Category Archives: Projects

Panama – Sustainable Production Systems and Conservation of Biodiversity

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The Sustainable production systems and conservation of biodiversity project in Panama is about to be submitted to the Board of Directors for approval. After the expected Board approval, the project will become active and a procurement plan will be published on the World Bank project website. Shortly thereafter, the first procurement notice and actual tenders will be published. The project involves a total of almost $31 million, of which over $8 million is provided by Panama, and over $9.5 million by the GEF.
The Government of Panama has requested World Bank/GEF assistance in preparing the proposed project to further the conservation efforts undertaken by two earlier MBC projects, and  introduce innovation in sustainability options and support for biodiversity mainstreaming. The project will support enhanced corridor integrity and connectivity, and will contribute to preserve the resilience of regional ecosystems to climatic and other external pressures, including preservation of species of conservation concern.

Additional Financing Urban Water Sector Project – Burkina Faso

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On May 28, 2009, the World Bank Group board of directors approved the Urban Water Sector Project for Burkina Faso. The overall objective of the project was to contribute to the achievement of the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by increasing sustainable access to water and sanitation services in urban areas. This will be pursued by: (a) facilitating access to services through subsidized programs for constructing water service connections and public standpipes and on-site sanitation facilities; and (b) consolidating the achievements of the reform of the urban water supply sub-sector and strengthening capacities to deliver and manage services.

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Hebei Rural Renewable Energy Project – China

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China’s economy has experienced remarkable growth over the past several decades, but this growth has been accompanied by an increase in social and environmental challenges.

Hebei, as one of China’s leading agricultural provinces, is endowed with abundant resources for agricultural biomass and has a large production of livestock. The negative environmental impacts of the intensive farming and concentrated livestock production in Hebei basically reflect the overall situation in China, with Hebei experiencing even heavier pollution as a result of rapid agricultural growth. In addition, around 40 million rural residents in Hebei largely rely on coal and wood-fuel for individual household cooking and heating. This also results in heavy indoor pollution and serious health problems.

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Health Systems Project – Albania

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Albania experienced rapid economic development, joining the ranks of middle-income countries in 2008. However, the global financial crisis severely affected Albania, with remittances and other inflows sharply declining. GDP growth slowed to an average of less than 3 percent between 2009 and 2012.

Key health system performance indicators in Albania are mixed. While health outcomes are relatively strong by regional standards, financial protection of households against high out-of-pocket payments (OOP) is relatively weak, and quality of care is a significant concern. Also hospital reforms are required to better plan and adapt service capacity to needs, strengthen management and governance, and improve efficiency and quality of care. The quality and outcome of clinical service provision in Albania is poor. The quality of medical care is highly variable across different providers, and contributes to sub-optimal health outcomes. Continued and accelerated use of information technology is needed to improve efficiency and quality.

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Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographics Project

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The development objective of the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project for Africa is to increase women and adolescent girls’ empowerment and their access to quality reproductive, child, and maternal health services in selected areas of the participating countries, including the recipients’ territory, and to improve regional knowledge generation and sharing as well as regional capacity and coordination. Continue reading →

Health Systems Strengthening – Democratic Republic of Congo

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of Africa’s most rapidly growing economies. Since 2010 economic growth has exceeded the average for Sub-Saharan Africa by two percentage points, projected to reach over 10% growth in 2015. However, the DRC has some of the worst health and nutrition indicators in the world and is ranked last (#187) in the 2013 Human Development Report. As such, the DRC is not on track to achieve any of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially those related to Maternal and Child Health.

The higher level objective to which this project would contribute is to increase efficiency and effectiveness in the health system in order to improve human development outcomes. Improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, in turn, should boost confidence in these systems and may lead to an increase in overall investment in the social sectors.

Development Objective

The proposed project development objective is to improve utilization and quality of maternal and child health services in targeted areas.

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