AFRICA TRANSFORMING Stories of innovation and inspiration VOLUME 1 On cover: Robotics teams from middle and high schools and universities across Africa vied for dominance at the 2017 Pan-African Robotics Competition. Over the course of a week, students built robots and devised solutions for increasing Africa’s manufacturing and processing capacity of foods and goods using science and technology. An annual event since 2016 with support from the World Bank and other partners, the competition aims to encourage greater investment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education throughout the continent. Photo: Vincent Tremeau / World Bank 2 AFRICA TRANSFORMING Stories of innovation and inspiration VOLUME 1 14 44 58 30 36 50 18 38 28 60 06 54 08 32 04 48 64 52 16 40 34 66 62 26 12 20 10 56 42 22 Table of Contents PEOPLE RESOURCES POLITICAL WILL CENTRAL AFRICAN ANGOLA: Field schools teach CAMEROON: Improving health REPUBLIC: Temporary 26 farmers their true value 48 care for the most vulnerable 04 jobs offer wages, stability, and hope BENIN: Diversifying incomes GUINEA: Rooting out fraud 28 to decrease wildlife poaching 50 empowers efficiencies in ETHIOPIA: Opening civil service 06 opportunities for women- CHAD: Refugees regain owned businesses 30 self-reliance through KENYA: Connecting low-income agricultural activities 52 communities and the grid GHANA: Incubator nurtures 08 young entrepreneurs CÔTE D’IVOIRE: Reviving LIBERIA: After Ebola, health 32 54 key agricultural sectors system on path to recovery MADAGASCAR: Haova, 10 nutrition agent and mother DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE: Trash to 619 children 34 CONGO: Female farmers find 56 collection in Maputo? strength in unity There’s an app for that 12 MALAWI: Modernizing higher education for economic growth GUINEA-BISSAU: Conserva- 58 SENEGAL: Road leads to 36 tion is key to green growth economic opportunity MALI: Entrepreneurship 14 competition calls NIGERIA: “Poverty has run SOUTH SUDAN: Linking diaspora home 38 away, there is no more poverty.” 60 peace with development REPUBLIC OF CONGO: RWANDA: Farmers reap bene- TANZANIA: New bus system 40 62 16 Investing in human capital fits of land redevelopment saves riders time and money with skills training SOUTH AFRICA: Africa’s first 64 UGANDA: Land administration 42 TOGO: Personal initiative smart transport marketplace reforms cut the red tape 18 training for new mindset, increased profits AFRICA REGION: Putting data 66 EAST AFRICA REGION: 44 to work for development Networking labs to save lives ZAMBIA: Unlocking women’s 20 learning and earning potential 22 AFRICA REGION: Accelerating Africa’s digital start-ups The projects and programs highlighted in this volume are supported by the institutions of the World Bank Group, particularly the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), and International Finance Corporation (IFC). This is Africa’s moment. Today, more than ever, African countries are seeking out new opportunities for growth to move beyond business as usual. With a young, ambitious population, steadily growing economies, and pro-innovation investments and reforms, Africa has the people, resources, and political will to overcome challenges and drive its own transformation. Boosting agricultural productivity, bridging the infrastructure gap, investing in human capital, and improving social inclusion are areas where we can help. Makhtar Diop While overseeing the World Bank’s operations in Africa, I have seen firsthand how Vice President for Africa, strategic partnerships and investments can facilitate Africa’s own ambitions and World Bank Group solutions for a more prosperous, equitable future. Together, we are changing the narrative on Africa’s development. The stories in this volume demonstrate the energy and innovation that Africans from all walks of life are injecting into their communities to affect change and inspire others—from the young entrepreneurs who are creating whole new lines of business and employment opportunities in Africa’s fast-growing digital marketplace to the frontline health care workers who are mobilizing higher quality services and outreach to the most vulnerable populations. Backed by the financial and technical Opposite Page: Students are support of the World Bank, they represent the best of Africa’s creativity, tenacity, gaining market-relevant, and resilience. scientific and technical skills thanks to investments in university-based Centers of These stories are but a few of the transformations occurring across the continent. Excellence, supported by the I am optimistic about prospects for new models of high and inclusive growth. With World Bank. the right policies, its ability to leapfrog development hurdles, and the ingenuity of Photo: Jolyon / World Bank its people, Africa can defy the odds. 01 02 PEOPLE With half of Africa’s population under 25 years old, 11 million young Africans are expected to join the labor market every year for the next decade. Backed by the World Bank, investments are being made to improve education, employment, and entrepreneurial opportunities across the continent. Photo: Erick Kaglan/World Bank 03 CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Temporary jobs offer wages, stability, and hope LANDO is a cash-for-work The LONDO project in the Central program that provides tem- porary jobs to vulnerable African Republic is having a people, including former combatants, across the transformative impact on the country, Central African Republic. creating jobs and social cohesion where Photo: Stephan Gladieu / World Bank civil strife has damaged both. Over 24,000 people have been recruited to repair thousands of kilometers of roads across the country. 04 With pickaxes or shovels in hand, men and women— Persons hired to work on the project the young and not so young—wear bright orange construction vests and bustle along main roads and in sites represent all ethnic groups town neighborhoods. One is filling in potholes, another is and religions. Being in each other’s pushing a wheelbarrow, while yet another is clearing the company all day long has created way. Easily identifiable by the brand-new bicycles they were provided with when they landed one of these labor- a bond among us. intensive, public works jobs, these workers are now part Bertrand Barafa Wikon, LONDO team leader in Begoua of the scene in the Central African Republic (CAR). Carried out under the LONDO project (meaning “stand up” “The project has created social cohesion among us, in Sango creole) with $20 million in IDA financing from the youth. In the past we had not been accepting of the World Bank, these road rehabilitation works provide each other. Persons hired to work on the project sites temporary employment to many vulnerable people, represent all ethnic groups and religions. Being in each especially youth who may otherwise have been tempted other’s company all day long has created a bond to join armed groups. Spanning the entire country, among us,” he explains. LONDO is giving new hope to communities ravaged by years of conflict. Roads to recovery Short-term work, long-term benefits The transparency of the public lottery used to pick LONDO beneficiaries reinforces social cohesion. The Albert Panga is sub-prefect of Bimbo, the most densely project’s workers are selected by drawing lots publicly populated suburb of Bangui, CAR’s capital. He says in the presence of fellow villagers. the project has been well received “because it created 500 jobs in my area and has had a major impact on By January 2018, about 24,500 workers (33 percent of sanitation by clearing clogged streets, cleaning drains, them women) in 52 districts had been hired to maintain collecting garbage, and cleaning public places and over 1,400 kilometers of roads. Nearly CFAF 1.4 billion administrative centers.” ($2.6 million) had been paid in wages. The project aims to double the number of roads it supports and employ Carine Data was hired by the project in the town of another 10,000 people. Bouar. She earns CFAF 30,000 ($57) each month, which she uses to make ends meet. “My father is dead, so I Collaboration between the World Bank and MINUSCA, depend on myself. I have been able to put a bit of money the UN peacekeeping operation providing security in aside to buy a rickshaw for once my contract expires. areas under the control of armed groups, has led to the I plan to use the remainder to enroll in an evening class start of public works in Obo in eastern CAR, where to prepare for my future,” she says. Lord’s Resistance Army fighters are still wreaking havoc. No other development project has been carried out Despite holding a law degree, Bertrand Barafa Wikon there for 20 years. was also unemployed until hired as a LONDO team leader in the Begoua neighborhood of Bangui. In addition to earning income to support his family and start his own business, Bertrand remains deeply affected by the lesson he learned while working. T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 05 ETHIOPIA Opening opportunities for women-owned businesses With perseverance, hard Investment in women-owned businesses work, and financing, Zinabua Hailu has built offers the highest returns available in up her business from a one-person food vendor emerging markets—with huge impact on the operation to a 10-room ground. More than 7,600 women in Ethiopia hotel and restaurant in Addis Ababa. have benefited from a special line of credit Photo: Stephan Gladieu / World Bank for female entrepreneurs. Offering loans of $10,000 or more, it is unlocking the capital that women need to grow their businesses. 06 Zinabua Hailu has a dream. She wants to build a big Women are becoming very much hotel with “stars”—one that meets international rating standards, the kind of hotel tourists might frequent. empowered and involved in business. It is a must to get involved in It is not an impossible dream. In eight years, the mother of three has built her business from a one-room, one- economic development. person food vendor operation into a 10-room hotel Zinabua Hailu, hotel owner in Addis Ababa and restaurant with a staff of 18 in the bustling Gofa neighborhood of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. “Women are becoming very much empowered and Hailu is among more than 7,600 women in Ethiopia involved in business,” says Hailu. “It is a must to get who have been able to tap into a $50 million line of involved in economic development.” credit being offered to women-owned micro- and small businesses through the Development Bank of Ethiopia and selected Ethiopian microfinance institutions. It is Almost 100 percent repayment rate part of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Project backed by the World Bank’s IDA, with Between January 2014 and October 2017, the project additional financing from Canada, Italy, Japan, disbursed 1.8 billion birr (or $66 million before the 15 and the United Kingdom. percent devaluation of the birr in October 2017) at a rate of about $2 million per month to 7,640 women entrepreneurs. The average individual loan size was Finance focused on women 240,000 birr (then nearly $11,000). The project also provided entrepreneurship training to over 10,000 Hailu borrowed 800,000 birr in 2015, then worth about women. About 63 percent of borrowers had never $38,000, an amount that would previously have been had a loan before; however, the repayment rate was difficult for a female entrepreneur in Ethiopia to obtain. nearly 100 percent. Normally, women in Ethiopia—and other developing countries—face bigger challenges than men in starting Yet, an estimated 70 percent of small and medium or expanding a business. Women are less likely to own businesses owned by women in developing