Project

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-11) Mastri, Lawrence

The project was designed as a long-term capacity building and institutional development project utilizing a pilot funding program, Municipal Grant Fund (MGF), as the first stage of support for municipal infrastructure and services. The original four components included (a) Legal and Institutional Reform; (b) Municipal Capacity Building; (c) Municipal Grants; and (d) Project Management and Technical Assistance. The restructured project development objectives were to assist the Government of Mozambique to operationalize the legal, institutional and fiscal framework for municipal governance; develop a sustainable training and technical assistance system and increase the capacity of municipality officials and personnel; and establish an operating mechanism for providing grants to municipalities through a pilot program in eight cities to finance capital investments for municipal capacity building and infrastructure. Some of the lessons learned are as follows: (a) The design of a project and in particular of a pilot program should be simple and within the capacity of the staff and agencies responsible for its implementation. (b) Team leaders from government and Bank project teams must develop strong working relationships built on effective communication so that both organizations are working toward the same objective.
Decentralizing Infrastructure Services : Lessons from the East Asia Experience

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-02) Elisa Muzzini

Decentralization is the transfer of responsibilities from the central government to subnational agencies empowered to act as increasingly autonomous entities within their geographical and functional domains. In theory, decentralizing infrastructure services can deliver efficiency gains when service benefits accrue mainly to the local population-such as in water and sanitation, urban transit, and waste management. Subnational agencies are indeed better placed than the central government to tailor infrastructure services to the needs of local constituencies (allocative efficiency) and deliver them at lower costs (productive efficiency). In practice, the economic benefits of decentralized infrastructure services are by no means a given, as they are contingent upon effective coordination among tiers of governments (regional coordination) and accountability mechanisms for results achieved.
Senegal : The National Rural Infrastructure Project (NRIP)

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-01) Mohan, P.C.

The objectives of the project - a credit of US$ 28.5 million equivalent over the period 2001-05 - were to: (i) improve decentralized local government and capacity; (ii) establish participatory and decentralized mechanisms for selecting, funding and implementing rural community investment programs; (iii) strengthen national institutions supporting decentralization; and (iv) implement basic infrastructure in a selected number of rural communities. The project was designed as an Adaptable Program of Lending (APL) to support a three-phase program over a 12-year period. The first 4-year period would be used to test and establish mechanisms for sustainable decentralized infrastructure planning and implementation, strengthen the capacity of rural communities to operate and maintain investments and reinforce national institutions responsible for decentralization. The first phase was also to include a program to improve intra-rural community roads and to test maintenance strategies.
Ghana : The Village Infrastructure Project

(Washington, DC, 2006-09) World Bank

The project, with an IDA credit of US$30 million, and a total of $60 million was implemented by the government between 1998 and 2004. It was jointly financed by KFW $7m; IFAD, $10; GoG $7.1m; District Assemblies $3.0m and beneficiaries $2.9m. Its main objective was to support the government's efforts to reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life of the rural poor through the increased transfer of technical and financial resources for the development of basic village-level infrastructure that could be maintained by the beneficiaries. It also supported the capacity building of District Assemblies to better plan and manage these investments. The project had 4 components: (i) Rural water infrastructure; (ii) Rural transport infrastructure; (iii) Rural post-harvest infrastructure; and (iv) Institutional strengthening.
Uganda : Local Government Development Program

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-07) Mohan, P. C.

The Uganda Local Government Development Program, with a credit equivalent to US$80.9 million, was implemented by the government over the period 2000-2004. The project was designed to scale up an earlier UN Capital Development Fund pilot to 30 districts (out of 56) so that policies and principles could be tested (and costed) on a larger scale and lessons learned used to develop national policy formulation within a sound fiscal framework. It had 4 objectives : (1) Test the feasibility of implementing constitutional and legal mandates with respect to decentralized service provision and devolution of the development budget through the provision of investment funds to the Local Governments; (2) Build the capacity of the Ministry of Local Government, the Local Government Finance Commission Secretariat, and a sub-set of the local governments for improved service delivery, accountability and transparency; (3) Test and institute alternative service delivery mechanisms through the private sector, beneficiary communities and other stakeholders in the Kampala City Council; (4) Monitor and evaluate project implementation for actual experience and good practices for formulating an appropriate strategy, implementation modalities, and phasing for eventual scaling-up, nationally, over time.
Mozambique - The Second Roads and Coastal Shipping Project

