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.

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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

World Bank project pipeline per region

Curious about future World Bank projects in the geographic region you are active in? Interested in knowing how much will be invested by the World Bank in a particular country? Want to know the pipeline of projects, with information on the project amount, the main sectors and themes, and the link to the project website?

Last week we published the pipeline projects Image result for pipelineper sector, but since then have been asked to provide the information per region too, as some organizations have a specific regional focus and expertise.

The information is currect per June 29, 2015. Not all projects may ultimately be approved by the Board of Directors.

Pipeline Africa (total pipeline: $8.315 billion)

Pipeline East Asia & Pacific (total pipeline: $15.606 billion)

Pipeline Europe & Central Asia (total pipeline: $10.574 billion)

Pipeline Latin America & Caribbean (total pipeline: $10.257 billion)

Pipeline Middle East & North Africa (total pipeline: $2.415 billion)

Pipeline South Asia (total pipeline: $10.419 billion)

Heineken & IFC collaborate to expand Rwanda’s Bralirwa Brewery

On April 22, the World Bank Board of Directors approved a $25 million IFC investment in Brasserie et Limonaderies du Rwanda Ltd. (“Bralirwa”). Bralirwa is the leading beer brewer in Rwanda with more than six beer brands and seven Coca-Cola brands, and is owned for 75% by Heineken N.V., one of the largest brewers in the world.

The IFC’s senior loan is part of a larger Bralirwainvestment of $50 million that supports the company’s capacity expansion program over the next few years.

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eConsultant2: Vietnam Technical Support Flood Risk and Water Management Project

The World Bank is looking for a consulting firm to provide guidance to the clients project preparation consultant and review the outputs generated by the clients consultant in the following aspects:

  1. hydrodynamic modeling of the Phan River Basin built by the consultant already engaged by the client;
  2. feasibility study of the project, especially the sections related to alternative analysis, hydraulic structures, pump station layout and selection of pumps, economic analysis;
  3. consistence among the feasibility study report, environmental impact assessment report, and resettlement action plan, as well as other project documents that may be reviewed.

See full tender here: #1189860 Vietnam Technical Support Flood Risk and Water Management Project

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Interns Netherlands embassy visit the WBG

On Tuesday, June 16, the interns and trainees of the Netherlands embassy in Washington, DC visited the World Bank Group. The nine Masters-degree students, with interests ranging from security to communications, and agriculture to legal affairs, met with the Dutch Executive Director Mr Frank Heemskerk. The ED discussed his work – which he explains as 1/3 Board work, 1/3 outreach to his constituency countries (13 in total), and 1/3 outreach to the private sector – and challenged the students to come with ideas to better communicate the work of the World Bank to the Dutch private sector, parliament, academia, NGOs and the general population: “So much is being achieved by the World Bank, and so little of it is seen, recognized and acknowledged by the people.”

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Vietnam Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project

The World Bank Board of Directors will discuss the Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project in Vietnam on Tuesday, June 30. Upon approval, this project will receive a total of $238 million from the World Bank for a grand total of $314 million.

The Project Development Outcome is to improve farming practices and value chains in the targeted project areas, and promote institutional strengthening of relevant public agencies in effective support to implementation of the Agricultural Restructuring Plan. The project consists of three different components:

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eConsultant2: Rwanda maize supply chain development (local consultant)

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World bank Group intends to implement an advisory services project in Rwanda to support Bralirwa (subsidiary of Heineken) reduce its dependence on imported raw materials by increasing the supply of maize procured from local smallholder farmers.

IFC (in cooperation with European Cooperative for Rural Development (EUCORD) who are engaged by Heineken and the NL Government at a global level under the CREATE PPP) plans to provide the following advisory services: (1) Improving the professionalism of farmer organisations; and (2) Improving the productivity of over 5,000 smallholder farmers in Eastern Rwanda. As part of the project at least ten on-farm pilots and demonstrations of low-cost water management and irrigation technology will be established.

See full tender here: # 1188809 Rwanda maize supply chain development, agricultural water and irrigation specialist

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eConsultant2: Jordan Energy Sector Assessment

The objective of this Technical Assistance is centered on developing a strategy to transform the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) into a real transmission company and an electricity market operator at international standards, and hence increasing the sector efficiency by strengthening management and regulatory capacities of NEPCO, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MoEMR), and the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission (EMRC).

See full tender here: #1189496 Jordan Energy Sector Assessment

Funding source: ESMAP (Dutch-contributed Trust Fund)

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