Healthy children are better able than sick or malnourished children to go to school and learn. Developed and developing countries are increasingly concerned about how childrens health impacts their school attendance, learning, and development.
... See More + For this reason, school health and school feeding policies and programs are critical components of an effective education system. School health refers to school-based interventions that have health and education outcomes, while school feeding refers to interventions involving the supply of food to school-aged children. School feeding is a part of school health, but because of the importance of the resources in school feeding, it is often treated separately. The World Banks Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) is an initiative to collect and analyze information on government policies in order to improve education systems. Based on a review of the available evidence, the SABER, school health and school feeding program identified four school health policy goals with corresponding policy levers to highlight best practices and key challenges to inform policy decisions. These goals were selected based on the initiative known as the FRESH (Focusing Resources on Effective School Health) framework that was developed in partnership with the global community to provide a set of unifying principles to guide school health policies and programs globally. The four goals are: health-related school policies, safe, supportive school environments, school-based health and nutrition services, and skills-based health education.
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The most severe impact of the Ebola epidemic, which began in Guinea in December 2013 and quickly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, has been in lost human lives and suffering.
... See More + This report, prepared for the World Economic Forum at Davos, focuses on the indirect, economic costs, in particular the effects on economic output in 2015. Most of the economic cost is driven by aversion behavior, which consists of both the actions taken by individuals to avoid exposure to the illness and actions taken by investors in anticipation of those individual choices. The report first estimates the impact of the epidemic on gross domestic product (GDP) in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Here the report builds on sector-specific analysis to update World Bank forecasts for the three countries, and incorporates recent results of World Bank-financed cellphone surveys in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The authors evaluate the economic effects of the epidemic on the continent, beyond the three hardest-hit countries, using assessments by World Bank country economists across the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the report updates estimates from the global economic model of the research arm of the World Bank, to quantify the 2015 impact of the potential spread of the epidemic to other countries. Updated general equilibrium analysis suggests that further spread of the epidemic to other African economies, if the epidemic is not contained and instances of infection continue to occur in other countries, can potentially exact an economic toll of the order of 6 billion dollars. The results underscore the importance of: (a) Ebola and broader pandemic preparedness in African countries; and (b) reaching the goal of zero new cases as soon as possible in the three most affected countries.
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Working Paper 93721 JAN 20, 2015
Thomas, Mark Roland; Smith, Gregory; Ferreira, Francisco H. G.; Evans, David; Maliszewska, Maryla; Cruz, Marcio; Himelein, Kristen; Over, Mead
This paper assesses inequality of opportunity in educational achievement using the Human Opportunity Index methodology on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment.
... See More + The findings suggest that there are large inequalities in learning outcomes as measured by demonstrated proficiency in Programme for International Student Assessment test scores in math, reading, and science. Differences in wealth, parental education, and area of residence explain a bulk of this inequality in most of the countries in the sample. Consistent with what has been documented previously in the literature, the paper also finds a strong and stable correlation between inequality of opportunity and public spending on school education. An exploration of the changes in inequality of opportunity between the 2009 and 2012 rounds of the Programme for International Student Assessment, using parametric and nonparametric techniques, suggests that there has been little progress.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7152 JAN 01, 2015
Balcazar, Carlos Felipe; Narayan, Ambar; Tiwari, Sailesh
The paper investigates determinants of civic participation in local budget processes in rural areas in the Kyrgyz Republic by using data from the Life in Kyrgyzstan survey, conducted in 2012.
... See More + The analysis of the data suggests that although civic awareness and interest in local budget processes is relatively high, the participation rate in local budgeting processes is low. The paper also shows that interest, awareness, and participation are positively associated with the age, education, employment, risk-taking attitudes, trust, and social capital of respondents. The paper documents that unawareness and lack of participation are largely related to being female, of non-Kyrgyz ethnic origin, inactive in the labor market, recent internal migrants, and residents of communities with poor infrastructure.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7154 JAN 01, 2015
Located at the eastern-most point of the New Guinea islands, Bougainville comprises two large and many smaller islands. It has a population of approximately 200,000 and over a dozen different languages.
... See More + A province of Papua New Guinea since 1975, Bougainville is now an autonomous region within the country, the result of a nine-year revolt that left tens of thousands killed, a divided and traumatized population, degraded infrastructure, and a shattered economy brought on by the collapse of its main industry, mining. Prior to the conflict, women played vital roles in community-level decision-making and were key agents of development. Overall, women held important positions in the family and community. The dynamics of the conflict and post-conflict period weakened this role, resulting in women being marginalized from community decision-making processes. Further, during the conflict, women suffered violence as victims of torture, rape, and forced labor. The weakened capacity of women as agents of development within their communities and the low capacity of government departments working at the local level are widely viewed as significant challenges to development efforts.
