SA Newsletter

This is the third quarterly brief of our Country Office, that provides information on recently published reports, seminars and

events. We also invite you to please access other similar information on our South African Country website at www.worldbank.org/southafrica.

On April 4 2006, South Africa signed a R11 million Grant Agreement with the World Bank, as the Implementing Agency for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to finance the clean up and disposal of obsolete pesticides in South Africa through the Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP). The ASP plans to get rid of an estimated 50 000 tons of toxic pesticides and associated waste, as well as tens of thousands of tons of contaminated soil.The project follows on previous successful initiatives carried out in other countries on the continent that resulted in over 1000 tons of obsolete pesticides destroyed.

To read more on the ASP access the website at http://www.africastockpiles.org/

Each Spring, the IMF?s International Monetary and Financial Committee and the joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee hold meetings to discuss progress on the work of the Fund and Bank. Plenary sessions of the IMF and the World Bank?s Boards of Governors are only scheduled during the Annual Meetings in the autumn.

The conference on "Knowledge for Africa?s Development: Innovation, Education, and Information and Communications Technologies" aims to enhance understanding and awareness among key African policymakers and interested stakeholders on the key issues that all African countries need to address to access and use knowledge to strengthen their competitiveness and increase their economic and social well-being.

In addition to plenary sessions, the conference will feature detailed workshops on the major pillars of the knowledge economy: Innovation, Education and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

This year?s Global DM Competition is focused on ?Innovations in Water, Sanitation and Energy Services for Poor People.? 118 finalists have been selected to attend the Marketplace on May 8-9 at the World Bank in Washington, DC. The 118 finalists, representing 55 countries,were selected from a highly competitive pool of over 2,500 applicants. The finalists represent a diverse sampling of organizations ranging from NGOs and universities, to private businesses, government agencies, and more. Finalists will present their ideas to a jury, and the general public, for the opportunity to receive funding from an estimated US$4million award pool.

For more information go to

The World Bank and the Institute for Study on Labor of Bonn (IZA) are organizing a conference on "Employment and Development" in Berlin on May 25-27, 2006, to further reflect on the links between growth, job creation and poverty alleviation.

IZA?s Conference website

Bank?s Labor market website: www.worldbank.org/labormarkets

With the support of the Japanese Ministry of Finance, this year?s global ABCDE will be held for the first time in Japan on May 29-30, 2006 at Mita House in Tokyo. The theme will be "Infrastructure and Development" and the conference will address several major topics related to infrastructure and growth, climate change, energy efficiency, rural development, agriculture and the implications for regional cooperation.

To view the draft agenda, find information on support grants, or register online for the conference, visit the ABCDE 2006 website.

At a conference on "The Growth and Welfare Effects of Macroeconomic Volatility" organized by the World Bank, Centre for Economic Research, and Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional in Barcelona, Spain on March 17-18, 2006, researchers studying the long-term effects of macroeconomic volatility addresses the question of how development, or the lack of it, can shape the effect of volatility on growth and welfare. The conference included a combination of theoretical models, measurement analysis, and empirical results. Several topics were discussed, including globalization and risk-sharing; policy volatility, institutions and economic growth; and trade openness, output volatility and the risk content of exports.

View papers and agenda

The theme of the 2006 Private Sector Development Forum was "Markets and Growth: What, Where, When and How?" The three day event was held in Washington, D.C. April 4-6 and discussed issues such as: how much does informality matter, can the private sector help overcome conflict, where do we stand on privatization, how can we evaluate the effectiveness of our aid programs, what will be the impact of increased South-South investment, how can we improve the governance of state-owned enterprises, how can we increase access to finance and legal protection, what will be China?s impact on Latin America, how can Africa?s export potential be tapped, what surprises do China and India have in store for us, how can the private sector help fight the costs of corruption, and much more. Forum presentations, pictures and video are now available at http://rru.worldbank.org/psdforum/default.aspx

This report introduces new trade facilitation research based on the Doing Business Trading Across Borders data. This new study finds that each day of delays arising from red tape reduces a country?s export volume by about 1 percent. These losses are even more pronounced when trading perishable agricultural products. This study highlights the importance of focusing aid for trade on improving trade facilitation and addressing trade facilitation in trade agreements.

Download the complete report.

