Knowledge exchange and peer learning activities were carried out for education officials from Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria (Edo state & national government) and Sierra Leone seeking to learn from the Ceará state in Brazil. Despite representing different continents and national contexts, the participating governments are encountering similar challenges to those faced by Ceará state in the late 1990s and early 2000 on extremely high levels of learning poverty (proportion of children aged 10 who cannot read an age-appropriate short text).

As per a tripartite agreement signed in 2016, the World Bank is supporting a programmatic South-South collaboration between Mozambique and Brazil. Within the framework of this agreement, a knowledge exchange with Brazil was organized in October 2018 to help address the numerous challenges facing the conservation areas in Mozambique. The objectives of the knowledge exchange included:

After learning about the success of East Asian countries in developing their economies and attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through Special Economic Zones (SEZ), many African governments wanted to use the same strategy to improve their economic performance. However, most African countries lack the capacity to design and implement SEZs, including lack of policy framework clarity, difficulties in physical planning and land administration, and insufficient regulatory and administrative knowledge. They have also not being very successful in involving the private sector in SEZs.

Growth in the Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing sector (IT-BPO) can transform a country’s economy and improve the lives of its citizens. No country is a better example than India, which has achieved phenomenal growth in this sector. As of 2010, India could boast of a 64 percent share of globally off-shored IT services and a 37 percent share in IT-enabled services (ITES)¹.  Skills development has been a key driver of that growth.

What was the objective of the South-South exchange? : With the largest urban population in Mozambique, the capital city Maputo faces a continuous demand for municipal services. The city is aware that it must increase its own sources of revenue to ensure that services are provided in a sustainable manner. A primary challenge for Maputo has been to improve its tax base by continuously updating and expand­ing the property cadaster (registry of taxpayers).