countries assets, such as land or a house, to be used as collateral cannot get enough financing to grow. Financing needs for a loan. They often have less education than men or are estimated at some $285 billion. face discriminatory laws or customs. World Bank economists, Francesco Strobbe and Indeed, Hailu says it has been difficult to get to where Salman Alibhai, say that investments in women-owned she is today. businesses offer one of the “highest return opportunities available in emerging markets.” In their paper, “Financing She first had to convince her husband, a civil servant, Women Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia” (2015), they say that she needed to work to help pay for their children’s women entrepreneurs also tend to hire fellow women, education. After the birth of their third child, Hailu got a among whom unemployment is more common, thus loan of about $100, using their home as collateral. She reducing unemployment overall. began cooking and selling food to day laborers. Two years later, she got a bigger loan and opened a restaurant. After five years of faithful loan repayments, she qualified for the larger loan and opened her current business. T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 07 GHANA Incubator nurtures young entrepreneurs Business concepts accepted Absorbing university graduates into jobs to the KBI program span is a challenge for many African economies. the spectrum, from clothing manufacturers to The Kumasi Business Incubator at the geo-mapping services, to software and app Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and developers. Technology is helping would-be entrepreneurs Photo: Dasan Bobo / World Bank turn innovative ideas into viable businesses. Among the first is a business selling handwoven sashes in signature designs to domestic and U.S. markets. 08 There was a time when kente was a sacred cloth worn It’s like a dream come true for me, to only by Akan royalty in the Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana. Now, almost four centuries since its origin, kente has have access to some resources to make made its way into mainstream products that anyone can me be able to grow my business. wear and has become an important export for Ghana. Peter Paul Akanko, founder and CEO of Kente Master Peter Paul Akanko, founder and CEO of Kente Master, LLC, saw the beauty in the fabric but also a gap in the market. Young people were not buying the kente “We saw signs of unemployment in the country and we products available. A business idea was born. realized that very soon university students would face unemployment problems,” says Akomea. “Students “I make products which the youth of today can identify had been asking about any support they could get with,” says Akanko. “We make ties, flip flops, shoes, to start their own business, and we decided it was a school bags... we also make stoles for graduations.” With good opportunity.” a web platform, Kente Master has gone global, selling stoles to graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, and Carnegie Mellon in the U.S., as well as ICT for inclusive growth schools and organizations across Ghana. With funding from the World Bank’s eGhana Project, and technical assistance from the National Board of Launch pad for success Small-Scale Investors and other private investors, the university launched the incubator in 2014. It aligns In just a few short years, Akanko has been able to with the Ghanaian government’s emphasis on using take Kente Master from vision to viability thanks to ICT to promote inclusive growth, develop a skilled and the Kumasi Business Incubator (KBI), a year-long competitive workforce, and create jobs and businesses entrepreneurial support program of the Kwame Nkrumah in new and unconventional ways. University of Science and Technology (KNUST). For entrepreneurs like Akanko, the KBI experience Open to KNUST students in their final year and to the has been life-changing. larger Kumasi community, KBI nurtures innovation in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector “It’s like a dream come true for me, to have access through specialized training, tools, and mentorship. to some resources to make me be able to grow my Entrepreneurs focus on business planning, market business,” says Akanko, whose online success has research and strategies, and other capacity building. inspired him to open an offline store. “I want to see how far I can go. The market for our products is very The business concepts accepted by the rigorous KBI huge and Kente Master has the potential of becoming program for development must demonstrate innovation a multi-million-dollar business within the next five to ten and the potential for sustainability. They span the years, economically empowering and transforming the spectrum—from kente graduation stoles to geo-mapping weaving villages in Ghana.” services, to software and app developers, to multimedia producers and IT consultants. “All of these businesses would have been lost if we didn’t have something like this,” believes Samuel Yaw Akomea, head of the Centre for Business Development at KNUST, which operates the KBI program. T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 09 MADAGASCAR Haova, nutrition agent and mother to 619 children Haova Rasoanandriana High rates of childhood stunting— keeps a close eye on her young patients, checking low growth caused by malnutrition— their weight gain regularly . have a negative impact on a nation’s Photo: Diana Styvanley / World Bank social wellbeing and economic future. Community nutrition agents in Madagascar are at the forefront of tackling it. 10 Haova Rasoanandriana follows the nutritional health of Each child becomes my own child... My children in remote zones of Madagascar devastated by drought. She knows all the children and mothers in the greatest reward is to see a child get rural commune of Behara where she lives. She has taken well and start to laugh and play again. care of most of them. Haova Rasoanandriana, community nutrition agent in Behara Rasoanandriana has been a community nutrition agent for 14 years. These days, she monitors children under the age of five in four villages. She checks their weight gain, Malnutrition is a challenge across Madagascar, which accompanies them to the health center, and teaches has the fourth highest chronic malnutrition rate in the mothers how to diversify their children’s diet to help world. The consequences of early childhood malnutrition them grow strong. persist into adulthood, affecting the future of the entire country. In Madagascar, the estimated annual cost of “I want to help the mothers in my village take care of malnutrition is between 7 and 12 percent of GDP. their children. They listen to me because I, too, am a mother. For me, being a nutrition agent is an occupation, a vocation, but also a way to take care of the community Compassion and hope that welcomed me when I was still a teenager and Every month, Rasoanandriana and her team spot cases married to one of their members,” says Rasoanandriana. of malnourished children at the Ankiririke site and transfer them to the closest basic health center seven Drought, poor harvests, food insecurity kilometers away. The number of children that Rasoanandriana monitors “I accompany the mother and the child, and we go on doubled in one year, from 278 children in 2016 to 619 foot under a blazing sun to the South Amboasary center. in 2017. Her main center of operation is the Ankiririke We are hungry, but we are mostly scared for the child. It is one nutrition site in Amboasary district, which she mobilized of the hardest aspects of my job,” Rasoanandriana says. the entire community to build. It is one of 338 sites Suffering from severe acute malnutrition, three-year-old supported by the Social Safety Nets Project, which is Kasy Sambetoke was transferred to the health center. helping communities cope with the impacts of severe Today, she is recovering steadily but continues to take a drought in the south of Madagascar. It is backed by nutritional supplement. Rasoanandriana goes to see her $40 million in IDA financing from the World Bank. regularly at home to check on her condition. Drought conditions, which have persisted since 2013, “I know all 619 children by name. Each child becomes my have led to drastically reduced harvests and left over own child,” says Rasoanandriana. “I suffer with them and a million people struggling with food insecurity. Some am very happy to be in a position to at least give a little 35,000 children under the age of five are moderately hope thanks to the existence of this site, to assure them malnourished, while another 12,000 suffer from severe that they are not alone. My greatest reward is to see a acute malnutrition. child get well and start to laugh and play again.” T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 11 MALAWI Modernizing higher education for economic growth Students at Chancellor Countries need skilled workforces to College in Zomba work in a laboratory equipped by the transform them. To equip people with Skills Development Project. the skills needed to expand its economy, Photo: ICT Centre, Chancellor College Malawi is investing in public universities and making them more accessible. 12 Malawi has fewer affordable universities than it has students I enrolled through ODL because of its who want to go to them, leaving college out of reach for many. Enrollment in tertiary education is low, but more and flexibility. I continue with my everyday more Malawians hunger for it. With IDA financing from the life and yet I am studying at the same World Bank, Malawian citizens now have more options. time. This is wonderful. The five-year, $51 million Skills Development Project is helping Joe Mwenye, teacher in Ngabu in Chikwawa district public universities to strengthen and increase public access and online student to programs that cater to sectors critical to Malawi’s economic growth. These include engineering, natural resources extraction, agriculture, construction, health This will go a long way toward meeting an increase in the services, tourism, and hospitality. demand for science teachers, following the introduction of physics and chemistry as separate subjects in the Beyond the establishment of the National Council for Higher secondary school curriculum. Education, project funding supports a range of activities at institutions, including improving course offerings and staff skills, Mzuzu University is heading to be the country’s center renovating infrastructure, and setting up satellite facilities. of excellence in tourism training. It is constructing a purpose-built tourism and hospitality facility that will produce graduates who are industry-ready. Market-relevant course offerings To expand the range of scientific skills and mid-level Online and distance learning technicians needed to fuel Malawi’s economy, 39 new programs have been developed by universities, with the The Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural participation of the private sector ensuring their relevance Resources (LUANAR) and Mzuzu have introduced online to the economy. By 2017, these programs contributed 44 and distance learning (ODL), resulting in increased percent of the new student intake to public universities. enrollment at both. At LUANAR, online students make up 10 percent of the total student population. Between 2014 Diploma programs at universities have also been bolstered and 2016, Mzuzu increased its intake of online students to increase the training of mid-level career personnel tenfold. With more affordable fees and flexible options, needed by various trades. For example, the University the ODL system has helped to open access to