The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) African countries face a crisis in terms of human resources for health (HRH). This deeply affects their ability to deliver health results on the ground, achieve Universal Health Coverage, and foster economic growth; 2) Most countries in Africa are experiencing a shortage in health workers and in the skills required to achieve MDGs 4 and 5, which aim to reduce deaths among children and mothers.
... See More + The shortage is particularly acute in the areas of pediatrics, obstetrics, and infectious disease; 3) the HRH crisis in many countries can be explained partly by the lack of sufficient physical, technical and organizational capacity to produce health workers or specific skill profiles that respond to critical and country specific needs; 4) while greater investment is needed to strengthen health worker education, including post-graduate and tertiary health science education systems, other factors also contribute to the HRH crisis, including lack of incentives and challenging working and living conditions which further affect health worker distribution and performance; 5) on the education front, potential solutions to the HRH crisis include identifying and addressing underlying and country-specific labor market inefficiencies such as through innovative education models that encompass investments in research capacity, faculty development, partnership and social accountability; and 6) Outside of the education system, other key fixes include incentives for health workers, greater funding for HRH in rural areas, and better management and accountability systems for frontline health facilities.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Africa's leaders see agriculture as an engine for overall economic development; in Sub-Saharan Africa it contributes 32 percent of gross domestic product and 65 percent of employment; 2) Growth in agriculture is twice to four times as effective in reducing poverty as other sectors but is held back by a lack of qualified professionals; 3) The low level of human capital in Africa's agricultural sector remains a significant constraint to growth, poverty reduction, and food security on the continent; 4) Agricultural education has been neglected for several decades and is poorly prepared to address the need for qualified professionals; 5) African ministers and leaders have asked for "a radically new approach" to agriculture education, as the current system is out of step with the job market; and 6) The World Bank is supporting African leaders as they seek ways to transform higher education so that it produces entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and business leaders who contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.
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The key messages for this brief are as follows: 1) Africa has a window of opportunity to enlarge the economic benefits from its booming oil, gas, and minerals industries; 2) The lack of specialized expertise is a major bottleneck obstructing the potential for more well-paid jobs and home-grown supplier companies; 3) Significant skills shortages exist both in terms of numbers and quality, particularly within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM fields); 4) Establishing public private partnerships and regional centers of excellence is key to building these specializations; and 5) The World Bank is supporting 10 African countries as they train workers for the extractive industries.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Africa's leaders see agriculture as an engine for overall economic development; in Sub-Saharan Africa it contributes 32 percent of gross domestic product and 65 percent of employment; 2) Growth in agriculture is twice to four times as effective in reducing poverty as other sectors but is held back by a lack of qualified professionals; 3) The low level of human capital in Africa's agricultural sector remains a significant constraint to growth, poverty reduction, and food security on the continent; 4) Agricultural education has been neglected for several decades and is poorly prepared to address the need for qualified professionals; 5) African ministers and leaders have asked for "a radically new approach" to agriculture education, as the current system is out of step with the job market; and 6) The World Bank is supporting African leaders as they seek ways to transform higher education so that it produces entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and business leaders who contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) African countries face a crisis in terms of human resources for health (HRH). This deeply affects their ability to deliver health results on the ground, achieve Universal Health Coverage, and foster economic growth; 2) Most countries in Africa are experiencing a shortage in health workers and in the skills required to achieve MDGs 4 and 5, which aim to reduce deaths among children and mothers.
... See More + The shortage is particularly acute in the areas of pediatrics, obstetrics, and infectious disease; 3) the HRH crisis in many countries can be explained partly by the lack of sufficient physical, technical and organizational capacity to produce health workers or specific skill profiles that respond to critical and country specific needs; 4) while greater investment is needed to strengthen health worker education, including post-graduate and tertiary health science education systems, other factors also contribute to the HRH crisis, including lack of incentives and challenging working and living conditions which further affect health worker distribution and performance; 5) on the education front, potential solutions to the HRH crisis include identifying and addressing underlying and country-specific labor market inefficiencies such as through innovative education models that encompass investments in research capacity, faculty development, partnership and social accountability; and 6) Outside of the education system, other key fixes include incentives for health workers, greater funding for HRH in rural areas, and better management and accountability systems for frontline health facilities.
