Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs

415 items available

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https://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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Ghana - Women's Role in Improved Economic Performance
(Washington, DC, 1999-10) World Bank
The Government of Ghana's program to develop a gender strategy has been supported by the World Bank. This article is based on a Bank-assisted sector study, Ghana: gender analysis and policymaking for development. The Bank team worked closely with Ghanaian Ministries of Agriculture, Micro-finance, Education, and Health to identify gender issues and study feasible recommendations. Along with the government, a broad range of stakeholders participated in the study, including academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and women's groups. Through workshops and mission visits, four points of focus were identified for the study: agriculture, micro-enterprises, education, and health. Many of the stakeholders also emphasized the importance of strengthening Ghana's institutional capacity to develop and implement policies that adequately address gender concerns. The study focuses on two broad areas of gender-based differences and inequalities: the links between gender and economic productivity, and the development of human capital. In addition to the study described here, the Ghanaian government produced two policy documents from this study; both are now under final review within the government.
The Roll Back Malaria Partnership : Defining the role of the World Bank
(Washington, DC, 1999-10) World Bank
Malaria kills over one million people and causes 300-500 million episodes of illness each year. The majority of the 3,000 deaths each day and ten new cases every second occur in Africa. The disease not only takes a high human toll; it also impedes development. Malaria has economic impacts through labor efficiency and land use; adversely affects school attendance, performance and cognitive ability; and translates in monetary costs in terms of expenditures by households and the public health sector. The poor are affected most, as they have less access to services, information and protective measures (e.g. nets, screens, prophylaxis), and have less power to avoid living or working within malaria-affected areas. Malaria is on the rise. While efforts to control malaria in the past fifty years have achieved a decline in malaria mortality and morbidity in some regions, the gains have often not been sustained (e.g. Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Central Asia). Emerging drug and pesticide resistances threaten to reduce the availability of effective and affordable prevention and treatment of malaria. Recent epidemics indicate a resurgence of the disease in previously low-risk areas (e.g. the highlands of Kenya), and climate changes are expected to lead to further changes in intensity of transmission. While there is no magic bullet for malaria, a range of cost-effective interventions exists, namely antimalarials for treatment, prophylaxis, insecticide treated materials and residual spraying with insecticide. New tools are available and are continually being developed, such as treatment for severe malaria, rapid diagnostic tests, and combination drug therapy to prevent resistance. As access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment are essential to reducing the burden; malaria can only be effectively controlled within the context of broader health sector development. The main strategies for addressing malaria are timely care-seeking, diagnosis and effective treatment, the use of prophylaxis during pregnancy, and the use of insecticide-treated bednets and materials.
A Regional Approach to Capacity Building for Coastal Management : Emerging Lessons
(Washington, DC, 1999-07) World Bank
The numerous economic opportunities offered within the coastal zone attract increasing populations to these areas. As these populations and their economic activities grow, there is a corresponding compelling need for sound management of coastal and marine resources, so that developmental options can be kept open. Effective coastal and marine resource management transcends boundaries and a regional approach is clearly the most effective method for governance of these fragile areas and important resources. Regional environmental organizations have, however, not always proved to be useful to the countries they were created to serve. Constraints, including unclear mission, lack of priority-setting, poor management, politics, inadequate funding and weak national support, have derailed many regional environmental organizations. The promising start of the Secretariat for Eastern African Coastal Area Management (SEACAM) illustrates that regional organization can provide effective support to national Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) efforts.
Ethiopia - Two Microfinance Delivery Programs
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-04) Muntemba, Shimwaayi
Formal financial institutions in Ethiopia have traditionally focused on the accessible urban towns leaving rural areas, where the majority of the population resides, without access to financial services. Recognizing this problem, a number of development agencies such as Redd Barna and World Vision started to provide access to financial services to the poor in rural areas in the 1980s. They undertook income generation programs by forming saving and credit schemes. Credit to the rural poor was provided in the form of grants, and agricultural inputs. Women were the primary targets of these programs. This study summarizes the findings of action research conducted on microfinance institutions in Ethiopia, with focus on the performance of Redd Barna and on Irish Aid-supported program. Action research facilitates the exchange of information on innovations and experiences so that other micro-finance institutions may learn from each other's mistakes and replicate best practices. The extended study on which this article is based addresses their mode of operation, organization, legal framework, as well as the financial and non-financial services they offer. The focus in on one urban and two rural and savings and credit schemes.