higher of Malawi’s Polytechnic now offers 10 technician-level education for many people nationwide. engineering diploma programs in subjects like mining, telecommunications, and health. By 2019, these programs “I enrolled through ODL because of its flexibility. I continue are expected to have enrolled 750 diploma students. with my everyday life and yet I am studying at the same time. This is wonderful,” says 45-year-old Joe Mwenye, a father of five and a teacher in Ngabu in Chikwawa district. Modernized facilities He is studying at LUANAR for a Bachelor of Science in One of the major constraints to increasing student enrollment Agricultural Extension. at public universities has been space. At Chancellor College, LUANAR has three ODL centers: one in the town of Mzuzu, where most of Malawi’s secondary school science teachers another in Lilongwe, and another in Blantyre. Mzuzu are trained, more and better infrastructure is expected to University is opening satellite centers in Balaka, make it possible to boost student intake by 65 percent. This Karonga, Mulanje, and Lilongwe. includes modernized laboratories and four new lecture halls seating 350 students each. T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 13 MALI Entrepreneurship competition calls diaspora home The International Bank for Given the chance, many Africans living Mali granted $800,000 in loans to the winners of the in the diaspora want to play some role first round of the Diaspora Entrepreneurship reality in investment back home. A reality show television competition. producer decided to link Malians abroad Photo: Diaspora Sud Vision with business opportunities in Mali. His televised competition has attracted entrepreneurial ideas that have created jobs and secured loans and advice. 14 The Malian diaspora numbers 4 to 6 million people, The diaspora can be a potent force for and many in it have benefited from education and experiences that could be put to good use developing Africa’s development. It should invest high-potential businesses back home. But starting and more in promising sectors. running a business in Mali is not easy. Aissata Diakité, founder of Zabbaan Holding and winner of Diaspora Entrepreneurship 2016 That is why Pape Wane, a Malian reality television producer, decided to partner with local business incubators and launch the Diaspora Entrepreneurship competition. It identifies, promotes, and supports Malians gain access to property and to improve the members of the diaspora who could seize business Malian government’s ability to build new schools, health opportunities in Mali, but it also understands the centers, and other public infrastructure. unique challenges of the local business environment. “Once our operations start, we could reduce the cost of Aissata Diakité, winner of the first round of the all kinds of construction in Mali by as much as 20 to competition in 2016, says it “has been a fantastic 40 percent, using local, sustainable materials that are opportunity to officially launch my startup in Mali. The conveniently sourced and environmentally friendly,” diaspora can be a potent force for Africa’s development. says Traoré. It should invest more in promising sectors.” Diakité’s company, Zabbaan Holding, produces and sells Financial support and coaching fruit juices made with traditional Malian recipes, and has Given the potential of these entrepreneurs, Hassan already generated hundreds of direct and indirect jobs Ouastani, Director of the International Bank for Mali, one and created a market for many producers. of the competition’s strategic partners, provided more than $800,000 in credit to six of the 2016 finalists, and Worldwide call for proposals intends to finance the 2017 winners with up to $1.5 million. In 2017, Diaspora Entrepreneurship launched a second “To generate the kind of sustainable growth these call for proposals and brought together a panel of projects need, entrepreneurs must be coached, experts to select the best. The World Bank supported accompanied, and monitored if they are to avoid the the initiative by coaching the jury. “The support the Bank many pitfalls,” says Ouastani, who calls himself a “citizen” provided was instrumental for maximizing the talent banker. “It’s all the more essential that they adapt to the among our pool of finalists, and in lending credibility reality on the ground in Mali.” to our initiative,” says Wane. The World Bank will also finance a nine-month technical Out of 153 candidates, 10 were invited to the finals held in support program to be implemented by a consortium of the Malian capital of Bamako. Taking its cue from reality three business incubators based in Bamako—DoniLab, television, the competition was televised in a five-part Jokkolabs, and Teteliso. It will support market research, series on Mali’s national broadcasting channel, reaching legal arrangements, and other aspects of doing business millions of viewers and resonating with Mali’s youth. that need to be taken into consideration. Samasse Traoré, founder and director of Bâtir Durable, won the top prize. His start-up has the potential to help T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 15 REPUBLIC OF CONGO Investing in human capital with skills training In Ouenzé, the fifth People everywhere need service arrondissement in Brazzaville, young providers like mechanics, tailors, Congolese men and women are apprenticing bakers, and electricians. A project at an automotive shop in the Republic of Congo trains young to learn the trade. Photo: Désiré Loutsono/ people from disadvantaged backgrounds World Bank in vocational skills and business management to help them get work and earn a living. 16 Calm and focused, with the grinding wheel held tight, These days, many trades have Mercia Koubakatikou cuts the piece of metal she is steadying with her left foot, sending sparks flying into modernized, and it is up to us to the air around her. Not entirely sure why, this young catch up by developing our skills. 21-year-old Congolese woman has always wanted to Jonathan Bouanga, 17-year-old apprentice auto mechanic become a welder. The Skills Development for Employability Project (SDEP), financed jointly by the Republic of Congo (ROC) and the Since 2014, the SDEP has worked to help vulnerable World Bank, gave Koubakatikou and four other young youth living in urban environments acquire or strengthen men and women the opportunity for training in a welding job or entrepreneurial skills. Within five years, it expects shop in Makélékélé, the first arrondissement in the ROC’s to train 15,000 people in Brazzaville and in Pointe-Noire, capital of Brazzaville. After 10 months, she does not a port city on the Atlantic coast, in various occupations, regret her choice and encourages other young women her such as sewing, baking, tile laying, home help, electrical, age to join her. and carpentry. “In life, there are no professions reserved especially for men. Anything a man can do, a woman can do as well,” Business management too says Koubakatikou. The project also aims to build the management In Ouenzé, the fifth arrondissement in Brazzaville, capacities of young micro-entrepreneurs aged 18 to 39. Jonathan Bouanga and nine other young Congolese Charlyse Mouyabi is one of the 80 people trained so far. are apprenticing at an automotive shop. This 17-year- Three years ago, in a garage in Ngoyo in Pointe-Noire’s old is combining his passion for computers, which he sixth arrondissement, 36-year-old Mouyabi started her previously used for entertainment, with a profession artisanal soap micro-enterprise. Each week, this small often considered “dirty” and fit only for those who company produces around 200 bars of soap, which failed in school. Mouyabi personally delivers to her customers. “Automotive services are not what they used to be,” “My dream is to have a real, international-caliber soap Bouanga affirms. “These days, many trades have factory. I hope my perseverance will pay off,” she says. modernized, and it is up to us to catch up by “What has changed for me since I was trained is that I now developing our skills.” do my own accounting. That’s something I didn’t do before.” With $10 million in IDA funding from the World Bank, Vocational training the SDEP offers a second chance to vulnerable young people who left school too early, by giving them These young people, all from disadvantaged backgrounds, the opportunity to acquire marketable skills and are among the nearly 1,500 who have received vocational be competitive. By investing in human capital, the training under the SDEP. They are heading down different government aims to empower a workforce capable of career paths, but they all share the same dream of becoming contributing to national growth and development. skilled workers in growth sectors so they can enter the labor market and earn an income for themselves. T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 17 TOGO Personal initiative training for new mindset, increased profits Shopkeeper Akouélé New and effective, psychology-based Ekoué Hettah adds her own personal touches to training has outperformed traditional the wedding dresses she buys from suppliers. “We business training modules. Tried and need innovative products, tested in Togo, a program encouraging creative ideas. We need extra special items to people to take more personal initiative appeal to our customers,” she says. led to a greater boost in profits for Photo: Erick Kaglan / World Bank microentrepreneurs, particularly women, than more established training programs. 18 Akouélé Ekoué Hettah, who runs a small shop that Other business training focused merely rents out wedding dresses in Togo, was not happy. She had attended a microfinance organization’s traditional on the concepts and principles of entre- business training session and a marketing training preneurship... This was a more dynamic session, but still her business was not growing. Then course, helping us to become engaged by Hettah participated in personal initiative training designed to build self-starting, future-oriented, persistent behavior using personal development techniques. and develop “an entrepreneurial mindset.” Habibou Ouro-Djobo, civil engineer and sub-contractor “This enabled me to define a goal and draft a plan to rebuild and broaden my business, so that on top of than practical knowledge. This was a more dynamic renting out wedding dresses, I could sell dresses, course, helping us to become engaged by using personal jackets, shirts, gowns, and evening outfits,” she says. development techniques.” Today, Hettah is the picture of a successful entrepreneur. Her formal wear and accessories company, Ameyayra, More income, more ambition has shops in both Togo and Benin, with another planned in Ghana. After carrying out the training, researchers conducted four follow-up surveys over a two-year period. Entrepreneurs who had done personal initiative training A different approach saw profits rise by an average of 30 percent relative to Studies show that, while traditional business training the control group. Business Edge participants had an 11 covers core business practices, it does not often increase percent average increase against the control group. the profit of small businesses in developing countries, Personal initiative training had even more of an impact particularly those owned by women. on female entrepreneurs. They saw their profits increase The World Bank Group decided to try something different. by 40 percent compared to a 5 percent increase in It teamed up with psychologist Michael Frese to try out profits for women who had traditional business training. personal initiative training in a randomized controlled trial Entrepreneurs who did personal initiative training also with small businesses in Lomé, Togo. The study compared introduced more innovative products into their line of the impact of psychology-based personal initiative training business than those who took part in the Business Edge to Business Edge training run by the World Bank’s IFC. A training. They borrowed more and employed more workers. control group received no training. The results of personal initiative training in Togo have Personal initiative training teaches a proactive approach encouraged other programs to try it in Mozambique, to entrepreneurship. Participants learn to look for ways Mauritania, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Mexico. The study to distinguish their business from others, as well as how is making a strong case for the role of psychology in to anticipate problems and overcome setbacks, foster influencing how small business training programs can better planning skills for opportunities, and do other, be better taught. long-term preparation. Habibou Ouro-Djobo, a civil engineer and sub-contractor, also took part in the course. He observes, “Other business training focused merely on the concepts and principles of entrepreneurship. It was more theory T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 19 ZAMBIA Unlocking women’s learning and earning potential A girl is less likely to Investing in the human capital of women complete her secondary education in rural Zambia is good for society. Educated women are than a boy. more likely to work in the formal sector, Photo: Jean Madela marry later, have fewer children, and look after them well. A project in rural Zambia is supporting girls through secondary school and training working-age women in life skills and business acumen. 