Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs

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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 63
  • Publication
    Burundi - Investing in Leadership Development through the Rapid Results Approach
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-08) World Bank
    The government of Burundi appealed to the World Bank Institute (WBI) for help in strengthening the capacities of leadership to implement policies and programs that would achieve measurable results. The new government needed to make tough decisions on competing priorities, including allocating an estimated US$12 billion to achieve the millennium development goals, and carrying out reforms to ensure efficient allocation of public resources. The government understood it would need to invest in leadership development in order to drive change at the institutional level and achieve results, and that this would require more than the traditional classroom method of leadership training. Instead, the following approaches were needed: 1) training programs adapted to the needs of leaders; 2) a learning-by-doing approach to capacity development; and 3) a participatory approach to action planning, work planning, and defining modalities for resource management.
  • Publication
    Eritrea - Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-06) Mastri, Lawrence
    The Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project aimed to strengthen the management of public records in order to contribute to the development of a historiography of Eritrea while improving the efficiency of the public sector. The project will also strengthen the management of public records both to contribute to the development of a historiography of Eritrea while improving the efficiency of the public sector. Overall the project was able to meet its objectives of testing out and developing the means for more fully integrating the conservation and management of cultural assets into local and national economic development. Furthermore, it promoted learning in many areas that are central to development at an institutional and skills level.
  • Publication
    Lesotho - Education Sector Development Project
    (2008-05) Mastri, Lawrence
    The objectives of the Education Sector Development Project (ESDP) addresses critical needs in the areas of basic education, such as expanding access through the construction, and furnishing of new classrooms. The project aimed to revise curricula, develop instructional materials, and strengthen the system of assessment. In addition to recruiting more teachers, training for teachers at both pre-and-in service was planned to upgrade the standards of teaching. To address the needs of students enrolled in Technical and Vocational Education programs, the project proposed to introduce standardized craft curricula, strengthen skills certification and testing, and improve policy and management capacity within the sub sector. The project planned to support the National University of Lesotho in its efforts to introduce quality enhancement and cost containment measures. Finally, the objectives included improving sectoral management by reorganizing the Ministry of Education (MOE), promoting decentralization, and school level management.
  • Publication
    Uganda’s Virtual Poverty Fund : Pro-Poor Spending Reform
    (2008-03) Sudharshan Canagarajah; Tim Williamson
    The provision of debt relief to Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPCs) commencing in the late 1990s, and the growing interest among donors in providing direct budget support, increased donor focus on national budget systems. Given that debt relief and aid resources are fungible, donors were concerned that such debt relief be verifiably used to benefit the poor in the recipient country. In effect, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), acting on behalf of donors, asked that HIPC governments put in place systems to track the use of resources freed up by debt relief and show that these were in fact used to finance pro-poor programs. This required governments to have the capacity to identify policies and programs that would benefit the poor and to effectively channel and track resources to such programs. This note considers the Uganda Virtual Poverty Fund (VPF) to understand how well it served to allocate resources to pro-poor programs and what weaknesses were observed that may need to be corrected as other countries employ mechanisms similar to the VPF.
  • Publication
    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.
  • Publication
    Cameroon - Higher Education Technical Training Project
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-12) Mastri, Lawrence
    The Higher Education Technical Training Project's objective was to introduce, develop, and test a new and improved model of public higher technical education in Cameroon in the Institut Universitaire Technologique (IUT) Douala. If successful, the model could then be used as a basis for reforming other higher education institutions in Cameroon. The IUT Douala was among the most advanced in this process, and IDA believed that it could serve as a reference for other institutions. The project had defined eight indicators to evaluate the achievement of the development objective in establishing a new model for technical higher education. The indicators provided a measure of the involvement of the private sector and of the impact on students. Except for two indicators, which were dependent on the granting of full financial autonomy, all other indicators were fully met. Some of the lessons are as follows: (a)The development of a pilot in an institution requires an assessment of the organizational and managerial capacity of the institution to carry out the experiment. (b) Well defined qualitative indicators are crucial to help pilot the implementation process. (c) Developing a cooperative relationship with the private sector takes time. The private sector needs to be convinced that real and sustainable benefits can be gained from this cooperation. (d) Study tours by key stakeholders to countries which have undergone a similar process helps gain support for the reform and build momentum.
  • Publication
    Making Aid Work : The End of the Cold War and Progress Toward a New Aid Architecture Should Make Aid More Effective
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-09) Sundberg, Mark; Gelb, Alan
    Findings reports on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. This issued focuses on the new aid architecture and how aid coming in now has development objectives where as in the past it was often guided by geopolitical considerations linked to the interest of the donor countries. This issue not only discusses the changing aid picture, but it also looks at where the aid has gone and some encouraging aid trends that are occurring.
  • Publication
    Senegal - Agricultural Services and Producer Organizations Project
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-08) 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 looks at the Senegal Agricultural Services and Producer Organizations Project. The objective of the program was the substantial increase of smallholder agricultural productivity, production and incomes through technological change. The objective of the first phase was to set in place institutional reforms to achieve autonomy and accountability of public agencies and empower producer organizations. This info brief discusses the project impact and gives lessons learned from the project.
  • Publication
    Senegal - Nutrition Enhancement Program (NEP) First Phase
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-07) 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 looks at the Senegal: Nutrition Enhancement Program (NEP), first phase which was the first nutrition project in Sub-Saharan Africa to use the Adaptable Program Lending (APL) instrument for the design of the program. The three project components were (i) Community Nutrition and Growth Promotion; (ii) Capacity Building and Monitoring and Evaluation and (iii) Program Management. Project interventions were conducted in the 3 poorest rural regions of Senegal, and in 34 Health Districts selected on the basis of social indicators. This info brief reports on the project impacts as well as lessons learned.
  • Publication
    Burkina Faso : The Post-Primary Education Project
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-02) Mohan, P.C.
    In September 1994, the Government of Burkina Faso held a national convention on post-primary education to analyze the status of this sub-sector and to define a forward-looking strategy. In August 1995, the government initiated a 10-year post-primary education development plan ( PDEPP ) which focused on the educational system as the key determining factor for human resource development. Following a request from the government, the World Bank agreed to providing a credit of US$ 36.6 million (1997-2004) which would support the plan through (i) the promotion of cost-effective and equitable use of education resources; and (ii) an increase in access to and the quality of education.