Gender, Growth, and Poverty Reduction
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-02) Blackden, C. Mark
This note focuses on the core findings, and recommendations of the 1998 status report on poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), prepared for the Special Program for Assistance for Africa (SPA), a thematic examination of the linkages between gender, growth, and poverty reduction in SSA. Primarily focused on agriculture, and the rural sector, the report argues that one of the factors constraining growth, and poverty in SSA is gender inequality in the access to, and control of a diverse range of assets. The note reviews the determinants of growth, and the interdependence of the market, and household economies, where much of women's productive work is unrecorded, (in Kenya, about sixty percent of female activities are unaccounted for, compared with only twenty four percent of male activities). Furthermore, micro-level analyses portray a consistent picture of gender-based asset inequality, pointing at patterns of disadvantage faced by women, in accessing the basic assets, and resources required for a full participation in SSA's growth potential. In education, although girls have made rapid strides in completing primary education, lowering the gender gap, differentials persist due to social, and cultural factors; and, in health, an enormous gender differential in the region's sexual, and reproductive burden of disease, is observed, as measured by deaths, and disability-adjusted life years. Recommendations include women's budget initiatives, sustained investments in education/health, and, raising the visibility of domestic work in national statistics.
Social Funds and Public Works and Employment Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-02) Frigenti, L.; Harth, A.; Huque, R.
The note outlines the lessons learned after a decade of experience with social funds, public works, and employment operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, and illustrates that a variety of models, and institutional structures exist within this sample of operations. It also reflects that projects need to be designed according to country contexts, political realities, and geographical considerations.
Uganda : The Sexually Transmitted Infections Project
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-01) Mulusa, Mary
There is evidence suggesting a change in the HIV incidence in Uganda, where its prevalence has dropped in certain communities, and age groups, most notably among women in the 15-29 years age group. The note reviews key features of the Sexually Transmitted Infections Project in the country, identifying change in sexual behavior as the most important approach to preventing HIV spread. The Project also emphasized on mitigation of the personal impact of AIDS, supporting treatment, training of health workers, and provision of drugs, in addition to institutional development, gender issues, and global partnerships. But regardless, of the high level of general awareness of HIV/AIDS, the positive trends observed do not mean that the epidemic has been overcome in Uganda, where current prevalence levels still present an enormous challenge. Lessons address political commitment, and local ownership as essential to overcome the epidemic, highlighting the work of the Namungalwe Women Task Force, whose activities, partly contributed to mitigating the epidemic. Nonetheless, there is the need to mobilize resources to support HIV/AIDS programs, and to use multi-sectoral interventions to deal with the epidemic, as well as capacity building in technical, and management skills, and, information for monitoring programs in a sustainable manner.
Gender and Law : Eastern Africa Speaks
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1999-01) Gopal, Gita; Adu, Elizabeth
Gender issues, particularly with respect to women's status and rights, have for a considerable period, been in the forefront of donors' dialogue on social issues with Africa. While Africa countries have fully acknowledged the seriousness of the issues and the urgent need for action, the dialogue has been largely donor-driven and issues and priorities been donor-set. Recognizing the need for a new approach in this important area for Africa's progress, the Bank, in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa, initiated a Gender and Law Program, in October 1997, at a Conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Program shifts responsibility for identification and implementation of themes, issues, and priorities to in-country stakeholders rather than with donors. During the Conference, each country delegation voiced its priorities for change. The issues included land-related challenges, family law, violence against women, employment and labor, and decentralized governance frameworks. Land and the division of household property are prime areas where gender-based disparities marginalize and disenfranchise women of Eastern Africa. In an effort to improve women's social and economic life, two main themes emerged: the impact of customary laws and practices and the need for effective implementation. The delegates emphasized the need to initiate action for change at grassroots, institutional, and policy making levels.
Lessons from Africa's Social Funds, Public Works and Employment Projects
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1998-11) Frigenti, Laura; Harth, Alberto; Huque, Rumana
The note focuses on the review of "Local solutions to regional problems: the growth of social funds and public works, and employment projects in Sub-Saharan Africa", which compares, and draws lessons from the African experience. It highlights three social funds in Zambia, Eritrea and Angola, and three urban works projects in Senegal, Benin, and Mauritania, and provides stakeholder views: it reports high impact on employment, income, and local capacity building; improved coordination between service providers; weak consideration to the sustainability of micro-projects; and, participatory inadequacies, at the expense of long-term sustainability. The note implies the greatest challenge these operations face, is the reconciliation of short-term, and long-term goals, and, beneficiary participation, and ownership should be key to social funds project design, with appropriate technical standards in design, construction, and supervision for micro-projects sustainability.
Integrated Coastal Zone Management Strategy for Ghana
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1998-06) Hewawasam, Indu
Environmental degradation of coastal areas was identified as a key issue in Ghana's Environmental Action Plan. The central objective of the World Bank-assisted Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) initiative in Ghana, which commenced in 1995, was to identify economically, socially and environmentally appropriate interventions and projects in the coastal zone that improve the prospects for human development. ICZM is recognized by governments, international agencies and by the donor community as a process through which coastal eco-systems and resources can be protected, developed and managed in a sustainable manner. In order for implementation to be successful, effective ICZM must be based on a clear understanding of the complexities of the relation between coastal natural resources, and the coastal population that subsists on these resources. More concretely, this understanding must relate to how specific economic, political, social and technical parameters link, in a reciprocal way, specific coastal ecosystems and specific human activities.