20 Eunice Sichone is among the 600 girls who returned The bursary is very helpful for us to secondary school in Gwembe district in Zambia’s Southern Province in 2017. She is happy to be back in struggling parents because it helps pay class. Sichone wants to become a nurse and is motivated the school’s fees. Without this help, my to work hard to help her family out of poverty. daughter would have not managed to Sichone and the others are benefiting from the Keeping stay in school. Girls in School bursary, a key component of the Girls’ Father of 14-year-old Eunice Sichone, Gwembe District Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) project. It aims to help some 14,000 adolescent girls complete their secondary education and another Minister of Gender, Victoria Kalima, points to compelling 75,000 women living in rural areas of Zambia take up evidence on the benefits of staying in school longer. economically productive activities. “Research shows that better educated women tend to be With $65 million in IDA financing from the World Bank, healthier, to participate more in the formal labor market, GEWEL is supporting Zambian government efforts to earn more, give birth to fewer children, marry at a later achieve inclusive growth by addressing the dual challenges age, and provide better health care and education to of poverty and gender inequality. Compared to males, their own children,” she says. Zambian females are more likely to leave school during adolescence and are more likely to farm at subsistence From subsistence to sustainable livelihoods levels—both strongly correlated with low earnings. GEWEL also empowers women, aged 19 to 64 and Changing this reality would have a transformative mostly mothers, with basic business training and life impact on not only girls and women but also on their skills that can help them turn piecemeal work into viable families, and on Zambia’s efforts to build human capital microenterprises and reduce their poverty levels. and boost long-term economic growth. The Supporting Women’s Livelihoods program combines “life skills and simple business skills training, productivity Encouraging continued education grants, access to savings, and mentoring and peer For Sichone’s father, the support is well-timed: he had no support,” says Minister of Community Development and means to pay school tuition after losing his business. “The Social Services, Emmerine Kabanshi. bursary is very helpful for us struggling parents because In the first year of implementation, GEWEL reached over it helps us pay the school’s fees. Without this help my 21,000 extremely poor girls and women. By 2020, the daughter would have not managed to stay in school,” he project aims to scale up to almost 100,000 girls and says. His wife recently left him, adding to his sorrows. women in half of the districts nationwide. The cost of secondary education is prohibitive for Zambia’s poorest families, hindering attendance. Primary education is tuition-free, but secondary school requires not only passing a national exam but paying for school as well. Between 2002 and 2010, most of the girls who dropped out of school said it was for lack of financial support, according to Zambia’s Living Condition Monitoring Survey (2010). T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 21 AFRICA REGION Accelerating Africa’s digital start-ups XL Africa 2017 culminated Africa has room for many more digital in a two-week residency in Cape Town, South Africa, start-ups. In African countries where they where entrepreneurs pitched their business concepts are being developed, they are already to investors following delivering services, making money, and mentoring on getting investment-ready. providing jobs. XL Africa aims to accelerate Photo: Jacque Maritz / World Bank their growth. More than 900 businesses applied for the program; only 20 companies from eight countries were chosen. 22 Chika Uwazie, 29, is the dynamic and successful founder Being here, pitching to investors has of a company providing payroll solutions to Nigerian businesses. She is one of 20 top African digital start-ups been very helpful. I could never have supported by the World Bank Group’s InfoDev Program got this exposure. through its XL Africa acceleration program. Chika Uwazie, Founder of TalentBase A pan-African pilot program, XL Africa was launched in 2017 to scale up high-growth, digital start-ups that are simultaneously providing services, generating revenue, and creating employment. The program aims to help Continuing support for start-ups businesses attract capital of between $250,000 Paul Noumba Um, World Bank Country Director for and $1.5 million. Southern Africa, also attended XL Africa in Cape Town and was excited by what he saw. “These are companies Access to mentors and investors that are already running and solving problems in Africa and helping consumers and businesses to be more XL Africa 2017 culminated in a two-week residency in efficient. It’s great to see the World Bank Group develop Cape Town, South Africa, where entrepreneurs pitched a platform such as XL Africa, but we need to continue their business concepts to investors after receiving building national and regional ecosystems to multiply intense mentorship and support on getting investment- these successes,” he says. ready. From eight different countries, XL Africa entrepreneurs provide services, including solar energy, Down the hall from the young entrepreneurs’ pitch event planning, printing, and agricultural data via drones. session, policymakers, donors, and investors exchanged ideas on what is needed to scale up high-growth start- According to Uwazie, “Being here, pitching to investors ups like the ones in the XL Africa program. has been very helpful. I could never have got this exposure. It’s hard to be in a room full of investors Parminder Vir, the CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, interested in investing in Africa. But what we need emphasized the important role governments play in are people who will help us open doors, mentors who creating enabling environments for entrepreneurs. understand how Nigeria works.” She also highlighted the need for investors to become mentors to start-ups to learn about their day-to-day Uwazie found it helpful to spend time with her peers, reality. This would enable investors to empathize with the Africa’s crème de la crème of start-ups. They went entrepreneurs, while bringing their business acumen to through a rigorous selection process from over 900 the creativity on offer. She urged investors to “take a risk applicants to be chosen for the XL Africa program. and invest in Africa’s talent.” She created her company, TalentBase, whose motto Hugues Vincent-Genod of Investisseurs & Partenaires, is “bringing payroll online across Africa,” after working an investment group with 50 years of experience in West in human resources for 10 years, and says providing Africa, said its challenge was working with entrepreneurs a software solution in this sector was a natural who were not investment-ready. He stressed the progression. Next, Uwazie plans to take TalentBase importance of providing seed finance, as well as the to countries such as Kenya and Ghana. critical role donors play in de-risking investment in the early stages of technology start-ups. T RANS FORMING AFR I C A | P EO P LE 23 24 RESOURCES Africa has the resources to feed its growing population expected to reach 2.8 billion people by 2060. Supported by the World Bank, investments in agriculture are improving productivity, including innovative land use developments like these hillside agricultural terraces in Rwanda. Photo: Rogers Kayihura/World Bank 25 ANGOLA Field schools teach farmers their true value Farmers in Huambo province In oil-rich African countries like Angola, show off the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors. a high percentage of the workforce Photo: Maria Mboono still depends on agriculture for their Nghidinwa / World Bank livelihoods. Smallholder agriculture is also key to food security. Training is helping smallholder farmers expand crop yields and price them correctly for profit. 26 Barnabe Chico Saguale is the president of a farmers’ field I am a single mother, but I now have school in Bie, a province that lies at the very center of Angola. He says he has learned a great deal from his field my own house that I built with my own school, which was sponsored by the Market Oriented money that I earned from my produce. Smallholder Agriculture Development Project (MOSAP). Lina Balanda, member of a field school in Huambo province Saguale says farmers like him have learned to put a value to the time and effort spent on growing their crops even before taking their produce to market. Prior to the field school, they had not factored in the time they spent 50,000 smallholder farmers trained working on their fields, preparing their land, planting Angola is a resource-rich country, its economic growth seeds, harvesting, weeding, and maintaining their crops affected only by the legacy of civil war and the unequal with fertilizer. exploitation of its natural mineral wealth. Agriculture contributes, on average, only 5.5 percent to its GDP, but Being able to calculate the cost of the entire crop almost half (44 percent) of Angola’s employed work in production process has helped farmers to sell their the sector. About 80 percent of the country’s farmers produce at a profit and sustain their production cycle. are smallholders. They can confidently stick to their pricing when clients try to beat them down. Backed by $30 million from the World Bank’s IDA, MOSAP gave farmers in the provinces of Bie, Huambo, and Malanje training and new technologies for their Over half of participants are women organizational and marketing skills, and access to extension services and agricultural inputs. It also Although men have dominated leadership positions in helped to strengthen the farmers’ organizations. Angola’s farmers’ field schools, 56 percent of the school participants have been women. On an individual level, The project aligned with Angola’s Poverty Reduction their lives have improved dramatically. Strategy on food security and the revitalization of the rural economy. By the time it closed in March “I am a single mother, but I now have my own house 2016, some 725 farmers’ field schools had been that I built with my own money that I earned from my created and over 50,000 smallholder farmers trained produce,” says Lina Balanda, a member of a field school to boost their production and sales of crops like in Huambo province. potatoes, maize, and beans. A dynamic and energetic woman, she would like to be In 2017, the Smallholder Agriculture Development and the first woman from the project to buy a motorbike Commercialization Project was launched in Bie Province and drive it herself. Motorbikes are common in Angola, to expand support to farmers with $70 million in World but rarely driven by women. Balanda is eager to show the Bank financing. This project also aims to strengthen the world that women in rural Angola are also working their Ministry of Agriculture’s capacity for statistics, policy way out of poverty. analysis, market information, irrigation development, and agricultural extension. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 27 BENIN Diversifying incomes to decrease wildlife poaching For Antoine Loana, rearing Population pressure—and the growing sheep is a source of income and pride. demand for food—threaten the Photo: Kochikpa Abdou survival of Africa’s unique wildlife. Raman Olodo / World Bank Conservationists in Benin have found ways of helping communities living close to nature reserves leave poaching behind to earn money from raising livestock. 28 In Batia, the last village before the entrance to the Income-generating activities have Pendjari National Park in northern Benin, shepherd Antoine Loana proudly shows off his flock of sheep. undoubtedly reduced pressures on Two years ago, a CFAF 1.2 million ($2,250) grant from the park. Today, whenever you are the Support to Protected Areas Management Project in contact with our wildlife, you get (PAGAP) allowed Loana to develop and expand his livestock activities. the sense that a certain serenity has returned. He was able to build a sheep pen, adopt new grazing Boukari Warakpe, General Director of the National Center techniques, and receive training in raising and caring for for Wildlife Management the animals. In two years, his flock increased from 17 to 80 sheep, boosting his sales and income. “In 2016, I earned CFAF 249,500 (roughly $470) from for the second round of funding. The project team the sale of 13 sheep. The following year I sold 17 sheep examined the feasibility of 510 proposals selected for the for CFAF 310,000, and I still have 56 in my pen. Today, Pendjari Park and 659 others for the W Park, ultimately sheep rearing has become my main activity and I spend approving 39 and 49 micro-projects, respectively. all day with my animals in the pasture,” he says. Loana is no longer tempted to poach in the Pendjari Peace in the park National Park, as he did before, to supplement his Experiences like Loana’s are now being replicated monthly income. Thanks to the stability of his income elsewhere. Villagers in Chafarga have created the from sheep, he can take better care of his children, who Tibassiti Yain group of honey producers, and the village are pursuing their secondary education. of Tchanwassaga has started the Tossoma cooperative of market gardeners. “My success encourages many people to get involved in this activity. I now take care of my own sheep and those Pendjari’s park authorities have also seen a marked of other farmers in the village. I train them, and I have decline in poaching and other environmental degradation. become a kind of veterinarian,” he explains. On many trails in the reserve, warthogs, elephants, sable antelopes, and Buffon’s kobs observe visitors unperturbed. It would have been impossible to see the New income-generating activities animals so close to the park roads five years ago. The funding Loana received is part of the income-generating According to Boukari Warakpe, General Director of initiative introduced by the PAGAP in 2011 to benefit Benin’s National Center for Wildlife Management, communities living near national parks. The project seeks “Income-generating activities have undoubtedly to combat poaching and reduce the pressure exerted by reduced pressures on the park. Today, whenever you human activity on the biosphere by promoting alternative are in contact with our wildlife, you get the sense that sources of income for adjacent communities. a certain serenity has returned. Trust has been restored between wildlife and humans.” From an overall amount of CFAF 4.8 billion ($8.9 million), the project has already disbursed more than CFAF 247 million to finance 66 community-driven micro-projects near the Pendjari and W Parks. More than 1,000 micro- project proposals were received from community groups T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 29 CHAD Refugees regain self-reliance through agricultural activities Daniel Debah, President For as long as there are borders, of Seed Producers, an association certified by there will be refugees, and countries Chad’s National Office for Rural Development, maintains accommodating them. In Chad, his peanut crop with his wife. refugees, returnees, and hosts alike are Photo: Edmond Dingamhoudou / World Bank building better lives through agricultural markets. Farmers benefit from seed distributions, and livestock keepers receive much-needed cattle feed. 30 In Gondjé, a large refugee camp in the forest not far from I produced all these crops using the Goré in Chad, Daniel Debah has made a name for himself as the president of Seed Producers, an association seeds that the project distributed to certified by the National Office for Rural Development. us. I started out with only a few plots “I produced all these crops using the seeds that the project of land, and now, look at all this land! distributed to us. I started out with only a few plots of land I can now sell my seeds and feed my and, now, look at all this land!” he gushes with pride. “I can family, all thanks to my crops. now sell my seeds and feed my family, all thanks to my crops.” Daniel Debah, President of Seed Producers of the Gondjé refugee camp Crisis support to rebuild lives In 2013, some 600 kilometers south of Chad’s capital, Over 173,600 head of cattle, owned by some 2,500 N’Djamena, Goré experienced a major influx of both livestock producers, have received vaccinations, care, refugees and returnees (originally from Chad) fleeing and anti-parasitic treatment from Goré’s livestock the violence that rocked the neighboring Central African sector. Approximately 500 metric tons of cattle cake Republic (CAR). and bran were distributed to help refugees meet the Several years after being settled here, the Emergency emergency needs of their herds. Food and Livestock Crisis Response Project is helping Nowhere is the success of the effort to get refugees nearly 70,000 people in the process of rebuilding their involved in local agriculture more apparent than in the lives. Financed by the World Bank with $18 million in IDA opening of an agricultural inputs store in the heart of funds and implemented by the World Food Program and the Amboko market, where all the locally-grown seed the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the project varieties are sold. Chad’s National Bureau of Seeds and is giving refugees the means to resume their livelihoods National Agricultural Research Institute for Development in agriculture and livestock. provide technical support to the store. It has been so Debah is one of countless refugees who sell their crop successful that, when the need arises, the FAO purchases at the large market outside the Amboko refugee camp. seeds there for redistribution to various communities. Others, like Maxime Nodjindo, are investing in cassava. Adama Coulibaly, World Bank Resident Representative He supplies cassava cuttings to the demonstration plot for Chad, applauds “the hospitality of the host in Gondjé refugee camp, which is funded by the project populations who facilitated the successful execution to teach farming techniques. This activity guarantees of the project.” This emergency operation is an “a steady income,” he says. appropriate tool for the local humanitarian crisis, he says, bringing speedy assistance to the most Both refugees and hosts benefit vulnerable and hardest hit, while helping Chad embrace the plight of CAR’s refugees. Both refugees and their host populations are benefiting from the project. In 12 villages, two sites for returnees, and three refugee camps, upwards of 1,500 households have received groundnut seeds, while another 750 were provided with sorghum and millet seeds, according to a project appraisal. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 31 CÔTE D’IVOIRE Reviving key agricultural sectors With PSAC support, Andé Agriculture is critical to the future of Yapi Api plans to expand her palm plantation. most African economies. In Côte d’Ivoire, Photo: World Bank key commercial crops, such as cocoa and palm oil, are being revived with better seeds and technical training. Repairs to feeder roads are making it easier for transporters to move produce to markets. 32 Côte d’Ivoire’s long civil war (2002–2011) hindered Once I applied all of the new agricul- growth in all its economic sectors and drove up poverty rates. The country’s government is now reviving those tural practices from my training, my agricultural sectors that have good commercial potential output increased from 500 kilograms on both domestic and international markets, including of cocoa per year to over 1.8 metric cocoa, palm oil, rubber, cotton, and cashew nuts. tons from just of two hectares. With $50 million in IDA financing from the World Vincent Kouakou Koffi, cocoa farmer Bank, the Agriculture Sector Support Project (PSAC) is providing better seeds and fertilizers, production equipment, training, and improving access to markets through the rehabilitation of nearly 3,700 kilometers of Her one-hectare field was given to her by her elder rural roads. Some 157,000 smallholder farmers in the brother, which is rare in a country where women often most productive regions of the country have benefited. do not have access to land. Enterprising by nature, Api Here are some of their stories. was able to pay for her share of improved palm seedlings from the PSAC by producing and selling cassava semolina. She now plans to expand her plantation to two hectares Vincent Kouakou Koffi with support from the PSAC. After failing to obtain his baccalaureate, Vincent Kouakou Koffi returned to his village of Pascalkro in Zakaria and Sawadogo southwest Côte d’Ivoire to establish a cocoa plantation, an initiative his father supported by giving him a plot Just as crucial as increasing agricultural productivity of land. He has participated in several training sessions is delivering the products to processing and marketing co-financed by the PSAC and the Coffee-Cocoa Board to zones. Over the years, the degradation of many roads, learn new technologies for improving cocoa productivity. some of which were completely impassable, complicated the lives of local small producers and transporters. To This practical training, in combination with discipline address this, the PSAC is supporting the rehabilitation and determination, has allowed Koffi to make significant of a number of agricultural feeder roads. strides. “Once I applied all of the new agricultural practices from my training, my output increased For Zakaria, a transporter of palm seeds along the from 500 kilograms of cocoa per year to over 1.8 Wohou-Bénakré-Aboisso corridor, and his colleague, metric tons from just of two hectares,” he says. Sawadogo, these road works have changed their business. “This road was in such poor condition that my truck often broke down. You could barely manage Andé Yapi Api one trip per day. It was impossible for me to transport two metric tons of seeds on this road,” Zakaria explains. Andé Yapi Api, a 55-year-old farmer and mother of four from Grand-Alépé, does not conceal her pride when Today, the same trip takes half the time. “Since the showing off her fields. “I started this palm plantation to road was rehabilitated, we have been making more prepare for my retirement and earn enough to take care round trips. I make at least three trips per day with of myself and support my children and grandchildren,” four to five metric tons of cargo,” says Sawadogo. she explains. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 33 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Female farmers find strength in unity Increasing agricultural Giving women the recognition they productivity enhances household income, food deserve for the role they play in security, and school enrollment. agriculture can go a long way to Photo: Vincent Tremeau / stimulating economies. In the Democratic World Bank Republic of Congo, organized collectives of women farmers are coordinating activities, producing more, and banking their increased earnings. 34 Kabibi Saolona is thrilled. An enterprising farmer from We now grow crops together, harvest Gemena in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), she says she has increased the income from her work in together, store products in a common the fields. “I live comfortably and can now provide for my warehouse, and sell them together. The family. I was also able to buy a motorcycle, which allows revenue is placed in a self-managed me to move about and maintain contact with other members of the association,” she exclaims. village bank. Sarah Fatuma, President of the TOSUNGANA Association Saolona belongs to TOSUNGANA, an organization of mainly women that has received support and guidance from the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Recovery Sup- The proliferation of these savings banks reflects port Project (ARRSP), financed by $120 million from the the rapid growth of local economic activity and the World Bank’s IDA. These women are among the many resumption of monetary exchange in the region. This small farmers and livestock producers in the Sud-Ubangi, has, by extension, improved food security, children’s Nord-Ubangi, and Mongala Provinces (former Equateur education, and the well-being of households across Province) to see their productivity and revenues rise the project zone. thanks to project support. Working together to achieve goals Connecting producers to markets For Sarah Fatuma, President of TOSUNGANA, the In addition to receiving good quality agricultural inputs, project’s most powerful impact has been uniting beneficiaries are taking advantage of training on new and empowering women in her province. production technologies and methods for conserving, marketing, and selling their produce after harvesting. “Prior to its implementation, each of us worked This includes product bundling and formalizing independently. However, since the ARRSP taught us cooperation between producers and transporters. The how to collaborate, we work together to achieve our project is helping to build the infrastructure—rural roads, goals. We now grow crops together, harvest together, warehouses, and markets—key to revitalizing agriculture. store products in a common warehouse, and sell them together,” she explains. By 2016, nearly 107,000 households, 40 percent of them headed by women, had benefited from the project, which Structured and organized, the women of TOSUNGANA had also rehabilitated over 2,250 kilometers of rural can hire labor from among other female members of the roads and built four markets and 16 warehouses. organization and distribute duties. Some work in the fields, while others handle bundling and the promotion According to Alfred Kibangula Asoyo, the national of agricultural products. Still others are assigned to project coordinator, “These various works now connect managing and maintaining the village warehouse or are production basins to major consumer markets, involved in cassava processing using the training and facilitating the delivery of agricultural products. equipment that they have received. Today, we can observe a steady increase in the revenue of small producers, who are usually grouped into associations with self-managed village banks.” T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 35 GUINEA-BISSAU Conservation is key to green growth Much of a continent’s wealth lies in its natural resources. Some in Guinea- Bissau see its rich biodiversity as the foundation of its future. By creating nature reserves and emphasizing conservation, they are promoting sustainable development and preserving ecosystems. With its stunning beaches and thriving biodiversity, Guinea-Bissau’s Bijagós Archipelago has significant potential for tourism. Photo: Daniella van Leggelo / World Bank 36 Ribbons of clear blue water sparkle against a backdrop In Guinea-Bissau, we believe in of lush palm trees, vines, baobabs, and mangroves. White herons dot the horizon, diving beak first into the water managing biodiversity to ensure with a tiny splash. There is no shortage of fish in these greater development. waters, and herons and fishermen alike rarely come up Alfredo Simão da Silva, Director of the Institute for empty handed. After all, Guinea-Bissau possesses one Biodiversity and Protected Areas (IBAP) of the richest fishery resources in West Africa. With diverse ecosystems—ranging from dense tropical forests to mangrove swamps—Guinea-Bissau has Participative management of the protected areas become increasingly conscious of the value of its natural with local inhabitants has played an important role in wealth. As it works to rebuild itself after years of political these conservation efforts. Protected areas are zoned turmoil and violence, Guinea-Bissau is relying on its in such a way to allow some human activity in certain natural resources to overcome its challenges. Striking places, as long as it is sustainable and compatible with the right balance between exploitation and conservation conservation interests. is critical, particularly in the areas of agriculture, mining, “By allowing the protected zones to be inhabited, we give fisheries, and tourism. value to them, which encourages local populations to also work towards protecting them,” emphasizes Simão da Silva. Conservation for economic growth IBAP focuses on raising awareness about natural Conserving Guinea-Bissau’s natural havens is the life’s resources and how to use them in an eco-friendly way. work of Alfredo Simão da Silva, Director of the Institute It also performs routine surveillance to make sure zoning for Biodiversity and Protected Areas (IBAP). Established rules are respected and there is no encroachment. in 2005 with funding from the World Bank, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), and the European Financing for the future Commission, IBAP coordinates the management of protected areas, maps outs species and ecosystems While the protected area system holds tremendous for monitoring, develops action plans for endangered economic and social promise, it faces financing species, and establishes new protected areas. challenges long-term. Conservation, which can be costly and from which income is generated indirectly, Simão da Silva’s fierce dedication to IBAP’s cause has can get swept under the rug when the pressure to led to the creation of five national parks and one develop increases. community reserve. Today, approximately 26 percent of Guinea-Bissau’s territory is protected, with two more Current conservation efforts depend entirely on funding national parks and three environmental corridors in the works. from external donors, so the government of Guinea- Bissau and its partners have established the BioGuinea “In Guinea-Bissau, we believe in managing biodiversity Foundation, a sustainable financing mechanism to fund to ensure greater development,” says Simão da Silva. surveillance and conservation efforts. It is working to “We are working to ensure the conservation of plant and secure seed capital, with its initial goal of $10 million. animal species that can then increase fish stocks and tourism and provide food security for local populations.” T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 37 NIGERIA “Poverty has run away, there is no more poverty.” Increasing agricultural production is key to feeding Africa’s growing population and improving rural economies. By organizing into groups, smallholder farmers throughout Nigeria are gaining better tools, knowledge, and market connections to increase their productivity and income. Members of a Fadama production group sing a praise song in Inyi village, Oduma, Enugu State, Nigeria. Photo: Olufunke Modupe Olufon / World Bank 38 In many parts of Africa, a series of laudatory appellations— Thanks to the Fadama project, we are called praise songs—are used to capture the essence of the person or the object being praised. In Inyi, a village able to pay school fees and our children community in Oduma in Nigeria’s Enugu State, the are able to go to school. Fadama project has earned its own praise song. Regina Osundu, rice farmer and member of all-female Fadama production group Inyi women gather in the village hall, dancing and chanting in unison: “Fadama! Ubiam eri mbombo ozo,” or in English, “Fadama! Poverty has run away, there is no more poverty.” that can mitigate the impact of potential shocks, such as insuring crops for fire and disease. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, Fadama III Third phase of project has reached 4.9 million households directly and indirectly. Since 1993, the World Bank-funded National Fadama Development Project has been supporting Nigeria’s Production groups empower farmers by helping to empower communities and strengthen agriculture development throughout the In Inyi, where mainly rice is grown, villagers have formed country. Now in its third phase with an additional six production groups of 10 members each. Two groups $200 million in IDA funding, the project is working to consist entirely of women. According to community transform the value chains of cassava, rice, sorghum, leader Ignatius Onyeabor, there was no organized and horticultural crops in six states: Kogi, Niger, Kano, support for rice production before Fadama. Lagos, Anambra, and Enugu. The focus is on improving “The project has been helpful to the community because agricultural productivity, but also on aggregating when a group of 10 farmers prepares their business produce and processing it for marketing. This is plan, their input is half and the government covers the raising the bar from subsistence agriculture to other half. Many of our women did not want to commit making agriculture a business. their money until the first production group subscribed Key to the endeavor is creating strength in numbers. and realized that it was real. Now all the women have Individual smallholder farmers are encouraged to wheelbarrows,” says Onyeabor. organize into Fadama community associations and user According to Regina Osundu, a member of one of the groups to collectively design and implement community- all-female Fadama production groups, “I cannot put into driven projects. They receive tools and technologies, such words all the benefits of Fadama. It has transformed our as rice mills, packing machines, wheelbarrows, threshers, lives. Thanks to the Fadama project, we are able to pay and pumps, to support their group efforts to grow and school fees and our children are able to go to school.” sell produce. State-level project facilitators provide advisory services and the critical inputs needed to ramp up production, such as seeds and fertilizer. They support increased access to markets and introduce farmers to practices T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 39 RWANDA Farmers reap benefits of land redevelopment With increased financial As pressure on land increases in small stability gained through rice farming, John Muyango has countries with rapidly growing populations, been able to acquire and keep milking cows. Africa’s most fertile agricultural land Photo: Frank Kanye must be put to more use. In rural Rwanda, 7,400 hectares of marshland have been rehabilitated for rice farming, benefiting some 360,000 people. 