The development objective of the Secondary Education Improvement Project for Ghana is to increase access to upper secondary education in underserved school districts and improve quality in low-performing senior high schools in Ghana.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) providing compensation to project-affected people (PAPs) according to World Bank environmental and social safeguard policies; (2) recruiting local labor as much as is available; (3) including sanitary facilities in the project design, and providing running water; and (4) improving transport infrastructure or facilities under the project.
See Less -
Founded in 2008, the Employment Fund Project (EF) is currently one of the largest youth training initiatives in the country, reaching more than 15,000 youth annually.
... See More + In partnership with the EFs donors,5 the Adolescent Girls Employment Initiative (AGEI) was launched in 2010 to expand the programs reach to an additional 4,410 Nepali young women aged 16 to 24 over a three-year period. Each year the EF competitively contracts training and employment service providers (T&Es), including formal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, public and private providers, as well as skilled artisans. EF ensures that training courses are market-driven by requiring that providers complete a Rapid Market Assessment during the competitive bidding process. The program had positive impacts on the following labor market outcomes that are both statistically and economically significant: employment rates; finding employment related to the skills in which youth were trained; earnings; and the proportion of youth earning more than 3,000 NRs (40 USD) per month.
See Less -
This paper uses a new data set of 12,000 firms in China to estimate the returns to research and development investment and its spillover effects, and investigates how the returns to research and development depend on firm incentives.
... See More + For the firms in the sample, the results show that on average firm output increases around 0.4 yuan for each additional 1 yuan spent on research and development in the previous year, and there is high research and development return regardless of whether the analysis deals with the endogeneity of research and development intensity. Interestingly, the marginal return to research and development is significantly higher in firms whose chief executive officers were not appointed by the government and lower when the chief executive officer's pay is directly related to annual performance. The return to research and development is higher in relatively poor regions and for firms with worse access to finance. There are also non-trivial research and development spillover effects.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS7191 FEB 01, 2015
This paper tests experiential learning as a debiasing tool against gambling and lottery behavior in South Africa. The study implemented a simple, interactive dice game that simulates worsening winning odds of rolling sixes as more dice are added to the game.
... See More + The analysis exploits two levels of exogenous variation, first from random assignment into the debiasing game, and second from the number of rolls it takes to obtain the sixes. Treated individuals who needed above-median number of rolls to obtain simultaneous sixes are significantly less likely than the control group to gamble or play the lottery in the following year. The converse is true for individuals who needed below-median number of rolls, suggesting a perverse treatment effect among this group. The analysis also finds suggestive evidence that the debiasing affected the sensitivity to varying winning odds. Changes in entertainment utility or risk preferences cannot explain these findings, rather the results are consistent with changes in risk beliefs.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS7195 FEB 01, 2015
One of the most fruitful advances in modern economics has been the introduction of psychological realism into the model of "economic man." The World Development Report 2015 organizes the evidence about how humans actually think and make decisions into a coherent framework useful for designing development policy.
... See More + This paper elaborates on the three principles of human thinking that constitute the report's intellectual framework: Human thinking is dual process -- automatic as well as deliberative (thinking automatically); it is conditioned by social context and the salience of social identities (thinking socially); and it is shaped by mental models that are socially constructed (thinking with mental models). Behavioral insights create scope for policy interventions that produce "miracles" from the perspective of traditional economics.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS7197 FEB 01, 2015
Behavioral economics recognizes that mental models -- intuitive sets of ideas about how things work -- can bias an individual's perceptions of himself and the world.
... See More + By representing an ascriptive category of people as unworthy, a mental model can foster unjust social exclusion of, for example, a race, gender, caste, or class. Since the representation is a social construction, shouldn't society be able to control it? But how? This paper considers three interventions that have had some success in developing countries: (1) Group deliberation in Senegal challenged the traditional mental model of female genital cutting and contributed to the abandonment of the practice; (2) political reservations for women and low castes in India improved the way men perceived women, the way parents perceived their daughters, and the way women perceived themselves, but have not generally had positive effects on the low castes; and (3) reductions in the salience of identity closed performance gaps between dominant and stigmatized groups in experiments in India and China. Spoiled collective identities need to be changed or made less prominent in order to overcome social exclusion.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS7198 FEB 01, 2015
When client countries ask World Bank Task Team Leaders (TTLs), in charge of Bank-client relations how top-performing countries tackle different issues related to teacher policies (e.g., teacher training, incentives or accountability), TTLs have to respond to such requests on a case-by-case basis either by using Bank publications and databases or taking the initiative to find out more about policies in top performing education systems.
