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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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.
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.
Decentralizing Infrastructure Services : Lessons from the East Asia Experience
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-02) Elisa Muzzini
Decentralization is the transfer of responsibilities from the central government to subnational agencies empowered to act as increasingly autonomous entities within their geographical and functional domains. In theory, decentralizing infrastructure services can deliver efficiency gains when service benefits accrue mainly to the local population-such as in water and sanitation, urban transit, and waste management. Subnational agencies are indeed better placed than the central government to tailor infrastructure services to the needs of local constituencies (allocative efficiency) and deliver them at lower costs (productive efficiency). In practice, the economic benefits of decentralized infrastructure services are by no means a given, as they are contingent upon effective coordination among tiers of governments (regional coordination) and accountability mechanisms for results achieved.
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.
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 $188 million - and it was implemented by the government over the period 1994-2001. The co-financiers included the African Development Bank, the European Union, USAID, Caisse Francaise de Developpment/Republic of South Africa, Arab Bank Economic Development, the Kuwait Fund, KfW, donors for the Feeder Roads program and Phase II donors. The objectives of the project were to (i) contribute to the restoration of economic growth through improving road transport and protecting selected past road investments by rehabilitating priority roads, undertaking backlogged periodic maintenance, and resuming regular maintenance of the paved and unpaved networks; and (ii) further strengthening the capacity of the road sector to ensure effective planning and monitoring by the government, and the development of private sector contractors and operations.
Tanzania - Urban Sector Rehabilitation
(Washington, DC, 2006-01) World Bank
The Urban Sector Rehabilitation Project (URSP) consisted of a large program of infrastructure rehabilitation works and institutional reform activities covering 8 project towns - Arusha, Iringa, Morogoro, Mbeya, Moshi, Mwanza, Tabora and Tanga. Additional investments in Dodoma and Dar-essalaam were, in comparison, of limited scope and complexity. The project with a Credit of US$ 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.
Roads Economic Decision Model (RED) Economic Evaluation of Low Volume Roads
(2001-03) Archondo-Callao, Rodrigo S.
This note presents the Roads Economic Decision Model (RED) that performs an economic evaluation of road investments, and maintenance options, customized to the characteristics of low-volume roads, such as: high uncertainty of the assessment of traffic, road condition, and future maintenance of unpaved roads; periods with pass disruptions; levels of service, and corresponding road user costs defined not only through roughness; high potential to influence economic development; and, beneficiaries, other than motorized road users. The model computes benefits accruing to normal, generated, and diverted traffic, as a function of a reduction in vehicle operating, and time costs, and, adopts the consumer surplus approach, which measures the benefits of road users, and consumers of reduced transport costs. RED addresses, among others, the following additional concerns: reduce input requirements for low-volume roads; consider the higher uncertainty, related to input requirements; compute internally the traffic generated due to decreased transport costs, based on a defined price elasticity of demand; and, quantify the economic costs, associated with the days per year when the passage of vehicles is further disrupted by a highly deteriorated road condition. Particularly, the model highlights all input assumptions, and comprehensively integrates them with sensitivity, switching values, and stochastic risk analysis.
Madagascar - Commercial agricultural promotion
(Washington, DC, 2000-09) World Bank
Commercial Agricultural Production (CAP) was a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded technical assistance project implemented by the US development consulting firm Chemonics International between 1994 and 1999. This brief presents major achievements of CAP, benefits achieved during the project's lifetime, CAP client's evaluation of its work, and future benefits from CAP.
Restructuring Highway Agencies - The FinnRa Case : Options for Africa?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-08) Ojala, Lauri; Sirvio, Esko
Until the late 1970s, the Finnish Road and Waterways Administration (RWA), under Finland's Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), operated as a highly centralized, monopolistic agency. The country's thirteen road management districts had little or no decision-making authority. Outsourcing construction works was limited, contracting maintenance services was rare, and RWA often implemented its road construction projects using in-house labor and rented machinery and vehicles. Following the oil crisis of 1974, public resources were constrained and road expenditure was targeted at maintenance rather than at new construction. Simultaneously, RWA's focus shifted to construction management (rather than actual execution of works) and to maintenance activities. Outsourcing of planning, design, and construction services became more prevalent. New, more user-friendly procurement procedures were introduced, facilitating the use of private small contractors. This trend continued through the 1980s, when individual road districts assumed the practice of slicing up the procurement of works into sufficiently small contracts to allow small regional-based contractors to bid for them.
Road Sector Performance Indicators for African Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-03) Silva, Samantha de; Kamwendo, Christine
In developed and developing countries, road systems are central not only to the economic health of the nation, but also to the quality of the environment and, in general, the quality of life. Public awareness of this fact has forced road administrations to be accountable for road system performance. Despite the efforts of many countries, there has been no transparent measurement or comparable evaluation standards for road systems performance. But in 1996 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) embarked on an international effort involving thirteen countries and created a scientific expert group to develop a set of performance indicators to address this need. Concentrating only on issues related to road systems, they set out to create performance indicators that will be comprehensive, holistic, and will help road administrations to evaluate themselves, respond more effectively to decision makers and constituents, and even allow some comparisons with peer countries. The complete OECD expert group report, 'Performance indicators for the road sector' was published in 1998. The performance indicators in this paper, although slightly different from those proposed by the OECD Group, were developed in consultation with area specialists with the intent that they will apply to African conditions and circumstances. They reflect the comprehensive development framework.