40 Standing proudly in front of his new, four-bedroom house This is almost unbelievable. I had never in Kayigiro village of Nyagatare District, 45-year-old John Muyango is content. Five years ago, he made the imagined I would achieve this much so difficult decision to convert from a cattle keeper to a rice fast, let alone through rice farming. farmer. His success was almost instant. John Muyango, rice farmer in Kayigiro village of Nyagatare District “At first, I was reluctant to venture into rice farming, which I considered more demanding and requiring heavier investments than cattle keeping,” Muyango says. “I soon realized I was wrong.” In Muvumba area, a dam has been built and farmers can take advantage of training in improved rice farming Nyagatare, a town in northeast Rwanda, is the country’s techniques, as well as in business management, livestock base. The traditional practice of keeping cattle marketing, and entrepreneurship. The project has requires big pastures. Along with the demands of supported farmers in forming a 586-member Rice agriculture, land is limited. Farmers’ Cooperative and in establishing post-harvest infrastructure, including five drying grounds and a 1,500 Muyango knew that he would be unable to continue to tons capacity storage facility. rely on livestock to sustain his family of 10. So, when the nearby Muvumba marshland was developed through the Rural Sector Support Project (RSSP), bringing More financial stability rice farming to the village, he embraced change. By converting his two hectares of pasture into a rice farm, Nearly 100 percent of the farmers supported have he is now harvesting close to 11 tons of rice and has been adopted improved farming methods, and 86 percent of able to build his new house and pay school fees for his the marshland uses fertilizers, compared to 30 percent children with ease. of farmers nationally. Since the project was launched, rice yields in developed or rehabilitated marshland have “This is almost unbelievable,” he says, beaming. “I had doubled from 3 to 6 tons per hectare. never imagined I would achieve this much so fast, let alone through rice farming.” With better financial stability, Muyango has been able to go back to his first love: cattle keeping. He was able to purchase three Friesian cows, which he feeds at home. Better yields, greater income They produce more milk than the long-horned local breed he used to own, and they give him manure for his rice Muvumba marshland is one of several areas developed farm, which he plans to expand. under the project, which is supported by $80 million in IDA funding from the World Bank. It aims to increase “I am currently investing in buying more paddies in the the productivity of farmers in targeted marshlands and marshland,” he says. “Five years from today, I see myself on the hillsides of sub-watersheds, and to strengthen among the most successful rice farmers in Rwanda.’’ market-based value chains. More than 7,400 hectares of marshland have been rehabilitated or developed, benefiting more than 360,000 people, nearly half of them women. Rural infrastructure has also been improved to link these areas to markets, increasing trade and farmer’s incomes. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 41 SOUTH AFRICA Africa’s first smart transport marketplace The age of digital disruption has helped to increase coordination and reduce inefficiencies in many industries. EmptyTrips is a start-up on a mission to improve the transport industry by reducing carbon emissions and shipping costs for small and medium-sized enterprises. Truckers unload sacks of onions at a farmers’ market in Bamako, Mali. Photo: Dominic Chavez / World Bank 42 In South Africa, as in many other countries, between Transport costs can be a significant 30 and 40 percent of all trucks and rail freight cars travel empty, either on the initial run or on the hindrance to our growth and our ability “backhaul.” The inefficiency of this drives up to prosper. They are either the back- transportation costs and reduces competitiveness. bone or the bottleneck of economies. Worse, these empty trucks increase traffic congestion Benji Coetzee, founder and CEO of EmptyTrips and carbon emissions unnecessarily, while transporters miss out on potential income. After working at top-tier management consulting Leveraging data to reduce costs firms and hearing clients complain about transport costs, Benji Coetzee began prototyping a smart, EmptyTrips provides users with an easy and flexible connected platform to lower transport costs, process. Transporters can list their excess capacity improve transparency, and increase use. online or wait for a listing of cargo to bid on. When shippers list their cargo, the algorithm will search for “I had noticed empty trucks and rail wagons running a possible match and prompt the transporter to offer between Johannesburg and Durban. The oversupply a competitive price (empty rate). Alternatively, if no and high costs simply didn’t make sense. Excess supply empty spaces are available, carriers can bid on the should lead to lower prices, not higher,” Coetzee explains. cargo. EmptyTrips earns a service fee on each “This anomaly is what led me to start EmptyTrips.” transaction, charged equally to both parties. EmptyTrips has registered nearly 300 companies, over Filling spaces to places 100 transporters have been approved, and shippers have After six months of development and bootstrapping listed over 1,700 trips. EmptyTrips has also won a pitch with her own savings, Coetzee launched EmptyTrips in competition at mLab Southern Africa, an incubator 2017. It matches and connects users to spare capacity supported by the World Bank’s infoDev, and participated by using algorithms and competitive bidding in the in the Slush Global Impact Accelerator program in digital marketplace. Finland, which infoDev also supports. EmptyTrips’ business model is similar to Airbnb, eBay, Currently operating in South Africa, the start-up has and other platforms that remain asset-less, lean, and ambitious plans to expand further and hopes to become scalable, while offering add-on services, such as cargo the leading logistics platform on the African continent. insurance. EmptyTrips is Africa’s first smart transport “Our platform has the potential to open borders and marketplace to offer access to vetted transporters enable trade for the continent by leveraging data. and carriers by road and rail. However, being first Transport costs can be a significant hindrance to also has its challenges. our growth and our ability to prosper. They are either “Creating a digital market where none existed before means the backbone or the bottleneck of economies. We that we are building two businesses at once: a database of help governments connect stakeholders, reducing vetted transporters and operators, and a database of cargo inefficiencies that increase costs,” explains Coetzee. owners and brokers. The marketplace does not function without both. But we have to build capacity first, before we can offer competitive rates to attract more brokers and make more matches,” Coetzee says. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 43 AFRICA REGION Putting data to work for development In 2018, the World Bank and Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data announced support for 12 projects—eight in Africa—that advance how development data is produced, managed, and used. Backed by a $2.5 million data innovation fund, these projects show how new partnerships, methods, and sources of data can be integrated. Answering a call for proposals to “Leave No One Behind” or support the environment, the selected data innovation projects will benefit many vulnerable communities, including refugees and other displaced people. Photo: Dorte Verner / World Bank 44 This initiative for collaborative data innovations satellite imagery to detect hotspots, and software to help public institutions, NGOs, and commercial for sustainable development is supported by the farmers maximize the benefits of insecticide, World Bank’s Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity manage yield losses, and adapt to climate change. Building, with financing from the United Kingdom’s Bridging Development and Emergency Data Department for International Development, the 5 Gaps for the Refugee Crisis (Uganda, Tanzania) Government of Korea, and the Department of will involve refugees in the mapping of refugee Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland. camps and non-camp communities to capture data on population, the built environment, and services, allowing governments to improve service delivery and support to refugee communities. It will scale 1 Children on the Move: Using Satellite Data up a proven pilot and combine citizen-generated Analysis in Conflict/Famine-Affected Areas data with surveys and satellite imagery for new (Somalia, Kenya) aims to develop a scientifically sectors and locations. tested method, based on the use of high resolution satellite data, to monitor and predict the movements Geomapping Barriers to Urban Service Access 6 of internally displaced people. It will create in Older Age (Kenya, as well as India) aims to standardized best practices for improving the build a community data collection effort among identification, tracking, and assessment of these older people in urban areas to understand the groups, with a focus on vulnerable women and spatial and social barriers that exist to older children in famine and conflict-affected contexts. residents gaining access to services, particularly the homeless and those living in informal 2 Scale up of the Pastoral Early Warning settlements. Geotagged primary data will be System in the Sahel (Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso) collected on a range of older age-related barriers. will integrate satellite and weekly community survey data to track the impacts of climate change Digital Farm (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) aims to 7 on pastoral conditions in the Sahel. Early warnings help smallholder farmers respond to climate risks by can help mitigate drought and inform decisions, integrating multiple sources of data and presenting such as when herders should move livestock during them with a personalized, accessible perspective on a long dry season. how to adapt and respond to specific challenges. The project intends to enable smallholders to engage with 3 Targeting Water Subsidies Based on New Data data in meaningful ways and transition from being Generation Technologies (Angola) will develop a passive recipients of data to active designers. tool that maps poverty by combining high resolution satellite data and surveys in cost-effective and Estimating and Mapping Off-Grid Populations 8 time-saving ways to improve the targeting of water (Sierra Leone, Liberia) seeks to increase the subsidies for those who need them most. This will be visibility of off-grid, hard-to-reach populations by calibrated using existing data. Poverty mapping like providing information about the location and size this could have other applications. of small settlements within mangrove areas prone to sea-level rise. It will use an online interface, 4 Armyworm Research Using Remote-Sensing taking advantage of high resolution satellite Methods (Malawi) will contribute to efforts images, volunteered geographic information, to eliminate the aggressive fall armyworm that and modeling. threatens crops. It will develop a tool that uses T RANS FORMING AFRICA | R ESO URCES 45 46 POLITICAL WILL From the highest seats of government to community groups on the ground—such as this one in South Sudan—the shared desire for peace, prosperity, and security is driving transformations. African countries are working to achieve lasting change in complex issues through investments in governance, infrastructure, public services, and regional cooperation supported by the World Bank. Photo: LGSDP Implementation Unit 47 CAMEROON Improving health care for the most vulnerable Léonie Ndo Mvondo bought Providing people living in remote, rural hospital beds, restocked the pharmacy, and upgraded areas of Africa with access to good laboratory equipment with project financing. health care is a challenge. Community Photo: Odilia Hebga / engagement and performance-based World Bank financing in Cameroon are improving medical services and raising the level of trust in public health care among target communities. 