... See More + This approach has the advantage of being tailored to the specific needs of each country, but it has the drawbacks of being time-consuming, duplicating work, lacking comparability and including few countries. This brief consists of three form activities for teachers to engage in to mitigate some of these drawbacks. There are three prime activities of SABER teachers and they are: 1. Collecting information about teacher policies by administering a set of questionnaires to key informants and gathering quantitative data and legal documents; 2. Analyzing this information by classifying countries according to how they fare on eight core teacher policy goals to which all school systems should aim; 3. Disseminating this information through this website, print materials and workshops. We also hope that cross-national comparisons on teacher policies will shed light on what policy-makers can do to improve the quality of teaching.
See Less -
The 2014 Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in West Africa is the largest to date by far. Ebola Virus Disease causes disproportionate mortality among the working-age population, resulting in far more mortality for parents of young children than other health crises.
... See More + This paper combines data on the age distribution of current and projected mortality from Ebola with the fertility distribution of adults in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, to estimate the likely impact of the epidemic on the number of orphans in these three countries. Using the latest mortality estimates (from February 11, 2015), it is estimated that more than 9,600 children have lost one or both parents to Ebola Virus Disease. The absolute numbers of orphans created by the Ebola epidemic are significant, but represent a small fraction (1.4 percent) of the existing orphan burden in the affected countries. Ebola is unlikely to increase the numbers of orphans beyond extended family networks' capacities to absorb them. Nonetheless, the pressures of caring for increased numbers of orphans may result in lower quality of care. These estimates should be used to guide policy to support family networks to improve the capacity to provide high quality care to orphans.
See Less -
Policy Research Working Paper WPS7196 FEB 01, 2015
The returns to investments in early childhood development (ECD) are manifold and can include improved school readiness, reduced drop-out rates, higher labor force productivity and greater social cohesion.
... See More + Despite these high returns, enrollment in early childhood education is just 18 percent across Africa, with disproportionately high enrollment from children in urban areas and from wealthier families. Interactive Audio Instruction (IAI) is a distance learning technology that can deliver low-cost, culturally appropriate education via radio or mobile audio technology. It is a highly effective tool to reach children who can be hard to reach through conventional programs, including the rural poor and children with disabilities. IAI can also be an effective form of service delivery in unstable and conflict-affected regions.
See Less -
The development objective of the Secondary Education Improvement Project for Ghana is to increase access to upper secondary education in underserved school districts and improve quality in low-performing senior high schools in Ghana.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) using site selection criteria for land acquisition; (2) dousing areas to be excavated with water to minimize dust emissions; (3) using traffic wardens to coordinate traffic flow; (4) providing waste skips for waste collection; (5) providing and maintaining suitable toilet facilities on school compound; and (6) installing rain gutters to harvest rain into designated receptacles for use in toilets, laboratories.
See Less -
The objectives of the GPE Primary Education Development Project for Kenya are to improve early grade mathematics competency and to strengthen management systems at school and national levels.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: conduct awareness and sensitization targeting the users of the electronic devices to ensure that they engage in best practice for e-waste management; establish e-waste collection centres in all schools, including collection bins and receptacles; all schools benefiting from the electronic devices over the life of the project will be required to establish a collection centre where all the e-wastes are deposited before they are transferred to Nairobi for recycling. All those provided with the devices will not be provided with a replacement of a new device until the obsolete devices are returned back; and protect and enhance intellectual property in, and indigenous knowledge of, biodiversity and the genetic resources of the communities.
See Less -
The Balochistan Education Support Project for Pakistan received a moderately satisfactory outcome rating with high risk to development outcome.
