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: 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.

Laboratory

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

Egypt – Sustainable Rural Sanitation Services Program-for-Results

In two weeks, the World Bank Board of Directors will be discussing the Egypt Sustainable Rural Sanitation Services project. This project, financed under Program-for-Results financing, is expected to be accepted by the Board and involves a total of $1.25 billion, of which $550 million is provided by the World Bank, $170 million is provided by the Government of Egypt, and $530 million is provided by other donors.

The objective of the Sustainable Rural Sanitation Services project is to strengthen institutions and policies for increasing access and improving rural sanitation services in the Governorates of Beheira, Dakahliya, and Sharkiya in Egypt.

There are three results areas under this objective: Continue reading

Study on Primary Care and Diagnostic Services in Emerging Markets

IFC is seeking to appoint a consultant to help identify growth markets and opportunities for IFC and IFC clients in the provision of primary care services and diagnostic services, in particular medical laboratories and medical imaging.

Objective: The overall objective of the study is for IFC to identify priority markets for IFC to target for investment primary care and diagnostics industries for the coming 5-10 years.

See full tender here: #1191127 Study on Primary Care and Diagnostic Services in Emerging Markets

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)

eConsultant2: 2030 Water Resources Group: Knowledge Exchange – South Africa

In addition to knowledge-sharing through analytical work and case studies, 2030 WRG leverages its growing network of country partners to foster in-person exchange of knowledge and ideas. In the past, this has been achieved through dedicated 2030 WRG partner days at major events such as World Water Week. Later this year, we plan to expand this via an exchange to South Africa. The intention of this event is to enhance the sharing of knowledge and building of capacity around specific thematic topics. The purpose of selecting South Africa is to learn from the countrys efforts to address municipal water losses and mine-water management, topics which come up across a number of 2030 WRG country partnerships.

See full tender here: #1100305 2030 Water Resources Group – Knowledge Exchange – South Africa

Specific objectives of the exchange are to:
Continue reading

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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Public procurement in the context of natural disasters

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 Volunteers unload relief materials in Nepalcountry 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:

  • Delivery capacity
  • Price speculation

Read the full article at http://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/shaping-procurement-plan-emergencies?CID=EXT_TWBN_D_EXT.