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 86

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.
Zambia - Social Investment Fund Project

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-07) Mastri, Lawrence

The Zambia Social Investment Fund (ZAMSIF) is part of a two phase program (over 10 years) intended to support two of the objectives outlined in the Government of Zambia's (GRZ) National Poverty Reduction Strategic Framework & Action Plan (1999-2004). The specific project objectives were to (i) achieve sustainable improved availability and use of quality basic social services by beneficiary communities and specific vulnerable groups; (ii) contribute to the building of capacity for improved local governance; and (iii) strengthen the capacity to provide timely information on poverty and social conditions and facilitate its use in policy making.
Building Capacity in Management and Financing in the Road Sector

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01) Brushett, Stephen ; Sampson, Les ; Waithaka, Solomon

This report as about onging operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region.This note focuses post-experience training in disciplines including, but not limited to, management and finance to enable the new institutions and the governments concerned to reap the benefits of international best practices and to effectively internalize the key lessons of experience. It argues that short course programs aimed at an executive audience can be considered a highly effective and timely means of delivery of the benefits of training.
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.
Learning from the Extreme Poor : Participatory Approaches to Fostering Child Health in Madagascar

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-08) Blanchard, Caroline ; Godinot, Xavier ; Laureau, Chantal ; Wodon, Quentin

Definitions of poverty in developing countries used by most development organizations focus on household income or consumption that falls below a given threshold, such as one dollar per capita per day, and on other quantified indicators. While such definitions have the merit of providing a standard by which to measure progress, the very poor use quite different terms and ideas to communicate what extreme poverty means to them. This paper discusses learning from the extreme poor in the form of participatory approaches to fostering child health in Madagascar.
Enticing Investors : To Make a Serious Dent in Poverty, Africa Must Attract More Foreign Capital

(Washington, DC, 2007-06) World Bank

The nearly 750 million people who live in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are among the world's poorest. To foster the economic growth required to create jobs, raise living standards, and hasten development, SSA nations need to attract more foreign capital, which, by enhancing imported technology and the transfer of know-how, has proved instrumental in raising productivity in many countries.
Measuring Corruption : Myths and Realities

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04) Kaufmann, Daniel ; Kraay, Aart ; Mastruzzi, Massimo

The report points out that over the past decade measuring corruption has become an ever-growing empirical field. This empirical analysis questions the traditional notion of viewing the firm as an 'investment climate taker' and thus ignoring the view that powerful conglomerates can also shape the business climate and thus become 'investment climate makers'. The study implies that it is warranted to move away from simply blaming government officials for prevailing corruption, and to question the value of popular initiatives such as voluntary-and often un-monitorable-codes of conduct. In this report, some popular notions are espoused, which either lack clarity or are not backed up by rigorous analysis or evidence. In this article the authors highlight some of the main issues in these debates, in the form of seven myths and their associated realities, and conclude by also pointing to some brief implications for the private sector role in fighting corruption.
Bankable Assets : Africa Faces Many Obstacles in Developing Financial Systems

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-07) Christensen, Jakob ; Gulde, Anne-Marie ; Pattillo, Catherine

Sound, deep, and efficient financial sectors are vital for high sustained, private sector-led growth. But financial sectors in their current form pose major problems for the economies of sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Insufficient access to credit by small and medium- sized enterprises constrains their ability to expand and limits countries' growth potential. Most households cannot build formal savings, so their ability to escape poverty by investing in education or housing is limited.
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.
Malawi - Public Works Programme : Conditional Cash Transfers as an Emergency Response to a National Food Shortage

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-05) Kalanda, Boniface ; Mandala, Charles ; Magwira, Joseph

This paper reports that in the 2004-2005 growing season, Malawi experienced a drought which affected farm produce and subsequently led to country-wide food shortages. Due to the food shortage, the Malawi Government implemented a Public Works Programme -- Conditional Cash Transfers (PWP-CCT) to transfer cash income to vulnerable households to enable them buy food and agricultural inputs for the 2005-2006 growing season. The paper explains the 2004-2005 drought, implementation of the PWP-CCT, and the issues and lessons learnt.