... See More + The Bank received a satisfactory rating for their performance while the Borrower received a moderately satisfactory rating. Three restructurings took place throughout the course of this project. The first restructuring extended the project closing date 18 months to allow completion of construction activities under Component 1 of the Project. The second restructuring (i) Extended the project closing date another two years to allow for completion of construction of functional community schools under Component 1 and (ii) Reallocation of unallocated expenditure category to finance Community Implementation Partner contracts for extension period, to meet Balochistan Education Foundation (BEF) equipment and operational expenses during extension period, and to provide additional resources for school construction. The third restructuring reallocated funds originally allocated for the construction of a BEF office to cover expenses for office equipment for BEF staff (including monitoring equipment), a refresher teacher training course for community school teachers, and overdrawn Category 4 expenditure on support to construction of community schools. The following lessons were drawn from this project: (1) It is very important that the public sector commitment and ownership for the implementation and successful completion of any project are efficient. (2) The PECs when migrate or their children graduate, they have to quit the membership of the PEC. The PECs should be imparted with regular training every year or every second or third year. (3) In retaining children and teachers attendance, and increasing children enrollment and decreasing dropouts, community active participation is important. (4) Public sector institutions capacity to measure average annual increase in learning achievement in Language and Mathematics in Schools is weak. This needs to be built within institution, which deal with the education sector. (5) To retain teachers at Community Schools, their salaries need to be at the minimum equivalent to the minimum wage rate. (6) Capacity development support is crucial for ensuring timely and effective implementation of projects in provinces and regions that have limited public sector capacity, weak private sector presence and have deteriorating law and order situation. (7) Community School construction should be undertaken through professional engineering contractors under the supervision of PECs. (8) Early Childhood Education should be made a part of primary school teacher training. (9) Most importantly, the community school establishment design is far time and cost effective. The province is suffering from and alarming access issue. Education Department of Balochistan should adopt this design to ensure access throughout Balochistan.
See Less -
Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3246 JAN 30, 2015
The Compensatory Education Project for received a satisfactory outcome rating with low risk to development outcome. The Banks performance was rated moderately satisfactory while the Borrower received a satisfactory rating.
... See More + There was one restricting that took place within this project. The change was a reallocation of funds from Categories 2 and 6 to Category 1. This change was requested in order to disburse the full loan before Project closing. There were no revisions to the PDO or project components. The Project provided a number of lessons that were considered in preparation of the follow-on operation. With respect to the Early Childhood Development (ECD) intervention, there were lessons learned about sessions specifically targeted at fathers, which were unsuccessful. Future efforts to engage fathers should be better suited to the cultural and gender norms that prevail in many of these areas. The Mobile Pedagogical Support (API) program has also provided valuable lessons. Since engagement with parents is an important element of the program, visits by APIs to parents will be held on weekends, in order to maximize the probability that fathers who work outside the village of origin are present, since women are less likely to receive the API when they are home alone. One key lesson learned from the program is the need for more frequent supervision by National Council for Educational Development (CONAFE) of schools targeted by the program. From an administrative viewpoint, expense categories under the Project did not correspond with Project Components, making it difficult for the Implementing Agency to monitor Project costs. Categorization of expenses by component, rather than by procurement category, would allow for a better understanding of outputs and activities by component in future projects.
See Less -
Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3228 JAN 29, 2015
The second phase of the School-Based Management Project for the United Mexican States received a moderately satisfactory outcome with low or negligible risk to development outcome.
... See More + Both the Bank and Borrowers performances were moderately satisfactory. Ultimately there were three restructurings that took place. The first restructuring dropped Component 3 because most activities were not critical to the achievement of the PDO and were supported outside the Project, revised Component 2 to include the impact evaluation previously under Component 3, the provision of technical assistance to states to improve their prioritization of marginalized and indigenous schools, and the carrying out of an monitoring and evaluation survey to collect data from community members on the School Based Management model in Quality Schools Program (PEC) schools, among others. The restructuring also adjusted the results framework to ensure full measurement of the achievement of the PDO. A reallocation of part of the loan proceeds to increase the number of beneficiary schools and an extension of the closing date by one year were also part of this restructuring. The second restructuring reallocated all funds from Category 3 (Consultant Services) to Category 1 (Goods, Works and Consultant's Services supported under direct support to schools). This change was needed because Ministry of Public Education (SEP) decided to finance the impact evaluation of PEC with its own resources. The third restructuring reallocated US$93,331.55 from Category 2 (Incremental Project Costs) to Category 1 (Goods, Works and Consultants' Services supported under the direct support to schools). The change was necessary, given SEP's decision to finance the remaining operating costs with its own resources. There were six lessons learned from this project and they are as follows: (1) Early adjustment of PDO and project results framework is desirable. (2) A rigorous impact evaluation of PEC is crucial to understand the effect of the program on learning outcomes. (3) Local Education Authorities play an important role in planning and implementing federal programs on the ground. It is important to find compelling ways to ensure that all states provide their PEC counterpart financing in a timely manner and comply with management information systems (MIS) that are compatible with the federal MIS. (4) In future operations, Project procurement and FM should be simplified in regards to the direct support to schools to avoid burdening schools with excessive administrative requirements and delays in the reporting of disbursements and proof of expenditures from the Government to the Bank. (5) Moving into country systems in countries with a solid fiduciary structure could help expedite technical assistance procurement processes and ensure that countries benefit from the technical assistance built into the project designs without necessarily compromising healthy procurement procedures. (6) The simplification and dissemination of school planning instruments help disadvantaged schools put together initial school improvement plans and therefore allow them to benefit more frequently from programs such as PEC.
