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This quarterly electronic information brief provides relevant information on recently published reports, seminars and events. To subscribe, please visit www.worldbank.org/afr/za. We also invite you to please access other similar information on the websites of our countries:
News Flash
Development Marketplace 2007
The World Bank Development Marketplace team announces the Call for Proposals for the 2007 Global Development Marketplace. The World Bank seeks to recognize and support initiatives that improve health, nutrition and population outcomes for poor people in developing countries. Proposals are welcome from development innovators: civil society groups, foundations, government agencies, academia and the private sector. A total of US$4 million in awards is available, with a maximum award size of US$200,000.
Proposal Deadline: November 17, 2006
Finalists Announced: February 9, 2007
Marketplace and Knowledge Exchange in Washington, D.C.: May 22-23, 2007
Bank loan data now online
Information about World Bank loans previously available only to borrowing countries is now public and online at a new website. The new site details World Bank financing for countries including loans, credits, and grants, disbursements and repayments, types of financial instruments, and lending by sector. To access click on Country Aggregate Reports .
The World Bank - Civil Society Engagement: A Review of Years 2005 and 2006
The World Bank just released a new report which highlights the broad spectrum of relations between the World Bank and civil society throughout the world. This report documents how these relations have increased over the past two years through a series of activities ranging from policy dialogue and grant funding, to operational collaboration. Accessible full-text at World Bank – Civil Society Engagement: A Review of Years 2005 and 2006
Past Event
Annual Meetings (14-20 September, Singapore)
The Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (Fund) and World Bank Group (Bank) normally meet once a year in the autumn for a two-day plenary session to discuss the work of their respective institutions. The Annual Meetings are preceded by the ministerial-level meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF?s policy-guiding body, and the Development Committee, a joint IMF-World Bank forum. This year the meetings took place at Singapore. To access information on the annual meetings, click on http://www.worldbank.org/ambc/To access the speech by World Bank President; Paul Wolfowitz, click here:
World Bank Institute (WBI)
The World Bank Institute is the capacity development arm of the World Bank, and helps countries share and apply global and local knowledge to meet development challenges. WBI?s capacity development programs are designed not only to build skills among groups of individuals involved in performing tasks, but also to strengthen the organizations in which they work, and the sociopolitical environment in which they operate.
Upcoming Courses
Public-Private Partnership in Health Service Delivery to Reach the Poor
(04-08 December, Johannesburg)
This course will build capacity of various stakeholders to increase coverage of health services for the poor through effective public-private partnership mechanisms and improved monitoring and evaluation. Based on local authority and relevant stakeholder needs and a South African public-private partnership (PPP) framework. To apply click here
Knowledge Management Capacity for African Research Institutes and Networks
(20 November, Johannesburg)
The workshop aims to strengthen the operations of Southern-African research institutes and networks. It will expose them to knowledge management concepts, tools and approaches, and help them to develop Action Plans to enhance their organizational capacity. To apply click here.
WBI Learning Catalogue
Recent Publications
Doing Business 2007: How to reform
Reforms of regulation are making it easier to do business worldwide, including in Africa, a region where the private sector faces some of its biggest challenges. The World Bank and IFC, in their fourth yearly Doing Business report, rank 175 economies on the ease of doing business.
World Development Report 2007: Development and the next generation
A new World Bank report says governments in developing countries should invest more in their young people, or else run the risk of dealing with social tensions and dropping behind in the global economy. The World Development Report 2007: Development and the next Generation points out there are now more than 1.3 billion young people in the developing world – the largest number ever in history.
Governance Matters V: Governance Indicators for 1996 - 2005
This paper reports on the latest update of the worldwide governance indicators, covering 213 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. Available at Worldwide Governance Indicators: 1996-2005.
Africa Silk Road
Africa?s Silk Road offers original firm-level data on the African continent of Chinese and Indian firms operating there, says the study?s author, Bank Economic Adviser Harry Broadman. Broadman surveyed 450 Chinese and Indian companies operating in four African countries-South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, and Senegalâ€â€and developed first-time business case studies in the field of 16 other Chinese and Indian firms in Africa.
These publications and more are available at the Public Information Centre
New Policy Research Working Papers
The role of agriculture in poverty reduction an empirical perspective
The relative contribution of a sector to poverty reduction is shown to depend on its direct and indirect growth effects as well as its participation effect. The paper assesses how these effects compare between agriculture and non-agriculture by reviewing the literature and by analyzing cross-country national accounts and poverty data from household surveys. Special attention is given to Sub-Saharan Africa. For full text click here.
What is effective aid? how would donors allocate it?
There are significant weaknesses in some of the traditional justifications for assuming that aid will foster development. This paper looks at what the cross-country aid effectiveness literature and World Bank Operations Evaluation Department reviews have suggested about effective aid, first in terms of promoting income growth, and then for promoting other goals. This review forms the basis for a discussion of recommendations to improve aid effectiveness and a discussion of effective aid allocation. For full text click here.
The African growth and opportunities Act , exports and developments in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper looks at the impact of the trade preferences that are the central element of AGOA on African countries? exports to the U.S. and puts them in the perspective of the development of the region. The paper finds that, while stimulating export diversification in a few countries, AGOA has fallen short of the potential impetus that preferences could otherwise provide African exporters. For full text click here.
Disease control priorities in developing countries
Now in its second edition, the Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries(DCP2) gathers the work of more than 350 specialists into one volume on the strategies, successes, and systems of health care intervention. In this presentation on September 12, 2006, sponsored by the World Bank InfoShop, experts in the field discussed the book’s recommendations and the future of disease control. For full text click here.
B-SPAN
This is an internet-based broadcasting service that streams World Bank seminars, workshops and conferences to the public on the Internet
Podcasting at WBI.
Jeffrey Sachs on the Millennium Development Goals and Jarad Diamond on “Collapseâ€.
Efficient Learning for the Poor
The basic skills of reading and arithmetic are essential to the Millennium Development Goals because they confer such great advantages in learning and work. Yet in low-income areas, these abilities may be developed slowly, and are challenged by environmental and instructional factors. See: here10 Most Watched Presentations in November (available on the B-SPAN homepage) :
- Fiduciary Management in Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP)
- Workshop 5: Compensation and Compulsory Licenses: implementing the Doha Declaration and advancing the Millennium Development Goals (Part Two) with Ramesh Govindaraj, Jean Lanjouw, Aidan Hollis, and James Love
- International Migration: Problem or Opportunity?
- Efficient Learning for the Poor
- The World Is Flat By Thomas Friedman
- Joseph Stiglitz and Kenneth Rogoff discuss: Globalization and Its Discontents
- World Bank and Donors Must Change to Reach MDGs Says Jeff Sachs
- Presidential Lecture
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- Creating Prosperity in Africa
New Disclosed Project Documents
Namibia-Integrated Community-Based Ecosystem Management (ICEMA) @, September 11, 2006 (E-861
Swaziland-Public Expenditure Review - Strengthening Public Expenditure Policy and Management for Service Delivery and Poverty Reduction (In Two Volumes)-(No. 35318)
Board Minutes
IBRD, IDA Board Meeting - Minutes - August 24, 2006 (No. 37168)
IBRD, IDA Board Meeting - Minutes - August 29, 2006 (No. 37246)
Country Assistance Strategy
Lesotho-Country Assistance Strategy (No. 36016)
For Additional Information, please contact our Public Information Center (PIC) :
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