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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    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.
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    Madagascar - Building Leadership and Management Capacity through the Rapid Results Approach
    ( 2008-06) Mastri, Lawrence
    In 2002 Madagascar's new government under President Mark Ravolamana recognized the urgency of addressing the peoples' high expectations for concrete economic and social improvements. While it rushed to put the economy back on track and improve the quality of life, its vision and strategy for reform was no match for the realities on the ground. By the time the Ravolamanana government assumed power in 2002, GDP had declined by 13 percent, key public services were discontinued, and the poverty rate soared from 69 percent in 2001 to 80 percent. There was widespread joblessness and high inflation. Within the government, there was little capacity for policy planning or monitoring and evaluation in most sectors. Collaboration was weak, with no existing mechanism to allow for a joint ministerial response to problems that cut across sectors. In February 2005, when the government launched its first rapid results pilot, the goal was to mitigate the effects of a significant shortfall in rice production, importation, and distribution. The crisis was solved by a combination of policy-based and technical interventions. Rice production increased significantly in two of the four targeted regions when the rapid results approach (RRA) was applied. In the region of Boeny, production went from 2.5 tons per hectare in 2004 to 4 tons per hectare in 2005, and in the region of Menabe, it increased from 22,000 tons to 37,000 tons.
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    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.
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    How to Monitor an Ambitious Agenda : The Africa Results Monitoring System
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-09) Mohan, P. C.
    The Africa Results Monitoring System (AfricaRMS) is a new tool for dynamic learning that monitors and reports data and stories of African development. It is meant to bolster the Africa Region's Results Agenda. AfricaRMS is a first-of-its kind system in the Bank, and the only website where anyone can see how the Bank spends, where and what is obtained from the spending, and where results are achieved. It offers a clear window into Bank work and a comprehensive view of country growth in Africa. This brief tells the story of AfricaRMS, how it's applied, its structure, about the team that built it, and partner's countries.
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    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.
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    Ethiopia : The Energy II Project
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04) Mohan, P. C.
    The project's objectives were to (i) increase the efficiency and sustainability of Ethiopia's power sector and to increase electricity use for economic growth and improved quality of life; and (ii) improve the utilization efficiency of rural renewable energy. An IDA credit of US$ 200 million over the years 1998-2005 supported these objectives. The project had 3 components: (i) the Gilgel Gibe Hydroelectric plant; (ii) Rural energy; and (iii) Institutional Development. An Emergency Recovery Project was included in June 2004 for emergency equipment and materials for war-affected areas and in particular to replace stranded goods and equipment at Assab Port.
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    Malawi : Some Targeting Methods in Public Works Programs
    (Washington, DC, 2006-10) World Bank
    Community Based Targeting (CBT) and self-targeting are the two main methods used in the largest programme of Public Works. This note assesses and compares the effectiveness and efficiency of these targeting methods in identifying the poor in Public Works Programmes funded by MASAF and CARE in Malawi's Central Region. It further seeks to identify challenges that hinder the effectiveness of these methods.
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    Uganda : Local Government Development Program
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-07) Mohan, P. C.
    The Uganda Local Government Development Program, with a credit equivalent to US$80.9 million, was implemented by the government over the period 2000-2004. The project was designed to scale up an earlier UN Capital Development Fund pilot to 30 districts (out of 56) so that policies and principles could be tested (and costed) on a larger scale and lessons learned used to develop national policy formulation within a sound fiscal framework. It had 4 objectives : (1) Test the feasibility of implementing constitutional and legal mandates with respect to decentralized service provision and devolution of the development budget through the provision of investment funds to the Local Governments; (2) Build the capacity of the Ministry of Local Government, the Local Government Finance Commission Secretariat, and a sub-set of the local governments for improved service delivery, accountability and transparency; (3) Test and institute alternative service delivery mechanisms through the private sector, beneficiary communities and other stakeholders in the Kampala City Council; (4) Monitor and evaluate project implementation for actual experience and good practices for formulating an appropriate strategy, implementation modalities, and phasing for eventual scaling-up, nationally, over time.
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    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.
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    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.