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 96
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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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    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.
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    The Northern Uganda Social Action Fund : Community Reconciliation and Conflict Management Empower Communities in a Post-Conflict Setting
    (Washington, DC, 2006-12) World Bank
    The five year Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), being implemented since 2003 is meant to assist government in its efforts to tackle poverty and bring about development that utilizes and builds on community value systems As part of the broader efforts to reconstruct Northern Uganda, NUSAF, as a project, and through direct grants to communities, is intended to: overcome underdevelopment through community action, leadership development, resource mobilization, strengthening the ongoing reconciliation processes in the region, and make it possible for communities to articulate and prioritize their specific needs and manage processes and outcomes, there by enhancing good governance for peace and development.
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    Cameroon - The National Agricultural Extension and Research Program Support Project
    (Washington, DC, 2006-12) World Bank
    The National Agricultural Extension and Research Program Support Project of Cameroon undertook to finance - jointly with the government, IFAD, and AfDB - implementation (2001-2004) of the national agricultural extension policy and agricultural research in Cameroon as follows : competitive research grants (IDA); linkages between agricultural research and extension (IFAD); and on-station agricultural research ( AfDB). While providing services to all farmers, the project sought to prioritize resource-poor farmers, and women farmers. This project was a follow-on intervention to the National Project for Agricultural Extension (PNVA).
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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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    Ghana : The Village Infrastructure Project
    (Washington, DC, 2006-09) World Bank
    The project, with an IDA credit of US$30 million, and a total of $60 million was implemented by the government between 1998 and 2004. It was jointly financed by KFW $7m; IFAD, $10; GoG $7.1m; District Assemblies $3.0m and beneficiaries $2.9m. Its main objective was to support the government's efforts to reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life of the rural poor through the increased transfer of technical and financial resources for the development of basic village-level infrastructure that could be maintained by the beneficiaries. It also supported the capacity building of District Assemblies to better plan and manage these investments. The project had 4 components: (i) Rural water infrastructure; (ii) Rural transport infrastructure; (iii) Rural post-harvest infrastructure; and (iv) Institutional strengthening.
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    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.
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    Senegal - Sustainable and Participatory Energy
    (Washington, DC, 2006-03) World Bank
    The Sustainable and Participatory Energy Management project - PROGEDE was implemented by the government between 1997 and 2004. From project preparation to supervision the World Bank worked in close collaboration with Dutch Co-operation (DGIS). At the time of project preparation, forest-based traditional fuels (firewood and charcoal), mainly used for household cooking purposes, represented 53 percent of Senegal's final energy consumption, and 76 percent of charcoal consumption was in the principal urban areas. Over the years, the operation of the charcoal industry had resulted in (i) the gradual loss of forest cover (approximately 30,000 ha per year) and thus of the ecosystem's carbon sequestration capacity and biodiversity; (ii) the degradation of the rural environment (particularly soils); (iii) the impoverishment of the rural areas; (iv) an acceleration of rural exodus; and (v) a massive transfer of wealth from the rural communities to a few urban-based woodfuel traders.
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    Tanzania - Urban Sector Rehabilitation
    (Washington, DC, 2006-01) World Bank
    The Urban Sector Rehabilitation Project (URSP) consisted of a large program of infrastructure rehabilitation works and institutional reform activities covering 8 project towns - Arusha, Iringa, Morogoro, Mbeya, Moshi, Mwanza, Tabora and Tanga. Additional investments in Dodoma and Dar-essalaam were, in comparison, of limited scope and complexity. The project with a Credit of US$ 141.3 million equivalent was implemented by the government between 1997 and 2004. The project objectives were sustainable economic development and urban poverty alleviation through: (i) rehabilitation of basic infrastructure and expansion into high-priority, underserved areas; and (ii) improvement of urban local government management and financing capacity by (a) strengthening the financial, technical and overall operations of the urban local authorities through training and technical assistance; and (b) encouraging private sector and community involvement in urban services delivery and operation and maintenance.
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    Recent Bank Support for Civil Service Reconstruction in Post-conflict Countries
    (Washington, DC, 2004-08) World Bank
    Civil service reconstruction is important in post-conflict countries because conflict erodes institutions and civil service capacity. And because successful reconstruction-in all sectors-requires domestic capacity to implement projects, a weak civil service undermines overall reconstruction efforts. Moreover, donor assistance is crucial to a country's rebuilding, and coordinating such assistance requires a certain amount of civil service capacity.