(Washington, DC, 2006-05) World Bank

The project was estimated to cost a total of $814.6 million - the IDA Credit was for the equivalent of $188 million - and it was implemented by the government over the period 1994-2001. The co-financiers included the African Development Bank, the European Union, USAID, Caisse Francaise de Developpment/Republic of South Africa, Arab Bank Economic Development, the Kuwait Fund, KfW, donors for the Feeder Roads program and Phase II donors. The objectives of the project were to (i) contribute to the restoration of economic growth through improving road transport and protecting selected past road investments by rehabilitating priority roads, undertaking backlogged periodic maintenance, and resuming regular maintenance of the paved and unpaved networks; and (ii) further strengthening the capacity of the road sector to ensure effective planning and monitoring by the government, and the development of private sector contractors and operations.
Credit Alternatives in Rural Finance : Rinancial Leasing

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-05) Kloeppinger-Todd, Renate ; Nair, Ajai

Enterprises use credit to acquire productivity-enhancing assets. Rural enterprises in developing economies, however, often lack access to the credit they need. Key reasons for this lack of access include the low level and scattered nature of economic activity in rural areas, the enterprises' lack of collateral, inadequate capacity among the country's lenders to lend in rural areas, and legal and policy environments that discourage lending to rural enterprises. Traditionally, leasing has served as an alternative to credit for urban enterprises, but generally it has not been a feasible option for rural enterprises. This paper argues that rural leasing can be viable and highlights the key factors to facilitate successful rural leasing, including the advantages of leasing, an enabling environment, and institutional support. The paper concludes that leasing is a viable tool to finance rural assets.
Senegal - Sustainable and Participatory Energy

(Washington, DC, 2006-03) World Bank

The Sustainable and Participatory Energy Management project - PROGEDE was implemented by the government between 1997 and 2004. From project preparation to supervision the World Bank worked in close collaboration with Dutch Co-operation (DGIS). At the time of project preparation, forest-based traditional fuels (firewood and charcoal), mainly used for household cooking purposes, represented 53 percent of Senegal's final energy consumption, and 76 percent of charcoal consumption was in the principal urban areas. Over the years, the operation of the charcoal industry had resulted in (i) the gradual loss of forest cover (approximately 30,000 ha per year) and thus of the ecosystem's carbon sequestration capacity and biodiversity; (ii) the degradation of the rural environment (particularly soils); (iii) the impoverishment of the rural areas; (iv) an acceleration of rural exodus; and (v) a massive transfer of wealth from the rural communities to a few urban-based woodfuel traders.
Tanzania - Urban Sector Rehabilitation

(Washington, DC, 2006-01) World Bank

The Urban Sector Rehabilitation Project (URSP) consisted of a large program of infrastructure rehabilitation works and institutional reform activities covering 8 project towns - Arusha, Iringa, Morogoro, Mbeya, Moshi, Mwanza, Tabora and Tanga. Additional investments in Dodoma and Dar-essalaam were, in comparison, of limited scope and complexity. The project with a Credit of US$ 141.3 million equivalent was implemented by the government between 1997 and 2004. The project objectives were sustainable economic development and urban poverty alleviation through: (i) rehabilitation of basic infrastructure and expansion into high-priority, underserved areas; and (ii) improvement of urban local government management and financing capacity by (a) strengthening the financial, technical and overall operations of the urban local authorities through training and technical assistance; and (b) encouraging private sector and community involvement in urban services delivery and operation and maintenance.
Senegal - Urban Development and Decentralization Program

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-12) Farvacque-Vitkovic, Catherine D.

The Senegal - Urban Development and Decentralization Program provided a credit of $75 million and was implemented over the years 1998-2004. It had 4 development objectives: (i) improve the financial and organizational management of municipalities; (ii) improve the programming of priority urban investments; (iii) rationalize and simplify the financing of urban investments; and (iv) upgrade basic infrastructure in urban and some rural communities. The project addressed the gap between the capacity of local governments and the expectations of the new regulatory and institutional framework. It covered all the country's municipalities and became the backbone of Senegal's decentralization program. At the project's outset, the financial and organizational management of the Senegalese municipalities was known to be weak, but little information existed about the situation in each municipality. No investment programming had been carried out to reflect their priority needs and capacity to finance them. The project also recognized that funding allocations were not being made fairly or transparently. All four development objectives were fully achieved cost-effectively and sustainably.