There are serious constraints to guaranteeing adequate housing in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. The housing shortage problem is a result of (i) historically insufficient stock of available houses for the population - i.e. quantitative housing deficit; (ii) new demand (e.g. household formation); and (iii) inadequate condition of existing units, in terms of space, construction materials and access to public services – i.e. qualitative housing deficit.

As Latin American cities continue to evolve in their efforts to encourage more people to cycle through improved planning and design, authorities face challenges like weak stakeholder engagement that hinder their ability to implement cycling infrastructure. Promoting knowledge exchange and intersectoral cooperation among these cities is thus key to unlock the cycling benefits for most of the population.

In the Kyrgyz Republic, the national rural water and sanitation program, launched in 2017, seeks to improve service delivery by providing adequate water and sanitation services to many underserved rural households. The primary objective of the knowledge exchange was to build the capacities of the key stakeholders to develop, pilot and support the gradual roll-out of a sector- wide rural water and sanitation monitoring system.

The Government of Angola aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of selected water sector agencies and to increase the coverage of sustainable access to water services in target cities. To support this reform process in the water sector, a knowledge exchange was organized for Angolan high-level officials to learn from the experiences of Colombia.

The objectives of the knowledge exchange were: -

Climate Action Peer Exchange (CAPE) is a forum for peer learning, knowledge sharing, and mutual advisory support. It brings together ministers and senior technical specialists from finance ministries across the world, as well as World Bank staff and other international experts, to discuss the fiscal challenges involved in implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) established under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Rapid urbanization has the potential to improve the well-being of societies. If managed prudently, it can transform the development course of economies. But the path of urbanization is also fraught with numerous human development challenges intensified by poverty, economic disparities, lack of housing and basic services, inefficient transport systems and lack of sustainable financing models. The world needs inclusive and sustainable urbanization as recognized by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - Goal #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

In the ongoing reforms of the education sector in Guatemala and Dominican Republic (DR), there have been challenges in achieving clarity and consensus on the role and responsibilities of school principals. Both Guatemala and DR also face challenges with capacity and technical knowledge needed to professionally develop school principals and school leaders in the face of learning crisis in the countries. Guatemala and DR are two of the lowest performers in the regional learning assessments in both primary and secondary education.

The Honduran Government has been working to develop capacity to effectively monitor public policy results and improve public spending effectiveness in a tight fiscal context. In this effort, it has moved toward consolidating reforms in key areas such as public financial management. It has begun the development of a second phase of its comprehensive National Public Investment System to support the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of the public investment portfolio.

The World Bank has been supporting improvements to the Nigerian water sector since 2004. Its Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for fiscal year 2014 to 2017 identified improved access to water supply as central to improvement of health in Nigeria. In coordination with the third World Bank-financed National Urban Water Sector Reform Project (NUWSRP III), key Nigerian officials in the water supply and sewerage (WSS) sector needed help to identify, design, and implement key sector reforms.

Through this grant, Nicaraguan participants have increased their capacity and skills for designing and implementing policies to develop the IT-ITES sector, and as an ultimate objective, to implement one of the pillars of the National Development Plan. The exchange helped strengthen the collaboration between government, academia and private sector. Finally, it helped maintain momentum with the CARCIP Project and raised awareness to use CARCIP as a platform to catalyze the IT-ITES sector and to achieve the goals of the NDP.