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The extractive industries sector has been vital to the local economy of Papua New Guinea for over 20 years. Extractives have contributed substantially to government revenues but also face challenging social issues and significant environmental impacts in many areas.
... See More + A persistent challenge has been ensuring that extractives benefits reach local communities, including women and children. Research shows that benefits tend to be captured by men, while the impacts of social disruption and environmental harm fall most heavily on women and children.
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The main objective of the UYEP is to provide disadvantaged urban youth between the ages of 16 and 35 in the National Capital District (NCD) with income from temporary employment opportunities, and to increase their employability.
... See More + This will be done through three components: (1) Youth Job Corps: Community awareness, mobilization and screening campaign followed by basic life skills training and 40 days of labor-intensive employment for eligible youth; (2) Skills Development and Employment Scheme: Additional Pre-Employment Training (PET) and a further five months of on-the-job placements/training for eligible youth; and (3) Project Management: Implementation and technical support to NCDC. The project aims to impact 10,500 beneficiaries in the NCD and produce more than one-million work days. Eighty percent of the projects budget will be invested directly into the economy in the form of training, youth stipends, goods, and services through contracted public works. The project will issue mobile phones and establish BSP Kundu bank accounts for almost all youth participants with the help of Bank of South Pacific, Digicel, and PNG Telikom. Exxon Mobil will provide supervision and monitoring support, valuable to improve the delivery of the project, the project's youth and the future of PNG.
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This paper examines public sector size and performance management in post-revolution Tunisia, drawing on macro-empirical, legal, and qualitative analyses.
... See More + The paper first shows that public sector employment figures and the wage bill have increased significantly since the 2011 revolution, but that this represents merely an acceleration of the previous trend. The paper then examines de jure and de facto performance management in Tunisia's public sector, covering incentives through recruitment, evaluation, compensation, and promotion. The examination shows that Tunisia's legal framework is well-designed for recruiting the most skilled candidates into the public sector and promoting the most high-performing employees. De facto, the link between an employee's performance and evaluation, compensation, and promotion is weak. Performance evaluation is virtually nonexistent and promotions are automatic or awarded through a process that emphasizes seniority over performance. This is particularly true during the post-revolution period, in which a number of ad-hoc arrangements multiplied divergences between the legal basis for performance management and its application. These ad-hoc changes allowed the state to act as employer of last resort, significantly increasing direct (noncompetitive) recruitment and regularizing temporary staff. The increase in and proliferation of allowances have added to the complexity of the compensation system. In a qualitative review of past reform attempts, the paper demonstrates that reformers had identified the weaknesses of Tunisia's public sector performance system as early as 1989, but failed to achieve major change.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7159 JAN 01, 2015
Brockmeyer, Anne; Khatrouch, Maha; Raballand, Gael
Access to resources is low across the elementary and primary school systems in Papua New Guinea. The National Department of Education (NODE) is keenly aware that enrollment in primary and elementary school provide little value unless equal priority is given to improving teaching and learning.
... See More + This requires resources such as books and reading materials for students, but also professional development for teachers to support them with reading instruction. The main aim of the Reading Education Project is to promote better teaching and learning of reading skills in elementary and primary education. In order to achieve this, funding will be provided for classroom libraries and other educational materials and to train teachers on how to incorporate these into their language and reading lessons. The project will increase the supply of literacy materials in schools. Professional development will be provided to teachers on how to use classroom libraries to encourage children to read. See Less -
More than 80 percent of Papua New Guinea's population lives in rural areas. Most of these people depend on subsistence activities such as smallholder farming and fishing as well as alluvial mining and betel nut sales for their livelihoods.
... See More + One of the main barriers to shared growth and development in rural areas is poor quality and lack of access to information and communication technologies (ICT). In fact, access levels are some of the lowest in the world. Service delivery is extremely low due to high prices and limited investment in access networks. In mid-2007, total tele-density was just four percent countrywide and zero percent in the majority of rural areas. Private operators and aggressive competition in the mobile sector has resulted in increased coverage and access. Despite this, access is still limited in many parts of the country. The objective of the Rural Communications Project is to facilitate improved access to affordable and reliable telecommunications in rural and remote areas of Papua New Guinea. The project will provide telecommunications access to nearly 500,000 rural Papua New Guineans and facilitate broadband internet access in rural district centres that currently do not have any form of internet services.
