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 - 7 of 7

The Northern Uganda Social Action Fund : Community Reconciliation and Conflict Management Empower Communities in a Post-Conflict Setting

(Washington, DC, 2006-12) World Bank

The five year Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), being implemented since 2003 is meant to assist government in its efforts to tackle poverty and bring about development that utilizes and builds on community value systems As part of the broader efforts to reconstruct Northern Uganda, NUSAF, as a project, and through direct grants to communities, is intended to: overcome underdevelopment through community action, leadership development, resource mobilization, strengthening the ongoing reconciliation processes in the region, and make it possible for communities to articulate and prioritize their specific needs and manage processes and outcomes, there by enhancing good governance for peace and development.
Uganda’s Nutrition and Early Child Development Project - Counting on Communication

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04) Cabanero-Verzosa, Cecilia

In 1998, a $34 million World Bank loan for the Nutrition and Early Child Development Project (NECDP) was approved to support the National Program of Action for Children. The NECDP covered about 8,000 communities in 20 of Uganda's 39 districts, selected based on levels of malnutrition, infant mortality, and primary school enrollment rates. The project sought to halve malnutrition among preschool children, raise primary school enrollment, reduce dropout and repetition rates, improve psycho-social and cognitive development, and increase the number of mothers practicing appropriate childcare.
East Africa-South Asia : Learning and Exchanging Indigenous Knowledge

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-03) Mohan, P.C.

The Africa Region's Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program promotes client/staff action learning through cross regional exchanges to learn about the impact of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems in development. The first such exchange and learning tour was organized in September-October 2002 between three East African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda) and two South Asian countries (Sri Lanka and India). The exchange involved several innovative features which are highlighted here. The learning exchange included 16 development practitioners from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda (i.e., project staff from Bank-supported projects in early childhood development and medicinal plant projects, civil society representatives, a traditional healer, a parliamentarian and a minister) accompanied by 5 Bank staff working on these projects. The group visited counterparts in Sri Lanka and India, including projects using informatics for social sector development.
Uganda - Adjustment Operations in Support of Education

( 2002-09) Murphy, Patrick D.

In a bold effort to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2000, the Government of Uganda decided in 1996 to remove primary school fees for up to four children in each family (of whom two should be girls). The World Bank supported this effort through an Education Sector Adjustment Credit and Grant (ESAC). The ESAC was designed to assist the government deal with the immediate challenges arising from the UPE policy. The broad development objective of ESAC was to ensure that the public resources needed to sustain UPE were available and that there was improved allocation and more efficient use of these resources. In addition and critically for the Bank the operation was designed to enhance the availability of quality inputs and improve overall sector management.
Skills and Literacy Training for Better Livelihoods : A Review of Approaches and Experiences

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-06) Oxenham, John

Too often, policy for vocational education in developing countries has only concerned itself with a literate minority within the labor force. This study helps to widen that view. From the perspective of " Education for All " and " Lifelong Education, " the report examines efforts to combine vocational training with literacy education, to enable a very poor, illiterate labor force, especially rural women, to develop more productive livelihoods and take on increasingly active roles in transforming their families and communities. The aim is to assess whether and how official policy should support such efforts. Based on documentary evidence from several countries, particularly Guinea, Kenya, Senegal, and Uganda, the report suggests that vocational education policy should encompass out-of-school, and illiterate youth and adults, but to be effective would require gradualism, decentralization, capacity building, flexibility, and components of savings, credit, and enterprise development.
Educating Adults in Uganda : Findings and Signals

( 2002-01) Oxenham, John

The note summarizes a 1999 evaluation of adult literacy programs in Uganda, which looked at the longer-term outcomes of these programs. Four main questions were addressed: How well do adult literacy students remember how to read, write, and calculate? To what extent do they use their skills? Compared with non-literates, what knowledge of "functional" topics do they exhibit, and to what extent do they practice what was learnt? Which are the most effective approaches to literacy teaching, and what are the comparative costs? Some questions were left open, such as the treatment of literacy instructors, which engenders uncertainty towards policy formation, and, the balance to be sought between general, national curriculum, and an array of curricula tailored to suit different interest groups. Evident signals seemed to confirm the importance of reliable delivery of sound instruction, rather than methods, and materials, and, as for policy, the strong signal is that frameworks to encourage active, complementary partnerships between governments, and agencies, would best serve the people who could benefit from adult basic education. Thus, there is an impending need to develop ways of combining basic education in a vernacular introduction, to an official language.
Uganda - Using Surveys for Public Sector Reform

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-07) Reinikka, Ritva

Data that can be used to inform policy decisions are typically scarce in low-income countries, where standard policy prescriptions are less likely to apply. Interventions based on inadequate information and thus misguided assumptions may not achieve expected results, despite the fact that substantial public or donor funds are being spent. For example, an adjustment operation that focuses on spending allocations may achieve its benchmarks but have no effect on actual service delivery. Diagnostic surveys can provide vital information for decision-makers 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 a case in Uganda where a diagnostic survey proved particularly useful in an effort to improve public spending on health and education.