Handbooks and Training Manuals

135 items available

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/11980

This collection displays handbooks, sourcebooks, and training manuals. It includes formal books displayed in other series collections, as well as many stand alone publications both formal and informal, including eLearning products.

Sub-collections of this Collection

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 10 of 25

Designing a Multi-Stakeholder Results Framework : A Toolkit to Guide Participatory Diagnostics and Planning for Stronger Results and Effectiveness
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-11) World Bank Institute
This toolkit provides guidance to strengthen the results and effectiveness of multi-stakeholder development planning, including practical tools and processes. The toolkit guides collaborative steps, such as setting goals, diagnosing institutional problems and monitoring outcomes, all to produce a multi-stakeholder, outcome-based results framework to prepare a development strategy or plan and to implement with a strong result focus. It also includes guidance to use the results framework to highlight potentially high-impact areas for strengthening multi-stakeholder activities and to integrate monitoring and budget planning to a common set of outcomes. The toolkit gives special attention to the fragile context for development practitioners working in this area. The toolkit modules provide customizable resources to create a multi-stakeholder, outcome-based results framework. The modules can be used together as a complete resource or separately, focusing on modules that are of immediate interest. Although WBI originally developed the modules to support strategy design at the national level, they can also guide multi-stakeholder planning for results in other settings or key sectors where actors have diverse perspectives, with appropriate adjustments.
Understanding Policy Change : How to Apply Political Economy Concepts in Practice
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013) Hamilton, Alexander; Corduneanu-Huci, Cristina; Ferrer, Issel Masses
The introductory chapter sets the stage and outlines the logic of the rest of the handbook. First, we present the main learning objectives; second, we introduce the pedagogical approach, methodology, and structure of the book. This handbook is intended to introduce the concepts of political economy to a wide audience of development practitioners, including civil society activists, journalists, students, and bureaucrats. Since the target readers vary widely in their previous exposure to the subject matter, the book summarizes a vast academic field and presents a comprehensive repertoire of concepts, theories, and empirical examples. Rather than offering a 'do-it-yourself' framework, we opted for developing a step-by-step analytical puzzle. First, the paper introduces the core mechanisms of political economy and their inner logic, and, subsequently, we help our readers learn how to recognize these mechanisms in their daily development-related work. By the end of the book, the authors hope that readers will be able to: recognize core development problems stemming from the political-economic environment; link theoretical concepts to real-life situations; diagnose the symptoms and the root causes of malfunctions; and understand the short-term and long-term consequences of poor governance and low institutional equilibria. This handbook is also designed to provide trainers with some of the pedagogical materials they need to develop an introductory course on political-economy analysis for policy practitioners. The content focuses on the what, the why, and the how to of policy change. The readers or trainees will encounter key theories and concepts and learn how to apply the analysis to an understanding of their own policy-making environment. Pedagogically, the handbook uses interactive classroom exercises and the case study method to reinforce learning objectives and to capture the concepts, methods, experiences, and challenges relevant for practitioners. Structured learning activities at the end of most chapters and a comprehensive group exercise in appendix D will also give readers and trainers the opportunity to apply the knowledge and tools of political economy to simulated or specific development puzzles.
Building Better Policies : The Nuts and Bolts of Monitoring and Evaluation Systems
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-04-13) Krause, Philipp; Lopez-Acevedo, Gladys; Mackay, Keith; Lopez-Acevedo, Gladys; Krause, Philipp; Mackay, Keith
Governments around the world face ongoing pressures from citizens to provide more and better services, and to do this under a tight fiscal environment. This provides the context for government efforts to ensure their policies and programs are as effective, and as efficient, as possible. An emphasis on government performance has led a number of governments to create formal systems for monitoring and evaluating (M&E) their performance on a regular, planned, and systematic basis with the objective of improving it. The focus of this book is on these government M&E systems: what they comprise, how they are built and managed, and how they can be used to improve government performance. M&E systems focus on measuring the results produced by government its outputs, outcomes, and impacts. The M&E system may exist at the level of an individual agency, entire sector, or the government as a whole. M&E can provide unique information about the performance of government policies, programs, and projects at the national, sector, and sub-national levels. It can identify what works, what does not, and the reasons why. M&E also provides information about the performance of a government, of individual ministries and agencies, and of managers and their staff. This book endeavors to expand the frontiers of issues that have been researched and analyzed. However, there are still a number of issues that are still not understood well enough. This book presents case studies on several countries that have succeeded in achieving high levels of utilization of M&E information, including Australia, Canada, Chile, and Mexico.