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While education stocks (measured as the number of years of schooling attained per person over age 15) have risen significantly in all regions, they have risen the fastest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
... See More + This note documents this remarkable regional achievement. This brief shows that all 15 MENA countries for which we have comparable data increased their education stocks over time. As well as trends in population weighted averages for education stock across regions.
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This paper summarizes rigorous impact evaluation results from the Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls Project (EPAG) in Liberia and presents long-term project results gathered in an end-line survey.
... See More + The project's pilot phase was implemented in two rounds and included six months of classroom training, followed by six months of placement and support. The aim of the project was to increase wage and self-employment for young women in Liberia. Seventy percent of girls were trained in business development skills (BDS) and thirty percent in job skills (JS) targeted to sectors with high demand for workers. All participants receive life skills training specifically designed for Liberian girls. The EPAG impact evaluation employed a randomized pipeline research design in which trainees were randomly assigned to rounds. The paper summarizes rigorous evaluation results showing the impact of the project on the treatment group (round 1 trainees from March 2010 to February 2011), as compared to a statistically similar control group (round 2 trainees from July 2011 to June 2012). Impacts are estimated using a difference-in-difference regression model. Outcomes are measured by a baseline survey completed in March 2010 and a midline survey completed in May 2011, six months after the treatment group (round 1 trainees) completed the classroom training. It was found that the project led to a forty-seven percent increase in employment among trainees, compared to those in the control group. EPAG's economic impact also appears to be long-lasting. The positive employment outcome was stronger among the business skills trainees. On average, the probability that participants in the BDS track found employment increased twice as much as among those in the JS track. Areas for further research are articulated.
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This report addresses a fundamental question facing policymakers in Uzbekistan: are worker skills hindering employment outcomes? The main finding of the report is that, indeed, worker skills gaps are hindering employment outcomes in Uzbekistan.
... See More + In fact, employers, particularly formal sector employers, seek workers who possess both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The higher employability and higher wage rates among higher skilled workers is mostly explained by the use of those skills in workplaces. But, skills gaps persist, leading a large share of employers to report shortages of high-skilled workers. These shortages are resulting in high wage premiums, tertiary graduates earn on average 55 percent more than similar workers with a general secondary education. However, large variations in observed skills among adults with the same level of educational attainment indicate that formal education is failing too many people. The report outlines weaknesses in the way skills are formed in Uzbekistan. While skills are developed during different stages in the life cycle and a host of actors are involved, families, for example, play a central role, the education and training system has a mixed record in skill formation. The report argues that the government could do more to align the skills imparted through the education and training system with the needs of employers. The government can also do more to get children off to the right start by investing in early childhood development, where rates of return to investment are generally very high and important soft skills are learned. Finally, more can be done to match the supply of skills with employer demand by improving the use of information in matching skills to jobs in the labor market.
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Good teachers are essential for high-quality educational systems. However, little is known about teachers' skills formation during college. By combining two standardized tests for Colombian students, one taken at the end of senior year in high school and the other when students are near graduation from college, this paper documents the extent to which education majors relatively improve or deteriorate their skills in quantitative reasoning, native language, and foreign language, in comparison to students in other programs.
... See More + Teachers' skills vis-a-vis those in other majors deteriorate in quantitative reasoning and foreign language, although they deteriorate less for those in math-oriented and foreign language-oriented programs. For native language, there is no evidence of robust differences in relative learning mobility.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7168 JAN 01, 2015
Despite impressive gains in increasing access to school over the past 20 years, an estimated 57 million children worldwide do not go to school.
... See More + Abolishing school fees has increased enrollment rates in several countries where enrollments were low and school fees were high. However, such policies may be less effective, or even have negative consequences, when supply-side responses are weak. This paper evaluates the school-level impacts of a tuition waiver program in Haiti, which provided public financing to nonpublic schools conditional on these schools not charging tuition. The paper concludes that a school's participation in the program results in having more students enrolled, more staff, and slightly higher student-teacher ratios. The program also reduces grade repetition and the share of students who are over-age. Although the increase in students at participating schools does not directly equate to a reduction in the number of children out of school, it does demonstrate strong demand from families for the program, and a correspondingly strong supply response from the nonpublic sector.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7175 JAN 01, 2015
The objective of the Social Protection Project for Honduras will support the Government's objective of building an improved social protection system mainly by improving institutional capacity for designing and implementing a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program.
