Promote Rural Development for Communities around Protected Areas In October 2019, the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Directorate of Wildlife and National Parks, in partnership with the Namibia Association of Community-Based Natural Resources Management Support Organizations (NASCO), facilitated a seven-day study tour to Namibia for a delegation from South Africa. The program consisted of a…

Strengthening the Water Sector Institutional Development in Angola 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…

Approaches to Effective Air Route Development in Madagascar Air and road connections are the most commonly mentioned constraints to growth for tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Government of Madagascar (GoM) has set itself the ambitious target of welcoming 500,000 tourist arrivals by 2023. In this context, under the Madagascar Integrated Growth Poles and Corridor (SOP2 Project), funded by the World Bank,…

Health Sector Reform in Paraguay Paraguay operates a fragmented health care system with three major health provider networks namely the Ministry of Health, the Institute for Social Security and thirdly, a range of private sector providers. This fragmentation has led to inefficient resource allocation, duplication in service delivery and inequality in health service utilization…

Community-based Initiatives in Conservation Areas in Mozambique 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…

Governance Structures for Business Environment Reforms in Afghanistan A high-level delegation of officials from Afghanistan, comprising key members of the Private Sector Development Secretariat (PRISEC), visited Morocco on April 7-11, 2019. The knowledge exchange was intended to complement a World Bank Group advisory services project, the Afghanistan Business Enabling Environment, which supports the Islamic Republic…

Building a skilled workforce in Tunisia Typically, attaining high education is expected to increase one’s probability of joining the labor force. In Tunisia, people with high education face a high probability of being unemployed. More than half of the Tunisian working-age population remains outside the labor force. Reconsidering the role of TVET is critical in bridging gaps in the…

ICT Leadership Capacity Building for Moldovan Officials In December 2009, Moldova began a journey of government transformation using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Moldova’s leadership wanted to leverage ICT to increase the country’s growth, following the example of Singapore and other countries that have used ICT to become global leaders in competitiveness. Senior Moldovan officials…

Decentralization and Local Government Development Exchange between Tunisia and Turkey The Government of Tunisia sought to move forward its decentralization agenda in response to citizens’ demands for more accountable, effective, and efficient government. To gain knowledge on how to best operationalize an ambitious agenda for decentralization and local government empowerment, the Government participated in a knowledge exchange with…

Boosting the Information Technology and Information Technology-Enabled Services (IT-ITES) Sector in Nicaragua 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…

Public Private Partnerships in Irrigation The Government of Ghana has made private investment in infrastructure and services through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) a development priority. This commitment is in response to a major infrastructure deficit, a narrow fiscal space, and a legacy of inefficient public service delivery. Improved infrastructure services are critical to economic…

Improving Delivery of Health Services in African Countries Health officials across the globe are increasingly interested in improving the quality of health care and its value for money, and consider Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) as one way to achieve these goals. In 2012, senior staff from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank’s Africa Unit organized an exchange in which…

Congo Learns about Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Service Contracts in Water and Sanitation Despite having the mighty Congo River—the third largest in the world—along its entire Eastern border, Congo lacks a proper water infrastructure; as a result nearly three quarters of Congo’s urban population has no access to clean water. Congo’s Ministry of Energy and Hydraulics requested the World Bank’s help to reform and encourage private sector…

Strengthening Water and Sanitation Systems in Yemen Yemen faces natural water shortages because of its geographic location. The problem is exacerbated by weak institutional arrangements in the water and sanitation sector. Yemen is striving to address those challenges and achieve sustainable and efficient use of its water resources, which in turn can help the country’s economic development. Upon…

Building Capacity to Develop Mauritania’s Livestock Value Chain In order to establish a red meat export initiative to fulfill its potential to be one of the top livestock industries, the Government of Mauritania learned from Zambia’s experience.  Lessons from the study tour resulted in policy changes; some were integrated into a feasibility study. Mauritania is being positioned to attract external funding…

Strengthening Service Delivery by State-Owned Enterprises in Paraguay Paraguay undertook an exchange program with Chile and Peru to enhance the knowledge and skills of its decision-makers and technical staff to serve as input to develop an efficient state-owned enterprises (SOE) oversight system. Having learned from two of the most advanced oversight units of the SOE sector in Latin America, Paraguay is currently…

Establishing e-Government Procurement in Vietnam: A Learning Tour with Chile on the Public-Private Partnership Process The Government of Vietnam wanted to establish e-government procurement (eGP) using a public-private partnership (PPP) model to improve government transparency.  However, Vietnam lacked the know-how for contracting with service providers who could install the e-system. Additionally there were no adequate regulations in place to govern the system.…

Strengthening Management of State-Owned Enterprises in Bolivia What was the objective of the South-South exchange? : The Bolivian Government sought to improve the management and regulation of state-owned enter­prises (SOE), which provide services in key sectors such as energy, transport, and communication. Boliv­ian officials approved in 2013 a Public Corporation Law establishing a legal framework for state-…

Building Efficient Municipal Enterprises for Better Delivery of Basic Public Services in Quito, Ecuador The commitment of the Metropolitan Municipality of Quito (MMQ) to provide access to adequate sustainable public services has been undermined by its inefficient and financially dependent enterprises. Through an exchange, the Municipality of Medellin and Empresas Públicas de Medellin (EPM) shared best practices and lessons learned from their…

Building Capacity to Develop and Manage Roads in Lao PDR Complementing a Bank-financed project, transport officials and provincial governors from Lao PDR visited South Africa to learn from its national roads agency and other organizations. Delegates increased their skills in road administration, asset management, and public-private partnerships. Laotian officials leveraged know-how to introduce pilot…

Improving Road Maintenance in Vietnam To address rising road maintenance costs and improve road safety, Vietnamese officials sought cost-effective ways to maintain Vietnam’s roads, such as the introduction of Performance Based-Contracts (PBCs).  However, Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport (MoT) lacked capacity to apply PBCs to road maintenance projects, and officials from the Ministry…