A Smarter Way to Keep Teachers in Malawi’s Remote Schools

malawi_pictureAlberto Gwande and his students at Khuzi school in Malawi need more teachers. The school is severely understaffed, with only six teachers for nearly 800 students. “I was supposed to receive new teachers last year, but they never came,” recalls Alberto, the headteacher.

Khuzi is 20 kilometres away from Nathenje, the nearest large village with a trading center, and its Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) is 131 pupils per teacher. In contrast, Chibubu school, located four kilometers from Nathenje, has a PTR of 65, while Mwatibu school, located inside the village, has a PTR of just 49. And yet, despite the shortage at Khuzi, it was Chibubu which received four new teachers last year.

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eC2: Scoping for gender & private sector engagement opportunities in three Sub-Saharan Africa countries- DRC, Cote d Ivoire, Mozambique

1_VKgpfpebYFgjXAUoKewFVgDeadline:  08-Feb-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

Objective: IFC would like to conduct a private sector gender analysis in three countries – Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote DIvoire and Mozambique. This work will interrogate the role of the private sector in enabling equal opportunities for women to participate in economic development and the gaps thereof. In doing so, it shall consider various gender dimensions in relation to the private sector. These diagnostics will feed into the design of a private sector focused multi-year, multi-sectoral gender program to be led by IFC.

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eC2: Analytical study for implementing Land Value Capture (LVC) instruments in Colombia

Deadline: 05-Feb-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) pexels-photo-235829.jpeg

Objective:  1.Identify the technical legal and finance aspects for the implementation of LVC instruments including: i) relation of the instrument with the type municipality ii) regulatory framework of the municipality for its implementation (urban, tributary, and fiscal), iii) technical and institutional capacity of the municipalities to implement them, iv) destination (type of projects) of the instrument, v) effectiveness in the implementation and collection, and vi) lessons learned and recommendations. 2.Define recommendations to strengthen the capacity of national (Min. of Finance, National Planning Department, DNP, and Min.of Housing) and local governments to implement LVC instruments 3.Define recommendations for the selection and implementation of LVC instruments taking into account: i)national and sub-national legal framework, ii) typology of projects,iii) institutional framework, iv) fiscal and financial situation, v) type of projects, advantages/ disadvantage in its application.
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Global Economy to Edge Up to 3.1 percent in 2018 but Future Potential Growth a Concern

GEP2018a_Table1-1Current Slack in Global Economy Expected to Fade

WASHINGTON, January 9, 2018— The World Bank forecasts global economic growth to edge up to 3.1 percent in 2018 after a much stronger-than-expected 2017, as the recovery in investment, manufacturing, and trade continues, and as commodity-exporting developing economies benefit from firming commodity prices.

However, this is largely seen as a short-term upswing. Over the longer term, slowing potential growth—a measure of how fast an economy can expand when labor and capital are fully employed—puts at risk gains in improving living standards and reducing poverty around the world, the World Bank warns in its January 2018 Global Economic Prospects.

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eC2: Greener Transport Connectivity for the Six Eastern Partnership Countries

Deadline: 07-Feb-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) general-transport-mosaic-main

Objective: The overall objective of this project is to promote enhanced transport connectivity in the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) that delivers improved outcomes on energy efficiency and sustainability. With this overall objective, this assignment will include:

– Identifying relevant green transport policies and projects for the EaP region.

– develop transport connectivity/accessibility indicators for gauging the level of improvement that could be achieved by corridor improvement projects

– developing a user-friendly connectivity assessment tool

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eC2:Data collection for an energy efficiency and renewable energy assessment for an agri processor in Malawi

Renewable-energyDeadline: 17-Jan-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

Objective:  The Consultant is expected to perform data collection by installing onsite metering devices and recording the readings over the period of several weeks. The data items will include overall electric demand and consumption at the level of a building/workshop, as well as for key individual units of equipment. The Consultant will measure the power output and supply from various sources, including the local power grid and diesel generators. The Consultant is also expected to measure solar irradiation at the company’s premises, as required to evaluate ground-mounted and rooftop solar power solutions Continue reading

Innovation in the air: using cable cars for urban transport

1 NbKnQKS58pvtrmV7xrLbywInvented over a century ago for exploring mountainous regions, aerial cable cars have recently made an appearance in several big cities, where they are being used as an alternative to conventional urban transport modes. This technology uses electrically-propelled steel cables to move suspended cars (or cabins) between terminals at different elevation points.

The tipping point. The emergence of cable cars in urban transport is fairly new. Medellín, Colombia pioneered the use of cable cars for urban transport when it opened its first “Metrocable” line in 2004. Since then, urban cable cars have grown in popularity around the world, with recent projects in Latin America (Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Guayaquil, Santo Domingo, La Paz, and Medellín), Asia (Yeosu, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong), Africa (Lagos, Constantine), and Europe (London, Koblenz, Bolzano). Cable cars can be an attractive urban transport solution to connect communities together when geographical barriers such as hills and rivers make other modes infeasible.

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eC2: DEVELOPING AN INFRASTRUCTURE AND PPP SCREENING TOOL FOR INDONESIA

PPPsDeadline: 11-Jan-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

Objective: SCOPE OF WORK: Under this consultancy work, a Multi-Sector Screening and Prioritization Tool for proposed infrastructure projects (from the 19 infrastructure sectors as defined in Perpres 38/2015), will be developed for the Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS).

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Making Sand into Gold

dubai_property_landscapeThose of you who have visited Dubai in recent years may relate to what I am going to say: Dubai is in the middle of the desert, and its land, not that long ago, was really worth nothing. Now it is one of the most vibrant international cities in the world. All this happened in a relatively short time span.

Behind this impressive development, there was leadership, a vision that was converted into laws and policies, institutional reforms, and human resources development that made it possible. At the center of it all, was land and real estate policies. The Dubai Land Department is one of the best in the World. According to the World Bank Doing Business Report, Dubai ranks No. 10 in the world in registering properties, which far exceeds the ranking of many of the developed economies.

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Unlocking Women’s Potential in Sri Lanka’s Labor Force

SriLanka-SocialMedia-7803Pushpa drops her youngest son off at the day care centre at St. Theresa’s Church in Thimbirigasaya every day. The 37-year-old then heads to work as a maid. There are days when this routine becomes impossible. If her child is feverish, for instance, the day care won’t accept him because he may infect the other children.

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