... See More + Some of the problems identified during the governance workshops were: (i) absence of accountability and commitment of public employees, teachers, unions and donors; (ii) lack of information which results in absenteeism of teachers; (iii) inadequate administration of educational materials, including negligence to distribute existing stock; and (iv) low level of interest of academic sector and media to denounce problems. The main recommendations put forth by those being consulted were: 1) improve or create the info-technology school network at the central, department and school levels and train those collecting data; 2) install solar panels in schools lacking electricity; 3) train school staff and parents in monitoring results agreements; 4) provide training and mechanisms for systematic participation of parents, students and stakeholder tied to the Proyecto Educativo de Centro (PEC) and Proyecto Educativo de Red (PER), and social control of teachers and students performance; and 5) strengthen and promote teachers' encounters and forums on academic/developmental topics, with clear products.
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The Second Higher Education Project for Nepal has the following revised project development objectives: (a) enhanced quality, efficiency and relevance of higher education through a set of systemic reforms and incentives to selected institutions; and (b) improved access for academically qualified students from disadvantaged groups in (i) higher education and (ii) higher secondary education.
... See More + In March 2011, the several significant revisions in components were approved. About US$4 million from IDA financing for reforms grants were reallocated to higher secondary education. Other significant changes include the amendment of the Financing Agreement dated April 30, 2007. The overall outcome rating is 'Satisfactory'; for this structured project, its outcome is assessed against both its original and revised project objectives. The outcome of the original project is rated 'Moderately Satisfactory' due to its high relevance and efficient achievement of both development objectives which met all three outcome indicators at project closing, but fell short in two of nine results indicators. The outcome of the revised project is rated 'Highly Satisfactory' due to its high relevance and the efficient achievement of most targets of outcome and intermediate indicators directly linked to project interventions. This project was developed and implemented in a fragile country environment with limited resources and connectivity but with high demand for higher education from its young population. The project holds many rich lessons for other low-income countries facing similar issues: with appropriate recognition and catalytic support, community-run institutions can outperform public-funded institutions; for national development, human resources are critical and access to higher education should not be limited to a select few; and widespread consultations with all stakeholders are important for major reforms and full ownership.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR2849 DEC 30, 2014
The Afghanistan Skills and Development Project received a moderately satisfactory outcome rating with significant risk to development outcome. Both the Bank and the Borrower received moderately satisfactory performance ratings.
... See More + A restructuring took place during the project that affected the following: A Supplemental Letter (Performance Indicators) was included at the time of restructuring because of limited progress on developing a regulatory and quality assurance framework and some indicators and targets were too ambitious or could not be measured. Other key changes made include: (i) scope of Component 1 was revised to make it achievable; (ii) results indicators and targets were revised to make them realistic and measurable; (iii) covenants were added to improve the implementation of a governance framework; (iv) covenants were added to strengthen actions to ensure compliance; (v) closing date was extended by 16 months; (vi) a pilot voucher program was added; and (vii) training of additional vulnerable persons and new training of rehabilitated injectable drug users (IDUs) were added under Component 3. There were six lessons recorded from this project and they are: (1) Strong commitment and leadership are critical for successfully steering reforms in a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institute. (2) Sustained implementation support and supervision by the Bank in a fragile situation is likely to lead to improved project implementation. (3) Even in a challenging fragile situation, institutional capacity can be enhanced. (4) Progress on improving gender equity is feasible even in situations with substantial cultural constraints. (5) Timely project restructuring can play a pivotal role in improving project implementation. (6) Projects can achieve good results even in remote and insecure areas in a fragile context.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3252 DEC 30, 2014
The Early Childhood Education Enhancement Project for the Arab Republic of Egypt aimed to support an increase in the access to early childhood education of 4 and 5 year-old children, particularly the disadvantaged, and also to equip kindergarten classes with learning materials.
... See More + The outcome of the project is moderately satisfactory with both the Bank and the Borrower performed moderately satisfactory. A moderate risk to development was related to inadequate coordination between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs and subsequent involvement of participating NGOs and community run kindergartens.This was and continues to be a substantial risk to long-term sustainability of the project's outcomes. Lessons learned from the project include the following: 1) although project implementation units situated within the ministry are more effective than those established outside the ministry structure, careful planning is required to ensure leadership continuity; 2) plans for parallel financing and joint project activities with co-financing partners should be carefully designed, prepared for, coordinated, and implemented to avoid project delays; 3) project implementation plans and schedules should be more realistic, flexible and in-line with the Bank's previous country experience; and 4) assessment of impact and monitoring and evaluation of school construction projects may require a new approach.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3220 DEC 29, 2014