Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs

415 items available

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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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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.
Mali - Private Sector Assistance Grant

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-03) Mastri, Lawrence

The principal objective of the project was to help foster the development of private sector enterprises, so that they could lead the growth of Mali's economy. The project aimed at putting in place mechanisms and measures to support the government's strategy of breaking from past reliance on the public sector. The project proposed to achieve this by: (a) completing implementation of improvements to the regulatory environment that had been introduced starting in the late eighties; (b) assisting a private business support structure, APEP, the Agence pour la Promotion de l'Entreprise Privee, to coordinate a program of institutional support to private non-financial enterprises; (c) improving the functioning of economic chambers (principally the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mali), the Government's office charged with public enterprise reform, BEP, and departments of the administration responsible of administering regulations affecting private enterprises; and (d) inducing the strengthening of the banking sector and the preparation of a coherent financial sector strategy.
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.
Mali - Economic Policy and Public Finance Management Credit

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01) Mastri, Lawrence

The Economic Policy and Public Finance Management Credit (EPPFMC) was part of the Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) base case lending scenario of budget support operations. The thematic coverage of the EPPFMC focused on policy and institutional issues in macro, public finance, and selected sector areas. It complemented self-standing sector investment operations covering health, education, rural infrastructure, agricultural competitiveness, support to growth, and transport corridors. The EPPFMC aimed to: (i) promote growth and poverty reduction through (a) strengthening macroeconomic and fiscal management and (b) implementing key actions underpinning Mali's long-term growth and competitiveness; and, (ii) improve efficiency, accountability, and transparency in public finance management through strengthening (a) public expenditure management at central and decentralized levels and (b) the public procurement system. Some of the lessons are as follows: (a) The operation demonstrated the merits of including in Mali's policy-based lending operations, policy and institutional reform measures complementary to and supportive of ongoing sector operations. (b) For a country such as Mali, with weak institutional and administrative capacities, it is important to be realistic on what can be achieved, and be selective on which issues are undertaken within a short timeframe. This lesson was adhered to in the EPPFMC. (c) Policy measures should be better matched to the objectives sought. In the Mali cotton case, although the cotton reform actions were and continue being implemented, the cotton sector remains in a precarious financial situation due not only to weak management but also to (a) stagnant or adverse international cotton prices and (b) an appreciating currency, resulting in lower local-currency denominated revenues on marketed cotton.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Zambia : The Enterprise Development Project

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-03) Mohan, P.C.

The Enterprise Development Project (EDP) - 1998-2003 - was designed to support, with a credit of US$ 45 million, Zambia's Economic Reform Program that began in 1991. One of the key aspects of this reform program was to dismantle traditional state-supported enterprise development mechanisms and replace these with market-determined enterprise development structures. Three specific objectives were identified : (i) enhancing Zambian firms' technical know-how by providing demand-driven assistance to Zambian firms in the form of matching grants; (ii) enhancing Zambian firms' access to finance by providing a long-term credit facility for investments and a short-term credit line for exporters; and (iii) strengthening the financial system and availability of information resources in Zambia by providing technical assistance to help strengthen the institutional underpinnings of the financial system at the wholesale, retail and regulatory levels.