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.

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 29

PREM Anchor Support to the Africa Region

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-04) Danny Leipziger

The goal of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Network is to shape policies and to help countries build successful national strategies for sustained, shared growth, and to strengthen partnerships at the country level for improved aid effectiveness. There is no region in which this goal is more challenging than in Africa. In support of the Africa Action Plan (AAP), the PREM Anchor has actively stepped up its support to the Africa Region (AFR) in fiscal year 2006 (FY06).As of the end of January 2006, Anchor staff had provided nearly 83 staff weeks in direct cross-support alone. Activities have included knowledge generation, high level policy support on missions, the development of toolkits and diagnostics to improve policy advice on growth strategies, among others. Most of this work has been provided on a demand driven basis, and PREM plans to continue providing such services subject to its budgetary and skills capacity. This note illustrates how the PREM Anchor's support to the PREM Anchor support to the AFR connects with the objectives of the AAP. The PREM Anchor is working closely with the AFR on ways to improve the results focus and analytical foundations of poverty reduction strategies (PRSs). A study is under way on the integration of PRS reporting and budget implementation covering eight African countries to improve existing reporting instruments and assess how to better align PRS reporting with budget reporting. Work is also under way to strengthen the quality of second generation PRSs and their relevance as a framework for scaling up and improving aid effectiveness.
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.
Tanzania - The Rural and Micro Financial Services Project

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-06) Mohan, P. C.

Findings Info briefs reports on good practice in ongoing operational, economic and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. This issue reports on the Tanzania Rural and Micro Financial Services Project. The project was designed as a Learning and Innovation initiative (2000-2004) with support from an IDA credit of US$2 million. Its objectives were (i) the development of a common policy framework, based on internationally recognized best practices, for rural and microfinance initiatives in the country which would establish an enabling environment for rural and microfinance and increase the quality and returns of subsequent investments by the government agencies and other donors; (ii) increasing the level of knowledge and skills within the industry; and (iii) instituting a program of systematic tracking and analyzing of all related initiatives against a set of common criteria. This info brief gives information on the project impacts as well as lessons learned.
Cameroon - The National Agricultural Extension and Research Program Support Project

(Washington, DC, 2006-12) World Bank

The National Agricultural Extension and Research Program Support Project of Cameroon undertook to finance - jointly with the government, IFAD, and AfDB - implementation (2001-2004) of the national agricultural extension policy and agricultural research in Cameroon as follows : competitive research grants (IDA); linkages between agricultural research and extension (IFAD); and on-station agricultural research ( AfDB). While providing services to all farmers, the project sought to prioritize resource-poor farmers, and women farmers. This project was a follow-on intervention to the National Project for Agricultural Extension (PNVA).
Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) - Lessons from Uganda’s Integrated Fiduciary Assessment Process

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-10) Canagarajah, Sudharshan

The 2004 Country Integrated Fiduciary Assessment (CIFA) in Uganda was the first exercise by key development partners, and the government to adopt an integrated, and holistic approach to the assessment of Public Financial Management (PFM), along the lines of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program. The overall CIFA process in Uganda took place over a period of nine months, with each individual assessment being conducted over a period of two to three months, and the PER process being carried out during the entire financial year. The CIFA has benefited from strong coordination between the various government-donor diagnostic processes, and the lengthy consultations with key stakeholders throughout the process. The inclusion of a specific local government component has been of considerable value, especially in the decentralized service delivery environment prevailing in Uganda. The CIFA exercise highlighted both the commonalities and the differences between the different levels of government. In retrospect, a more in-depth analysis at the local government level would have provided a clearer understanding of the causes of the problems rather than merely the symptoms.
Benin - Decentralized City Management

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-08) Mohan, P.C.

The objective of the First Decentralized City Management project - 2000-2004 (credit equivalent of US$25.5 million) was to provide better quality and more cost-effective basic services to urban residents, especially the poor, of Benin's 3 main cities - Cotonou, Porto- Novo and Parakou. The project was the first phase of a planned 2-phase Adaptable Program Loan (APL) and followed a previously successful project, the Urban Rehabilitation and Management project.
Sierra Leone - Community Reintegration and Rehabilitation

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-05) Mohan, P.C.

The objective of the project (Credit of US$25 million from the World Bank over the period 2000-2003) was to support the peace process and expedite the return of stability to Sierra Leone through the support of two initiatives - one that helped reintegrate demobilized combatants into social and economic life and the other that sought to restore basic socioeconomic infrastructure and services in the communities most affected by the war. The successful implementation of the project was also a precondition for any other Bank investment in Sierra Leone.
Madagascar - The Third Social Fund Project

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-03) Mohan, P.C.

The project ($ 15 million plus another $18 million - 1999-2003 ) had four objectives: (i) improved access of poor rural populations to social and economic infrastructure; (ii) on a pilot basis, empowerment of poor rural communities and/or communes to identify, organize, manage funds and implement sub-projects responsive to community needs; (iii) employment creation; and (iv) increased capacity of the private sector, local small contractors, artisans, skilled labor, and NGOs. Madagascar was struck by a series of cyclones that damaged basic infrastructure over the first three months of 2000. As part of the multi-pronged approach to assist the country in its rehabilitation efforts, in July 2000, the World Bank's Board approved a Supplemental Credit of $18 million - there was no change, however, in the project's original objectives.
Mauritania : Urban Infrastructure and Pilot Decentralization Project

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-10) Mohan, P.C.

The project, implemented between 1996 and 2001 with World Bank funding of US$24 million had two components: (i) a program of poverty-oriented, labor-intensive works subprojects in participating cities, consisting of the rehabilitation or construction of urban infrastructure and community facilities; and (ii) capacity building ( pilot decentralization) at the municipal and national levels. The project capitalized on the work and experience gained by the country, the Region and the Bank through the earlier "highly satisfactory" Construction Capacity and Employment Project (CCEP). The project created approximately 46,281 man-months of temporary jobs- more than twice the projected number. There was a delegation of 125 contract management conventions covering 149 infrastructure construction and/or rehabilitation subprojects completed in 13 cities, which accounts for 85 percent of the urban population or 1.2 million inhabitants. Nouakchott and Nouadhibou consumed 40 percent of the investments, commensurate with their share of the urban population (37 percent). Of the 149 subprojects, 144 were fully executed (5 were under implementation in 2002) targeting the most under-serviced neighborhoods. Two-thirds of the subprojects were for educational and social infrastructure and contributed to the reduction of crowding, improvement of hygiene and security in schools, access to primary health, and, to a lesser extent, access to productive assets. Revenue-generating projects accounted for about 18 percent of the total coat of $15.4 million-these included the rehabilitation and/or construction of new markets, slaughterhouses, livestock enclosures, and taxi stations.
Decentralization in Africa : Emerging Trends and Progress

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-08) Ndegwa, Stephen N.

Decentralization, defined broadly as the transfer of public authority, resources, and personnel from the national level to sub-national jurisdictions, has been a recurrent theme in African countries since independence. In the last decade or so decentralization has gained prominence as an expressed goal or as an actual programmatic pursuit in the context of or as a consequence of two prominent movements affecting the African state. One consists of structural adjustment programs that sought to reform the public sector starting in the 1980s while the other is the ongoing transition toward more democratic and competitive politics. In nearly all African countries, structures of local administration exist but are often subordinated in their legal creation, mandate, and operation to the central state, especially the executive. As elsewhere in the developing world, political and economic liberalization have opened possibilities or at least revived claims for greater decentralization. Major development donors have also pushed decentralization as a pathway to improving governance and service delivery in developing countries.