The World Bank Group, through two Dutch-funded Trust Funds, is helping slums in Kenya getting connected to safe, reliable and affordable electricity.
With electricity, children can study at night, shops can operate into the evening, and hospitals can operate consistently. Through a community based approach, Kenya Power has gone from 5,000 customers in December 2014 to more than 150,000 customers in May 2015, just half a year later.
Article originally posted on the World Bank website.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The 2015 Development Finance Forum took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. How to get from billions to trillions, and from trillions to action?
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
Original blog published by Felipe Goya on the World Bank website.
Nepal is coping with the consequences of a disastrous earthquake. During the next months the government will be under a lot of pressure to respond quickly to the needs of the population.
Public procurement units across the 
country will also feel this pressure. They will be deciding over the purchase of goods and services with taxpayer money. On the one hand, the purchases are urgently needed. On the other, there is a risk that taxpayer money can be wasted if decisions are taken too hastily.
One instrument that can be helpful in this kind of situation is a framework agreement. This should be part of any country’s Disaster Risk Management plan. Its aim is to have a procurement system ready that responds quickly to an emergency. But this quick response should not increase risks beyond what policymakers have defined as acceptable. Special procurement procedures for emergencies should be part of disaster management systems and should especially include tailored framework agreements.
Specific considerations:
Read the full article at http://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/shaping-procurement-plan-emergencies?CID=EXT_TWBN_D_EXT.
Original article published on Dutch Government website.
The Netherlands is to take a leading role at the World Bank in tackling severe hunger. Because of the prominent position of Dutch businesses and knowledge institutes in the area of efficient and sustainable food production, the Netherlands has been asked to advise the Bank on food projects in developing countries. Development cooperation minister Lilianne Ploumen will be signing an agreement this Thursday with the World Bank at a summit conference in Rotterdam.
‘Everyone should have access to a sufficient supply of healthy and safe food,’ Ms Ploumen said. ‘The Dutch agriculture and horticulture sector has the know-how to boost crop yields and cut costs, while lightening the burden on the environment. Together with the World Bank, we can deploy our solutions worldwide.’ Much of the partnership will focus on knowledge-sharing by the business community, knowledge institutions, civil society organisations and government. Dutch experts will also be enlisted in an array of projects and the Netherlands will provide training courses and workshops on topics like safe food chains and sustainable farming.
In one of the first blog posts we highlighted 
the difference between Operational Procurement and Corporate Procurement. You can review this post at http://wp.me/p4X6vO-72. In essence, corporate procurement is when the World Bank procures goods, works or (consultancy) services itself, whereas in operational procurement, this is done by the borrowing country.
Roughly every quarter we have a meeting with the Corporate Procurement team to discuss any issues, problems, complaints and – every once in a while – compliments that you have raised with us. In this post, we’d like to update you on some of the changes in the corporate procurement process and the eConsultant2 system it uses. In the spotlight this time: the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage.
In one of the first blog posts we highlighted the difference between Operational Procurement and Corporate Procurement. You can review this post at http://wp.me/p4X6vO-72. In essence, corporate procurement is when the World Bank procures goods, works or (consultancy) services itself, whereas in operational procurement, this is done by the borrowing country.
Roughly every quarter we have a meeting with the Corporate Procurement team to discuss any issues, problems, complaints and – every once in a while – compliments that you have raised with us. In this post, we’d like to update you on some of the changes in the corporate procurement process and the eConsultant2 system it uses. In the spotlight this time: the Expression of Interest (EoI) stage.
Netherlands for the World Bank 
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