Opportunities in Dam Planning and Management : A Communication Practitioner's Handbook for Large Water Infrastructure
(World Bank, 2011-06-21) Mazzei, Leonardo; Haas, Lawrence J. M.; O'Leary, Donal T.
Communication for development is a comparatively new field that offers new tools and techniques to support inclusive and informed decisions in the planning and management of large water and energy infrastructure projects, including dams. Rethinking the approach to communication on dam projects is also timely in today's policy context. A window of opportunity has opened to tie in governance reform (including fighting corruption), poverty reduction, and communication with today's challenges in sustainable infrastructure development. Progress on any one of these aspects requires effective communication with stakeholders and interests. This handbook aims to help foster a 'communication culture' that will accommodate the wide range of stakeholder interests in dam planning and management in ways appropriate to the development context of today and the need to promote solutions to sustainability challenges. It seeks to create awareness among practitioners of the benefits and costs of improving the role of communication in infrastructure development. It also demonstrates how communication helps to improve governments' capacities to address corruption issues in infrastructure. Finally, this handbook is aimed at building the capacity of project teams and government officials to effectively adopt and adapt modern communication principles and tools to cover all stages of the dam project cycle.
Barriers to Asset Recovery : An Analysis of the Key Barriers and Recommendations for Action
(World Bank, 2011-06-20) Stephenson, Kevin M.; Gray, Larissa; Power, Ric; Brun, Jean-Pierre; Dunker, Gabriele; Panjer, Melissa
Theft of public assets from developing countries is an immense problem with a staggering development impact. These thefts diverts valuable public resources from addressing the abject poverty and fragile infrastructure often present in such countries. Although the exact magnitude of the proceeds of corruption circulating in the global economy is impossible to ascertain, estimates demonstrate the severity and scale of the problem at $20 to $40 billion lost to developing countries each year. What this estimate does not capture are the societal costs of corruption and the devastating impact of such crimes on victim countries. Theft of assets by corrupt officials, often at the highest levels of government, weakens confidence in public institutions, damages the private investment climate, and divests needed funding available for core investment in such poverty alleviation measures as public health, education, and infrastructure. This study's key objective is to mobilize policy makers on the existing difficulties in stolen asset recovery actions and convince them to take action on the featured recommendations. Such action will enhance the capacity of practitioners to successfully recover stolen assets.
Health Equity and Financial Protection : Streamlined Analysis with ADePT Software
(World Bank, 2011-05-27) Bilger, Marcel; Wagstaff, Adam; Sajaia, Zurab; Lokshin, Michael
This book provides a guide to Automated Development Economics (DEC) Poverty Tables (ADePT's) two health modules: the first module covers inequality and equity in health, health care utilization, and subsidy incidence; the second, health financing and financial protection. It also provides introductions to the methods used by ADePT and a step-by-step guide to their implementation in the program. ADePT is a software package that generates standardized tables and charts summarizing the results of distributional analyses of household survey data. ADePT health is just one of several modules; other modules include poverty, inequality, labor, social protection, and gender. ADePT health has two sub modules: health outcomes and health financing. Together these modules cover a wealth of topics in the areas of health equity and financial protection. This manual is divided into two parts corresponding to each of these sub modules. The following topics are covered: part 1, health outcomes: (a) measuring inequalities in outcomes and utilization (with and without standardization for need), (b) decomposing the causes of health sector inequalities, and (c) analyzing the incidence of government spending (that is, benefit incidence analysis); and part 2, health financing: (a) financial protection, including catastrophic payments and impoverishing payments, and (b) the progressivity and redistributive effect of health financing.