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The key messages for this brief are as follows: 1) Africa has a window of opportunity to enlarge the economic benefits from its booming oil, gas, and minerals industries; 2) The lack of specialized expertise is a major bottleneck obstructing the potential for more well-paid jobs and home-grown supplier companies; 3) Significant skills shortages exist both in terms of numbers and quality, particularly within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM fields); 4) Establishing public private partnerships and regional centers of excellence is key to building these specializations; and 5) The World Bank is supporting 10 African countries as they train workers for the extractive industries.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Mozambique has prioritized the development of higher education with a focus on science and technologyl; 2) Building a higher education system from scratch requires longterm external technical and financial support and government commitment; 3) Strong policies and visible progress have attracted international funding; 4) Further efforts are needed to expand science and technology programs; and 5) The momentum must be maintained so students are prepared for jobs in Mozambiques emerging economy.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Africa has experienced strong economic growth despite recent global downturns. There has been a resurgence of traditional sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries, and promising new sectors have emerged such as Information and Communications Technology (ICT); 2) African economies urgently need highly skilled technicians, engineers, medical workers, agricultural scientists and researchers to fuel these booming sectors.
... See More + Barely 10 percent of jobs in these areas are currently filled by African science and engineering graduates; 3) Higher education, particularly in science and technology, holds the potential to be absolutely transformative for Africa, because it can equip young people with critical knowledge and skills that are in short supply on the continent; 4) Regional "centers of excellence" offer an optimal and cost-effective way to build and sustain excellence in higher education in Africa because they foster regional specialization, concentrate limited toplevel faculty, and generate knowledge spillovers; and 5) The Africa Centers of Excellence initiative, currently being prepared by the World Bank in collaboration with the Association of African Universities, is an innovative regional response to making higher education more relevant to development.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Mozambique has prioritized the development of higher education with a focus on science and technologyl; 2) Building a higher education system from scratch requires longterm external technical and financial support and government commitment; 3) Strong policies and visible progress have attracted international funding; 4) Further efforts are needed to expand science and technology programs; and 5) The momentum must be maintained so students are prepared for jobs in Mozambiques emerging economy.
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The key messages of this brief are as follows: 1) The Malawi Growth Development Strategy II recognizes the crucial role of higher education as a key driver of competitiveness and growth; 2) The country's higher education system needs to beoverhauled to take in more students, achieve greater equity in enrollment, and offer higher-quality programs relevant tomarket needs; 3) A major concern is that there are far too few qualifiedgraduates to meet market needs in the country, a gap that is bound to negatively affect the economy if unaddressed; 4) University management should include private sector and civil society representatives to ensure that learning is delivered more efficiently and is aligned with market needs; and 5) Encouraging private providers and exploring more sustainable avenues of financing are critical to bridge Malawi's financing and capacity gaps in higher education.
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The key messages of this brief are as follows: 1) The Malawi Growth Development Strategy II recognizes the crucial role of higher education as a key driver of competitiveness and growth; 2) The country's higher education system needs to beoverhauled to take in more students, achieve greater equity in enrollment, and offer higher-quality programs relevant tomarket needs; 3) A major concern is that there are far too few qualifiedgraduates to meet market needs in the country, a gap that is bound to negatively affect the economy if unaddressed; 4) University management should include private sector and civil society representatives to ensure that learning is delivered more efficiently and is aligned with market needs; and 5) Encouraging private providers and exploring more sustainable avenues of financing are critical to bridge Malawi's financing and capacity gaps in higher education.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Africa has experienced strong economic growth despite recent global downturns. There has been a resurgence of traditional sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries, and promising new sectors have emerged such as Information and Communications Technology (ICT); 2) African economies urgently need highly skilled technicians, engineers, medical workers, agricultural scientists and researchers to fuel these booming sectors.
... See More + Barely 10 percent of jobs in these areas are currently filled by African science and engineering graduates; 3) Higher education, particularly in science and technology, holds the potential to be absolutely transformative for Africa, because it can equip young people with critical knowledge and skills that are in short supply on the continent; 4) Regional "centers of excellence" offer an optimal and cost-effective way to build and sustain excellence in higher education in Africa because they foster regional specialization, concentrate limited toplevel faculty, and generate knowledge spillovers; and 5) The Africa Centers of Excellence initiative, currently being prepared by the World Bank in collaboration with the Association of African Universities, is an innovative regional response to making higher education more relevant to development.
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Ratings for the Second Education Development Project for Lao People's Democratic Republic were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, risk to development outcome was moderate, Bank performance was satisfactory, and Borrower performance was satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: decentralization of school construction to remote rural communities increases ownership and commitment to education. Mainstreaming implementation within government agencies requires ongoing capacity building. Strong financial management systems are critical for ensuring the efficient use and accounting of resources.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR1552 FEB 28, 2014
The objective of the Learning, Equity and Accountability Program Support Project for Philippines is to improve the quality of grades 1 to 3 reading and math skills of children in target regions and target schools, with a special focus on those belonging to target disadvantaged groups.
... See More + The project has three components. (1) Improvement of teaching and learning in grades 1 to 3 reading and math; (2) strengthening of accountability and incentives of Department of Education employees; and (3) improvement of program design for targeting disadvantaged groups. The project will focus on improving teaching and learning in early grades reading and math through: (i) enhancing and supporting Department of Education overall reading and math program; (ii) providing incentives and increasing accountability for results of school/education personnel; and (iii) helping ensure that the most disadvantaged have access to these educational services.
