WASHINGTON, July 21, 2015—The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a new policy governing procurement in projects financed by the Bank. The new Procurement Framework will allow the World Bank to better respond to the needs of client countries, while preserving robust procurement standards throughout Bank-supported projects.
Monthly Archives: August 2015
eConsultant2: Impact evaluation of PPIAFs Sub-National Technical Assistance Program
Evaluation of the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility’s Sub-National Technical Assistance Program (PPIAF-SNTA):
The Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) is a multi-donor technical assistance facility that is housed within and is the principal donor funded program of the World Banks PPP Cross-Cutting Solution Area.
PPIAFs Sub-National Technical Assistance Program (SNTA) began operations in July 2007, and has now completed eight years of operations. During PPIAFs annual program council meeting in Dakar, Senegal in May 2015, PPIAFs donors requested that an impact evaluation of the SNTA program be included in the FY16 Work Program. PPIAF is therefore commissioning this Independent Evaluation of the SNTA Programs performance and progress to date, to inform/evidence the Programs longer-term prospects and identify need for inputs in the future. Continue reading
eConsultant2: One Stop Shop Creation to Accelerate Business Entry in Colombia
The overall objective of the Regional Business Entry Project in Colombia is to accelerate the sustainable business entry of companies into Colombia.
This assignment seeks to streamline procedures (e.g. including labor and social insurance registration, commercial registries, notary registries, operating licenses and tax registries) involved in registering a business, creating a comprehensive single registry (Registro Único Integral) and design a business one-stop shop under e-solutions that unify the necessary processes nationwide for the creation of companies in Colombia.
Continue reading
NPR: how cell phone use can help determine a person’s creditworthiness
NPR’s social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam reports how financial institutions in countries where people lack financial records could look into using records on cell phone use to determine the likelyhood of a person paying back their loans. And predicting this with surprising accuracy. Continue reading
World Bank Approves Largest Ever Guarantees for Ghana’s Energy Transformation
Article originally posted on the World Bank website on July 30, 2015. The project website for the Ghana Sankofa Gas Project can be found here, which also features the detailed Project Appraisal Document.
The World Bank’s Board of Directors today approved a record investment of $700 million in guarantees for Ghana’s Sankofa Gas Project – a transformational project that will help address the country’s serious energy shortages by developing new sources of clean and affordable natural gas for domestic power generation.
The Board approved a unique combination of two guarantees for the Project – an IDA Payment guarantee of $500 million that supports timely payments for gas purchases by Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and an IBRD Enclave Loan guarantee of $200 million that enables the project to secure financing from its private sponsors. Together, the guarantees are expected to mobilize $7.9 billion in new private investment for offshore natural gas, representing the biggest foreign direct investment in Ghana’s history.
The exploration and commercialization of the gas will be carried out by two private investors, Eni of Italy and Vitol Group of the Netherlands
Kenya and the World Bank Group: Taking stock 2015
From the Kenya – World Bank Group Taking stock 2015 report.
In fiscal year 2015 alone, some $1.3 billion of 
new IDA resources – the Bank’s finance at concessional rates – were committed: the largest in Kenya’s history. The value of the overall portfolio of 27 projects of about $4.3 billion as of June 2015 is almost double what it was just five years ago. Investments are spread across many key sectors, ranging from hard infrastructure (roads and energy) to human development (health and community development) to managing climate risk (agriculture and coastal management) to strengthening institutions delivering public services (judicial reform). Continue reading
eConsultant2: competitiveness assessment of the Colombian Palm Oil in international trade
The Dutch (RVO) funded Colombia palm oil project is gaining speed and the team has now published a call for expressions of interest. Given the RVO funding the IFC would very much welcome Dutch consultants.
The aim of this assessment is to identify and examine the factors affecting the performance of Colombian palm oil-based products in the international market, and analyze the gap between the current and possible future conditions in the Colombian industry. The following topics need to be considered: Continue reading
Netherlands for the World Bank 
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