SA Newsletter

South Africa (www.worldbank.org/southafrica.)

Botswana (www.worldbank.org/botswana)

Namibia (www.worldbank.org/namibia)

Lesotho (www.worldbank.org/southafrica) and

Swaziland (www.worldbank.org/southafrica).

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The XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006) in Toronto, Canada, August 13-18, 2006, was an unparalleled opportunity for those who work on AIDS to explore the latest developments in HIV science, policy and practice. 37 World Bank staff joined 24,000 delegates at AIDS 2006 to learn from others, and share information on Bank support for HIV and AIDS responses.

Each autumn, the Boards of Governors for the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund hold their annual meetings to discuss a broad range of issues related to poverty reduction, international economic development and finance. The Annual Meetings provide a forum for international cooperation and enable the Bank and Fund to better serve their member countries. This year the Annual Meetings will take place in Singapore.

Representatives of the 45 small developing countries that are members of the World Bank are planning to meet with partner institution representatives (including Commonwealth Secretariat, European Union, IMF, UNCTAD, World Bank, and World Trade Organization) at the 2006 Small States Forum. Participants will discuss issues that are of particular interest to these countries (most with a population of less than 1.5 million).

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The conference focused on the key issues that African countries need to address to access and use knowledge to increase their economic and social well-being. It brought together some 230 high level policymakers, as well as representatives from the private sector, academia, and civil society organizations from 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. For more information see Africa Knowledge Conference website

ABCDE was held for the first time in East Asia on May 29-30, 2006 at Mita House in Tokyo. Over the two days, nearly 900 people participated in the conference, marking an attendance record in the history of the ABCDE.

The overall theme of the conference was “Rethinking Infrastructure for Development” and addressed several major topics related to infrastructure and growth, climate change, energy efficiency, rural development, agriculture and the implications for regional cooperation.

The full ABCDE Tokyo conference is now available on video!

How to Improve Health for All”Video Conference – Wednesday 12th July 2006

How do you encourage innovation? “Competition is a good way to bring out the best in everyone,” said World Bank Institute (WBI) Vice President Frannie Léautier. Speaking from the GDLN studios in Washington, she was addressing some 30 development practitioners who came together in the context of this year’s Ashoka Changemakers Innovative Award. On July 12, 2006, in a discussion facilitated by WBI?s Lead Health Economist Abdo Yazbeck, Ashoka fellows and their peers in Delhi, Pretoria, and Washington came together to hear how the competition’s four finalists are pioneering sustainable health care solutions for poor communities. This activity is part of an on-going collaboration between Ashoka and WBI?s Paris-based team. For additional information on the Ashoka Changemakers contact Justine White at (jwhite@worldbank.org).

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This report provides comprehensive analyses of education sector issues against the backdrop of Swaziland?s economic, demographic, and fiscal conditions, identifying challenges, providing policy recommendations, and ensuring the attainability and sustainability of Swaziland?s goal of basic education for all (EFA). The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to negatively impact demand and supply side factors that contribute to Swaziland?s distance from the EFA goal, and results in higher costs for basic education. The full report is available at:

Edited by Dean T. Jamison , Richard G. Feachem , Malegapuru W. Makgoba , Eduard R. Bos , Florence K. Baingana , Karen J. Hofman , Khama O. Rogo

Current data and trends in morbidity and mortality for the sub-Saharan Region as presented in this new edition reflect the heavy toll that HIV/AIDS has had on health indicators, leading to either a stalling or reversal of the gains made, not just for communicable disorders, but for cancers, as well as mental and neurological disorders.

Looking for accurate, up-to-date data on development issues? This indispensable statistical reference allows you to consult over 800 indicators for some 150 economies and 14 country groups in more than 80 tables. It provides a current overview of the most recent data available as well as important regional data and income group analysis in six thematic chapters: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. The CD-ROM editions contain 43 years of time series data, covering 1960 to 2004, and offers mapping, charting, and data export formats.

These publications are available at the Public Information Centre

Empirical explorations of the growth and productivity impacts of infrastructure have been characterized by ambiguous (countervailing signs) results with little robustness. A number of explanations of the contradictory findings have been proposed. These range from the crowd-out of private by public sector investment, non-linearities generating the possibility of infrastructure overprovision, simultaneity between infrastructure provision and growth, and the possibility of multiple (hence indirect) channels of influence between infrastructure and productivity improvements. The authors explore these possibilities using panel data for South Africa over the 1970-2000 period, and a range of 19 infrastructure measures.

The paper provides a first, systematic benchmarking of infrastructure performance in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) countries (South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland) in four major sectors-electricity, water and sanitation, information and communication technology, and transportation-against the relevant group of comparator countries using a new World Bank international data base with objective and perception-based indicators of infrastructure performance from over 200 countries.

Aid is expected to promote better living standards by raising investment and growth. But aid may also affect institutions directly. In theory, these effects may or may not work in the same direction as those on investment. The authors examine the effect of aid on economic institutions and find that aid has neither a positive nor a negative impact on existing measures of economic institutions. They find the results using pooled data for non-overlapping five-year periods, confirmed by pooled annual regressions for a large panel of countries and by pure cross-section regressions.

Slum upgrading programs are being used by national and city governments in many countries to improve the welfare of households living in slum and squatter settlements. These programs typically include a combination of improvements in neighborhood infrastructure, land tenure, and building quality. In this paper, the authors develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to compare the effectiveness of alternative slum upgrading instruments in a second-best setting with distortions in the land and credit markets.

This is an internet-based broadcasting service that streams World Bank seminars, workshops and conferences to the public on the Internet

Spurred by a publication of the World Wildlife Fund, Escaping Poverty’s Grasp: The Environmental Foundations of Poverty Reduction, the World Bank InfoShop hosted a panel on June 15, 2006, at Bank headquarters to examine the progress of poverty reduction in rural areas around the globe. The panel was chaired by Ian Goldin, former Vice President of External Affairs for the World Bank. For the streaming video and summary visit:

What are the lessons from the developed nations, and how can Africa follow them and create wealth? In response to the publication of Creating Prosperity in Africa: Ten Keys to Get Out of Poverty, the World Bank InfoShop organized a panel on June 15, 2006, at Bank headquarters to examine the book’s conclusions on development in the region

Good governments are built from good organizations. For the World Bank, the process of strengthening and guiding organizations has been a key part of the development strategy—but it has also been a supremely difficult challenge, with mixed results. On June 28, 2006, the World Bank Institute sponsored a day of workshops and discussions about how to build capacity at the organizational level, titled “Capacity Matters: Re-Thinking Organizations.”

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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.

This course has been developed by the World Bank Africa Region Community Driven Development (CDD) steering committee, in collaboration with Khanya-African Institute for Community-Driven Development (Khanya-aicdd), with the support of the Norwegian and Finnish Governments. It is intended to provide resource people to support CDD programmes and the promotion of accountable and responsive services in the different countries, as well as informed policy-makers who are aware of how CDD could assist to promote sustainable development. It draws from a wide range of trainings which have been run in Africa since 2002, and a richness of experience from the different continents.In order to apply for this course, please complete the following application form and submit via email to kena@khanya-aicdd.org by August 31, 2006.

Environmental Economics for Development Policy (9-20 October, South Africa)

The EEDP course provides an introduction to environmental economics for persons with some previous economics background, building on the World Bank?s experience in using environmental economics to address environmental issues at the macro, sector, and project levels. The course is aimed at policy-makers, economic and environmental advisors, public and private sector professionals, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and academics. In order to apply for this course, please complete the following application form and submit via email to ssittig@worldbank.org by August 25, 2006.

Learning Catalogue

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