International Financial Reporting Standards : A Practical Guide, Sixth Edition
(World Bank, 2011-03-02) Scott, Darrel; Van Greuning, Hennie; Terblanche, Simonet
An acceptable coherent framework of fundamental accounting principles is essential for preparing financial statements. The major reasons for providing the framework are to: 1) identify the essential concepts underlying the preparation and presentation of financial statements; 2) guide standard setters in developing new accounting standards and reviewing existing standards; 3) assist preparers in preparing financial statements and dealing with topics that are not covered by a specific International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS); 4) assist auditors in forming an opinion as to whether a set of financial statements conforms with IFRS; and 5) assist users in interpreting the financial information contained in a set of financial statements that comply with IFRS. The framework sets guidelines and should not be seen as a constitution; nothing in the framework overrides any specific standard. The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position (statement of financial position), performance (statement of comprehensive income), and changes in financial position (statement of cash flows) of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions. Users of financial information include present and potential capital providers, employees, lenders, suppliers, customers, and the government. Financial statements also show the results of management's stewardship of the resources entrusted to it.
Impact Evaluation of Small and Medium Enterprise Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean
(World Bank, 2011) Tan, Hong W.; Lopez-Acevedo, Gladys
This report was co-funded by research grant from the World Bank's research committee for a regional study evaluating Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Support Programs in Latin America and support from the poverty reduction and economic management division of the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank. The objective of the study was to rigorously evaluate SME programs in four Latin American countries Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru to gain insights into whether SME programs work, which programs perform better than others, and why. This report should be of interest to country governments, policymakers with responsibilities for SMEs, local researchers and the private sector in the region, as well as World Bank staff and bilateral donors. However, the findings and conclusions expressed in this report are entirely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the World Bank, its Board of Directors or the countries it represents.
Healthy Partnerships : How Governments Can Engage the Private Sector to Improve Health in Africa
(World Bank, 2011) International Finance Corporation
Health systems across Africa are in urgent need of improvement. The public sector should not be expected to shoulder the burden of directly providing the needed services alone, nor can it, given the current realities of African health systems. Therefore to achieve necessary improvements, governments will need to rely more heavily on the private health sector. Indeed, private providers already play a significant role in the health sector in Africa and are expected to continue to play a key role, and private providers serve all income levels across sub- Saharan Africa's health systems. The World Health Organization (WHO) and others have identified improvements in the way governments interact with and make use of their private health sectors as one of the key ingredients to health systems improvements. Across the African region, many ministries of health are actively seeking to increase the contributions of the private health sector. However, relatively little is known about the details of engagement; that is, the roles and responsibilities of the players, and what works and what does not. A better understanding of the ways that governments and the private health sector work together and can work together more effectively is needed. This Report assesses and compares the ways in which African governments are engaging with their private health sectors. Engagement is defined, for the purposes of this report, to mean the deliberate, systematic collaboration of the government and the private health sector according to national health priorities, beyond individual interventions and programs. With effective engagement, one of the main constraints to better private sector contributions can be addressed, which in turn should improve the performance of health systems overall.
Impact Evaluation in Practice, First Edition
(World Bank, 2011) Gertler, Paul J.; Martinez, Sebastian; Premand, Patrick; Rawlings, Laura B.; Vermeersch, Christel M. J.
The Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policymakers and development practitioners. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of the uses of impact evaluation and the best ways to use evaluations to design policies and programs that are based on evidence of what works most effectively. The handbook is divided into three sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two outlines the theoretical underpinnings of impact evaluation; and Part Three examines how to implement an evaluation. Case studies illustrate different methods for carrying out impact evaluations.