The 2015 Development Finance Forum took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. How to get from billions to trillions, and from trillions to action?
Author Archives: NL4WorldBank
Reforming the Bank’s Procurement Framework
Today, on July 21, 2015, the World Bank Board of Directors will be discussing, and hopefully approving, the proposed new set of procurement rules and procedures. To give you the context, please find below an interview with the World Bank Chief Procurement Officer, Mr. Chris Browne.
In 2012, the World Bank started a review of the procurement rules and procedures that regulate how borrowing governments can use Bank money for buying goods, services, works, and for hiring consultants. The goal – to reform procurement in Bank operations to better support clients to achieve value for money and to produce sustainable development, while upholding the highest fiduciary and integrity standards. The review process included two global multi-stakeholder consultations. The Bank engaged with more than 4,000 stakeholders from governments, the private sector and civil society to develop a procurement framework that is fit for purpose for development.
World Bank Report: Public-Private Partnerships – Promise and Hype
Paper authored by Michael Klein and published by the World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) in June 2015 at http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22223.
This paper provides perspectives on patterns of public-private partnerships in infrastructure across time and space. Public-private partnerships are a new term for old concepts. Much infrastructure started under private auspices. Then many governments nationalized the ventures. Governments often push infrastructure providers to keep prices low. Continue reading
eConsultant2: Market research on Solar Home Systems in Ethiopia
The study should provide both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the market for solar home systems (SHS) of up to 100Wp in Ethiopia. This is expected to include detailed assessment of:
- Market segmentation (e.g. by income level, size of home, region, domestic /commercial/institutional use) and size.
- Consumer preferences including consideration of system size, features, product range, design, functionality, retail channels etc.
- Consumer willingness to pay including consideration of both upfront and consumer finance / microfinance based approaches.
The intention is that this study will be used to inform the business activities of Lighting Africas private sector partners in the SHS space in Ethiopia. Continue reading
Urban Logistics in the Moroccan traditional sector
Full article in Dutch, only excerpt in English.
In developing countries the traditional 
channel plays a very large rol, with often 50% of all commercial trade being conducted through these channels. To develop a city sustainably, city logistics is an important topic in policy and rules. However, policy also needs to be evaluated in the context of the city in question, with proper data as the basis.
Below a case-study in Casablanca, Morocco, by Alain Broft.
eConsultant2: International STC to support Lao PDR Nam Ou River Basin Profile Development and Training
IFC seeks to recruit a short term international consultant to support their Environmental and Social Hydropower Advisory Services Program in Lao PDR. The assignment aims to provide capacity building and training through the development and production of a river basin profile for the Nam Ou River Basin. The production of the river basin profile will be undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), Provincial Natural Resources and Environment Offices (PONRE), District Natural Resources and Environment Offices (DONRE) in the provinces of Phongsaly, Oudomxay and Luang Prabang and IFC (constituting the Core Team) as well as other relevant stakeholders where required.
eConsultant2: Lessons from Linking SMEs to Lead Firms in Agribusiness
The Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice of the World Bank Group (WBG) assists governments and the private sector in exploring and enabling market opportunities in agribusiness. One of the key areas of focus of T&C is to support the growth of small and medium enterprises, from serving local and domestic markets to entering and upgrading in global value chains (GVCs). This is done by building marketing competence, facilitating market linkages, extending access to early-stage finance and appropriate technologies, and building managerial capacity. This work often entails supporting the development of aggregators or intermediaries. A key example for the agribusiness sector is infoDevs pilot program on the use of local intermediaries to effectively deliver financial and technical assistance that enable the growth of agro-processing SMEs. These intermediaries are referred to as Agribusiness Innovation Centers (AICs). Continue reading
eConsultant2: Nigeria – Monitoring and Learning, Programmatic Approach to Support Nigeria Pilot Projects
The selected firm will provide World Bank task teams with a combination expertise and experience in beneficiary feedback collection and analysis, organizational performance management survey design and analysis and in coordinating new knowledge to inform learning internally and externally.
There are two interdependent objectives and tasks that will be fulfilled via the solicitation of the international firm(s). Continue reading
East Africa Public Health Laboratory Networking Project – Additional financing
The development objective of the East Africa Public Health Laboratory Networking Project for Africa is to establish a network of efficient, high quality, accessible public health laboratories for the diagnosis and surveillance of tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.
Picture courtesy of Business Daily Africa
The $50 million additional financing (AF) for Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will assist to: (a) scale up successful activities to additional facilities in cross border areas, further expanding geographic coverage; and (b) broaden and deepen the range of interventions to be funded Continue reading
Jamaica – Improving Climate Data and Information Management Project
On July 28 the Board of Directors of the World Bank will be processing the Improving Climate Data and Information Management Project for Jamaica. This will be done on an Absence of Objection basis, with the project expected to be adopted without trouble.
The project involves a total of $7.5 million in support of the meteorological data gathering, of which $6.8 million is provided by the World Bank. The goal of the project is to improve the quality and use of climate related data and information for effective planning and action at local and national levels.
This goal is to be achieved through the following four components: Continue reading
Netherlands for the World Bank 
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