Consultations bring alternative viewpoints on the topic under consideration to the World Development Report (WDR) process. For the upcoming 2007 WDR on Development and the Next Generation, consultations have included face-to-face discussions in various developing countries, as well as an e-discussion with representatives from various youth organizations. Comments have been sought from the development community, and ideas and concerns from young people themselves.

The authors use a panel-data set for the period 1980-2002 to estimate demand for electricity and telecommunications services and project investment needs in South Africa through 2010 for two growth scenarios. Projections of average annual investment needs in electricity and telecommunications for the current growth scenario (3.6 percent a year) are of the order of 0.2 percent and 0.75 percent of GDP, respectively. An alternative, accelerated growth scenario (6 percent a year) implies approximate doubling of investment needs in these sectors.

The paper provides a first systematic, comprehensive benchmarking of South Africa?s infrastructure performance 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 database with objective and perception-based indicators of infrastructure performance from over 200 countries. Specifically, the paper seeks to answer a number of relevant questions: How does South Africa compare on major indicators of infrastructure sector performance against the relevant country groups? What do outcome indicators tell us about the relative strengths and weaknesses of South Africa?s infrastructure compared with various income and geographical comparator groups of countries? Where are the largest deviations-positive and negative-from the benchmarks and other comparators? And how does one interpret some of these comparisons to be useful for policy purposes?

Numerous case studies illustrate the poverty-reducing potential of direct access to financial services. Financial exclusion is likely to act as a "brake" on development as it retards economic growth and increases poverty and inequality. However, evidence that could guide public policy initiatives remains thin and tentative mostly due to inadequate data sources. Recognizing the serious gaps that exist in financial access data, the World Bank is seeking to develop better indicators of access to financial services, particularly for small firms and poor households. "Drawing on this new database, the Bank’s Development Research Group is in the process of producing working papers and publications in this area, and the findings will be synthesized in a Policy Research Report on Access to Finance, due in 2007," said Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Senior Research Manager, Development Research Group - Finance Team.

This paper examines the role of private support institutions in determining small and medium enterprise (SME) growth and performance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It finds that SMEs in SSA get around market failures and lack of formal institutions by creating private governance systems in the form of long-term business relationships and tight, ethnically-based, business networks. There are important links between these informal governance institutions and SME performance. Networks raise the performance of "insiders" and, in the sparse business environments of the SSA region, have attendant negative consequences for market participation of "outsiders," such as indigenous African SMEs. This is indicated through the determinants of access to supplier credit. Policy interventions will be needed to improve the platform for relation-based governance mechanisms and to address the exclusionary effects of tight networks.

The author provides a preliminary benchmarking of infrastructure performance in Lesotho in four major sectors--electricity, water and sanitation, information and communication technology, and road 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. The results of the benchmarking are revealing of several major, comparative deficiencies in infrastructure performance in Lesotho: (1) extremely low access to electricity and its affordability; (2) poor coverage, quality, and the cost of local (non-cellular) telephony; and (3) poor quality of roads. Infrastructure service delivery in electricity, telephony, and roads is well below what would be expected, on average, for a country in Lesotho?s income group.

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

Of all the applications for Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the issue of outsourcing and offshoring has perhaps become most familiar, despite being distinctly unglamorous. In this videoconference, conducted by the World Bank e-Development Thematic Group on February 7, 2006, experts presented experiences in ICT-enabled offshore outsourcing from several countries, and invited questions from other potential offshoring destinations. Remote sites joined from Russia, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, and Ghana.

For the streaming video and the summary, please visit:

As nodes where power, trade, and culture concentrate, cities play an important role in development. But exactly what is that role, and how can the World Bank use it effectively? To answer that question, the InfoShop and the World Bank Institute launched a book titled "Cities in a Globalizing World: Governance, Performance, and Sustainability" on February 15, 2006, at the World Bank Headquarters.

For the streaming video and the summary, please visit:

Convened on April 4–6, 2006, the Private Sector Development Forum (PSD) 2006 met at the World Bank’s headquarters to discuss the theme of "Markets and Growth: What, Why, When, and How?" The forum intended to decide the current state of business and development, and determine the direction of the Bank Group’s current business strategy.

For the streaming video and the summary, please visit:

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.

Learning Catalogue - Link to WBI Learning Catalogue

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