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The development objective of the Decentralizing Funding to Schools Project for Myanmar is to improve and expand Myanmar's existing school grants and student stipends programs.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) beneficiary assessment, financed and facilitated by the Bank and its contacting agency, will be conducted on an annual basis which aims to assess, and report to Ministry of Education (MoE) and beneficiary people, the past year's progress with regard to the school stipend and school grants programs including on implementation of community participation planning framework (CPPF); (2) Department of Education Planning and Training (DEPT), Department of Basic Educations (DBEs), and Township Education Offices (TEOs) will organize meetings with beneficiary communities and share assessment results; (3) monitoring steps in the local areas will be complemented by the Bank-executed technical assistant (TA) program which will provide information to help the MoE continuously improve the management and operations of the stipend and school grants programs; and (4) the endorsed school improvement plan will be announced at the school assembly and will be displayed at the school notice board for the public.
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The development objective of the Education Quality Reform Project is to improve the quality of education for primary school children in Mongolia with particular emphasis on improving reading and math learning outcomes.
... See More + The project is not expected to have any significant negative impact to indigenous people. On the contrary, it will provide indigenous people with a unique opportunity to enhance their education quality. However, if needed the project will be tailored to fulfill the culture related requirements/demands from related communities, e.g. the sub-projects might need to be designed and implemented in local language. Therefore, this Indigenous People Planning Framework is prepared to: i) ensure ethnic minority groups can benefit from the project; ii) conduct free, prior, and informed consultation with ethnic minority communities; and iii) ensure issues raised by ethnic minority communities are incorporated into subcomponent designs.
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The objective of the Youth Employment Project is to improve access to employment skills and employment opportunities for underemployed youth in Benin.
... See More + There are four components to the project, the first component being developing skills through apprenticeships. This component will support improved access for underemployed youth to apprenticeships of improved quality in skilled trades, and help the Government and private sector trade associations to expand and improve nationally recognized certification for skills learned in such apprenticeships. The second component is the developing small business skills. This component will support the Agence Nationale pour la Promotion de l'Emploi (ANPE) to scale up and improve the quality of its existing programs to assist predominantly underemployed youth to develop skills related to establishing and managing a small business. The third component is the start-up support. The component will also provide mentoring to help youth address problems that may confront them as they try to establish their business, to market themselves, and to identify opportunities. Depending on the sector of activity, artisan associations or the ANPE may be tasked to provide such mentoring over time. Finally, the fourth component is the institutional capacity building and project management.
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The development objective of the Results for Education Achievement and Development (READ) Project for Gambia is to increase access to basic education, improve quality of teaching and learning in lower basic schools, and strengthen education systems.
... See More + The project has four components. The first component will support increasing access to basic education. It has following four sub-components: (i) school construction; (ii) donkey carts; (iii) community-based early childhood care and development (ECD); and (iv) provision of school sub-grants to support sub-projects to all lower and upper basic public schools and stationery to all students in lower basic education in hardship areas. The second component aims to improve quality of teaching and learning. It has following eight sub-components: (a) enhancing teacher training; (b) stipends for teacher students; (c) hardship allowances for public lower and upper basic teachers in remote areas; (d) extended teacher continuing professional development; (e) teacher supervision and support through the use of a standardized classroom observation tool; (f) reading in the early grades with a focus on building reading abilities; (g) reading in the early grades with a focus on building reading abilities; and (h) LEARNET, a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative for information and communication technology (ICT) integration in learning and teaching, will provide broadband and curriculum- linked dynamic e-content to public schools. The third component, technical assistance (TA) aims to support institutional and capacity strengthening interventions to facilitate the implementation of components one and two and engaging in effective communication regarding the sector and the READ project. It has following two sub-components: (i) development and implementation of a strong communication strategy including dissemination of information, training, outreach campaigns, and surveys; and (ii) institutional support and capacity building. The fourth component, strengthening the education system with a focus on governance and management results aims to improve access to education, and teachers and students' performance, through the achievement of disbursement linked indicators (DLIs).
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The development objective of the Second Education Sector Development Project for Azerbaijan is to: (i) enhance the effectiveness of teaching in general secondary schools; (ii) improve learning results in schools which receive new school libraries and where teachers adopt improved teaching practices as a result of in-service training; and (iii) improve efficiency of spending on general education.
... See More + This restructuring will support: (i) revising the project development objectives (PDO) to sharpen the focus on improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning conditions as the key project development outcome; (ii) modifying the results framework to better measure project outcomes; (iii) extending the project closing date from March 31, 2014, to March 31, 2016, for an additional 24 months to allow for the project's successful completion; and (iv) reallocating credit proceeds across priority areas to reflect implementation progress and challenges.
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