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 23

Health Expenditures, Services and Outcomes in Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-04) Peters, David H. ; Kandola, Kami ; Elemendorf, A. Edward ; Chellaraj, Gnanaraj

In the past thirty years, Sub-Saharan African countries have made remarkable improvements in health conditions and status. However, they still suffer from some of the worst health problems in the world, and AIDS is making conditions much worse than they will be otherwise. This study, health expenditures, services, and outcomes in Africa considers 48 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and outlines broad patterns of health spending, service delivery, mortality, fertility and nutrition in the early to mid-1990s. The study focuses on how to better monitor progress and use information to identify problems and improve health outcomes within and among different African countries. Good information about inputs, processes and results in the health sector is vital for policymakers to make intelligent choices about health strategies and investments, and often is simply not available. For purposes of the study, countries were classified as lowest-income, low-income and middle-income categories. Over three quarters of the African countries are low income or even lowest income countries, and nearly all have weak health management systems.
Multi-Dimensional Results Measurement in CDD Projects : Experiences from the Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda Social Action Funds

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-12) Pidatala, Krishna ; Lenneiye, Nginya Mungai

In the last decade, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda have used the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach to implement projects that exhibit multi-sectoral linkages, complex institutional structures and implementation processes, creative tension between the supply and demand sides, and convergence at the Local Government Authority (LGA) level in environments compounded by the pace of decentralization. The projects have broadened the issue of results focus from the measurement of a few input-output indicators to include intermediate outcomes (which measure beneficiaries potentially reached by outputs produced by the projects). In the process, these projects have been able to scale up from 'isolated boutique-type projects' to a mass production of outputs through participatory decision-making, local capacity development, and community control of resources. At the national level, the projects have contributed to: (a) poverty reduction, (b) improved social welfare, and (c) improved transparency and accountability.
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.
Senegal - Successful Innovation in the Water Sector

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-07) Mohan, P.C.

The water sector project's overall development objectives were to address: (a) sustainability, by improving the management, pricing and cost recovery and reducing government subsidies for industrial, domestic and irrigation water; (b) poverty alleviation and health, by increasing access to safe potable water and adequate and more affordable sanitation for the urban poor; and (c) private sector participation, by engaging a private company to manage urban water supply. Implemented over the period 1996-2004, with a credit of US$100 million, the project design and implementation were regarded as highly satisfactory. Donors such as Agence Francaise de Developpement, the European Union and the Banque Ouest Africaine de Developpement (the West African Development Bank) actively participated in the design of the project.
Tanzania’s Tea Sector : Constraints and Challenges’

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-12) Baffes, John

In 1968, the government initiated a smallholder tea development program in which all aspects of smallholder tea marketing and trade were turned over to the Tanzania Tea Authority which assumed a wide array of responsibilities. The Authority promoted smallholder tea production. Most of the smallholder tea leaf went to the eight Tea Authority-owned factories for processing, and the rest to factories owned by the estates. Despite its apparent success, there were numerous signs of distress in the smallholder sector. This note describes the constraints and challenges faced by the production of tea in Tanzania.
Mali : Exporting Mangoes to Europe

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-10) Morgane, Danielou

European consumers were more likely, until recently, to eat Indian, Israeli or Brazilian mangoes rather than Malian ones. However, since 2001, sea-freighted Malian mangoes produced in the south of the country by small-scale farmers have been successfully exported and retailed in Northern Europe. This achievement was quite significant given the prior failure of similar projects and the overall difficulty in finding investors for the export of perishables from landlocked countries with poor transport connections, like Mali. The export of Malian products is controlled by Ivorian exporters with few returns to the producers on the other side of the border. Despite the high quality of its fresh fruit and vegetables, the high cost of airfreight was impeding the expansion of production and export. By establishing a multi-modal shipment system and improving every step of the supply chain, the mango export pilot project proved the feasibility and profitability of such innovation.
Private Sector Participation-based Roadmap for Reforms in Water and Sanitation

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-12) Kriss, Paul

Political interference and low tariff policies have led to inefficiency and chronic financial weakness of public utilities. The inability of water supply and sanitation (WSS) utilities to maintain and extend services has led typically to situations where in fact subsidized services are denied to the poor who have to rely on more costly and lower quality alternatives. A well-performing utility is a necessary condition for enhancing the economic efficiency of cities and for accelerating the provision of services to low-income areas. However, water utilities in Africa have limited prospects for improving their performance unless they undergo structural reform. Service delivery is not keeping pace with demand, especially for the fast growing number of low-income households living in informal settlements.
Participation Means Learning by Doing : GEF’s Experience in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-10) Harstad, Jarle

A Global Environment Facility (GEF) special study on stakeholder participation and social issues, including science and technology, was conducted for 30 GEF-financed biodiversity conservation and sustainable use projects which have been completed or are near completion. The findings indicate that the degree of stakeholder participation varies by country and project, but the most effective approaches were those designed at local or community levels.
Togo - Coffee and Cocoa Liberalization

(Washington, DC, 1998-06) World Bank

The reform, a key component of a larger economic recovery and adjustment operation, and of the agricultural sector strategy, focused on the liberalization of coffee and cocoa prices, their primary marketing and export, all previously regulated by a marketing board. The main objectives of the liberalization were to improve producers' incentives and income and develop private participation in marketing and export activities while maintaining the country's reputation in international markets as a reliable supplier of quality products. The liberalization took effect in June 1996. Coffee and cocoa exports reached a record high in 1997 - more than double the 1996 level.
Listening to Farmers : Participatory Assessment of Policy Reform in Zambia's Agriculture Sector

( 1998-02) Francis, Paul A. ; Milimo, John T. ; Njova, Chosani A. ; Tembo, Stephen P.M

Since 1991, radical changes have taken place in the policy and institutional environment governing the agriculture sector in Zambia. Policies of liberalization and privatization have entailed the replacement of previously state-supplied agricultural services (notably credit, inputs supply and agricultural marketing) by private sector provision. The Agricultural Sector Investment Program (ASIP), assisted by the World Bank, provides the context for continuing agricultural policy development, as well as for the integration of previously fragmented projects and programs in the sector. ASIP is predicated upon participation in program design and implementation by the full range of stakeholders in the public, private and non-governmental sectors. As a means both of improving program implementation and of promoting the active participation of beneficiaries and other actors, ASIP has established systematic and regular feedback between policy makers and service providers, and those affected by programs, using methods such as Participatory Rural Appraisal.