See Less -
Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR1629 JAN 29, 2015
The development objective of the Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM) for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) including, a Global Learning and Knowledge Exchange Project for the World is to strengthen the capacity of IPLCs to participate in the forest investment program and other Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programs at local, national, and global levels.
... See More + Forests comprise the largest terrestrial carbon pool and balance the global carbon budget storing nearly 247gigatons of carbon (45 percent of terrestrial carbon) in their biomass for decades or longer, releasing it to the atmosphere only when burned or cleared for other land uses. Deforestation and forest degradation, however, continue to mobilize greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere, disturbing the carbon cycle and contributing to global warming. REDD has emerged as a promising approach that can tackle forest-based emissions and contribute to development outcomes. Greater voice and role for IPLCs will make REDD+ more effective in achieving its goals. The DGM program objective will be achieved by: (i) establishing and strengthening representative IPLC-led governing bodies for DGM decision-making in forest investment program (FIP) pilot countries and at the global level; (ii) providing grants to IPLCs in FIP pilot countries for initiatives consistent with DGM and FIP criteria; (iii) providing training and capacity development in leadership, management, and technical skills to IPLCs at country and global levels; (iv) facilitating knowledge exchange and learning on REDD+ and climate change issues between and among IPLCs at regional and global levels; (v) strengthening networks and alliances of IPLC organizations within and across regions; and (vi) enabling scale up of successful local solutions for forest and landscape management. The program has two parts - the first part comprises the DGM country projects and the second, the global learning and knowledge exchange project which serves as an umbrella to the entire program.
See Less -
The Higher Education Reform Project of Nepal has an objectives to support reforms in selected institutions for improving quality, relevance and efficiency of higher education; and to assist underprivileged students for equitable access.
... See More + The governments NPHERD has four components: (i) Higher Education Reforms; (ii) Centers of Excellence; (iii) System Strengthening; and (iv) Regular Program. The IDA-financed Higher Education Reforms Project (HERP) supports the Higher Education Reforms component and the Regular Program component of NPHERD through partial financing of faculty salaries, student scholarships and research grants, and financing of capacity building and project management. The Project is structured around two components: (i) Implementation of Reforms; and (ii) Capacity Building and Project Management. Component one will use a results-based approach (RBF) whereby IDA funds will be disbursed against specific eligible expenditure programs (EEPs, see Annex 3) in the development and regular program budget heads upon the achievement of pre-specified results measured by a set of disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs). This component will focus on the following four results areas to help achieve the PDO: (i) Systemic and Institutional Reforms; (ii) Academic Reforms and Relevance; (iii) Equity; and (iv) Academic Excellence and Research. Component two will support effective implementation and monitoring of NPHERD. It will finance inputs and activities required to achieve the above-stated results and enhance the capacity of the implementing, coordinating and participating agencies. Technical assistance will include inputs and activities such as: (i) services of consultants in the areas of procurement, financial management, EMIS and information technology; (ii) employer, student and faculty satisfaction surveys; (iii) studies associated with implementation of the HEP; (iv) impact assessments in various areas of project intervention; (v) strategic planning and institutional capacity building; and (vi) conferences and workshops. Inputs and activities supporting project management will include: (a) salaries for project staff; (b) staff training and study tours; (c) monitoring and evaluation including monitoring of compliance with applicable agreements and guidelines; (d) travel and subsistence allowances; and (e) vehicles10, office equipment including computers, office rental and other associated costs. This component will also support activities that will require central-level coordination and support for networking among HEIs to access global knowledge.
See Less -