48 Cameroon has made significant progress combating The funds provided by this pilot program malnutrition and maternal and infant mortality, but sharp disparities persist between lower rates of both in allowed us to implement a tailored the south, and higher rates in the north of the country, health care policy for members of the where close to 20 percent of children die before their Baka community living in our district. fifth birthday. Léonie Ndo Mvondo, head of the Kagnol health care center Northern Cameroon is home to people fleeing conflict in areas near the country’s borders. Eastern Cameroon, home to the Baka community, is another region with and identify vulnerable members of the community. They high maternal and infant mortality rates. The social and accompany the sick and ailing to health facilities nearby health indicators among these two vulnerable populations to receive the care they need. of refugees and indigenous peoples are alarming. In Kagnol, Léonie Ndo Mvondo, the head of the health In the eastern town of Petit Kagnol, Papa Simon, chief center, says raising awareness among the Baka about the of the Baka camp, lost his daughter and grandchild in importance of follow-up visits is one of her main concerns. childbirth. “My daughter started to have complications during delivery and was in severe pain, but she did not “The funds provided by this pilot program have allowed want to be hospitalized... We tried treating her with us to carry out a tailored health care policy for members traditional medicines, but in vain,” he says. He and his of the Baka community living in our district. They do not family rushed her to the hospital a few dozen kilometers pay for medication or hospitalization, and all medical away, but it was too late. procedures are provided free of charge,” she says. His story resembles that of many others—particularly stories of women, children, and the elderly who succumb Performance-based financing to complications that went untreated either because of The financing of such health centers is conditional based a lack of health care or a mistrust of it. upon results achieved to date. The incentive is designed To address these challenges, the World Bank’s Health to reward workers in hospitals and health centers for Sector Support Investment Project has been funding improving their levels of care. It also encourages a sense a $25 million pilot in 26 districts in four regions of of accountability to the public and gives frontline health Cameroon since 2011. It has reached some 3 million facilities the autonomy to take initiative. people. In 2016, an additional project worth a total Mvondo is pleased: “With the financing we received, we of $127 million was approved to scale up activities were able to build living quarters for the head of the nationwide by 2019. center, buy hospital beds, restock the pharmacy, and upgrade the laboratory equipment. We also installed solar Community outreach panels, so we can have electricity at all hours of the day.” Community engagement and performance-based financing are what make the program work. An example: Health care agents visit households twice a month to monitor health conditions, encourage preventative care, T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 49 GUINEA Rooting out fraud empowers efficiencies in civil service Guinea’s civil servants are Ghost workers are the scourge of now all enrolled in an official register, giving the government civil service payrolls wherever records reliable data on its personnel and more control of the have been allowed to lapse. Biometric monthly payroll. identification and a full census of its Photo: World Bank civil service helped Guinea shed over 9,500 fraudulent positions and fictitious employees, leading to substantial savings for the government. 50 Kadiatou Simankan has worked as a secretary at By publicly condemning cases of fraud Guinea’s Ministry of Energy and Water Resources for several years. When civil service reform began in January and naming names, we are creating a 2014, she feared the worst. Initially worried that it might powerful deterrent. ensnare innocent workers like her, she now feels a sense Andre Loua, former Secretary General in charge of relief. “Each of us has finally been acknowledged and of budget affairs recorded in the system,” Simankan says. For the first time since the late 1980s, Guinea has in place a functioning administrative system for its civil The personnel files of the remaining civil servants have service. All civil servants are accounted for and enrolled now been digitized and classified in a modern, easy-access in an official register that provides the government with archive, replacing an unwieldy paper-based system from reliable data on its personnel and greater control of the which it used to take days to retrieve a single file. monthly payroll. “Now, whenever we call on our human resources Supported by $10 million in IDA funding from the World department, we can obtain a civil servant’s file. In the Bank, the Economic Governance Technical Assistance past that wasn’t possible,” says Eugene Falikou Yomalo, and Capacity Building Project facilitated the process by Inspector General of Public Administration. equipping the government with the tools it needed to identify bona fide personnel and modernize its databases Zero tolerance for ghost workers to manage its human resources, budget for its payroll, and record administrative decisions. To further the fight against fraud, Guinea’s government has launched a communication campaign. Andre Loua, formerly Secretary-General in charge of budget affairs, Counting fingerprints and faces is adamant that the public must be made aware of the Prior to the reforms, the payroll division of the value of transparency in the use of public resources. “By government ministry responsible for civil servants’ publicly condemning cases of fraud and naming names, salaries transferred enough money to pay 101,689 we are creating a powerful deterrent,” he says. salaries a month. Using the latest, automated fingerprint Through its public service reforms, Guinea has shown identification system and facial comparison software, zero tolerance for ghost workers. It has been able to biometric identification flagged the existence of 7,173 draw lessons from censuses conducted in countries fictitious employees among them. Cutting the salaries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Senegal and of these ghost workers from the payroll has generated take advantage of the latest biometric technological savings for the Treasury of nearly 30 billion Guinean advances to improve efficiency and rate of success. Francs per month (over $3 million). An employee headcount cleared another 2,392 civil servants off the books. Removing the deceased and those no longer actually working (because of absenteeism and other offenses) saved another 43 billion Guinean Francs (over $4.3 million). Other savings were made by cross-checking data with the National Social Security Fund to identify civil servants earning salaries in both the public and private sectors. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 51 KENYA Connecting low-income communities and the grid Electricity powers development, yet Africa’s per capita electrification rates are generally low. Kenya has found a way to step up the pace of electrification by making legal connections to the grid more appealing and affordable for the millions of people who live in informal urban settlements. Kenya Power’s new lines, meters, and breaker boxes are everywhere in poor urban communities in and around Nairobi. Photo: Kenya Power 52 Despite connecting more than 1.2 million people a People now come to us asking us to year to electrical power from 2014 to 2017—raising the electrification rate from 36 to 70 percent of the light their communities. This is no longer population—Kenya’s main power utility company has a Kenya Power project. It’s their project. found it difficult to bring electricity to people in Ben Chumo, former Managing Director and CEO, Kenya Power populous city slums. In the capital Nairobi, a city of 3.4 million people, some 2 million live in informal settlements plagued by unsafe, illegal connections to the grid. Safe, reliable, affordable power The World Bank and Global Partnership on Output- That is changing. Supported by a multi-faceted partnership Based Aid (GPOBA) provide funding for each new, legal with the World Bank, the Kenya Power and Lighting connection. Kenya Power supplements them with its Corporation, also known as Kenya Power, has managed own resources. New connections are offered to residents to connect a million informal households in urban poor of informal settlements at a much lower rate than to settlements. Some 5 million people are benefiting. regular customers: $12 compared to $150. Community-centric approach Additional input has come from a south-south knowledge exchange, organized by the Energy Sector Management This is a far cry from the 5,000 households Kenya Assistance Program (ESMAP), which brought together Power first struggled to connect to the grid from 2011 experts from utilities in Kenya, Brazil, Colombia, to 2013. Then, it focused its energies on removing illegal and South Africa. GPOBA and ESMAP support was connections to the grid, only to find them back up again coordinated as part of a larger $330 million World a few days later. Many of its legal customers were selling Bank project to help Kenya expand and modernize power to others. its electricity sector. The turning point came in 2014 when Kenya Power Today Kenya Power’s new lines, meters, and breaker shifted its focus and adopted a community-centric boxes are everywhere in poor urban communities. Pre- approach. It began listening to members of the paid meters have been installed on top of power lines community and marketing the benefits of legal to prevent theft. Consumers can track their electricity connections to them, such as safety, reliability, consumption on digital keypads inside their homes and and affordability. pay via mobile money platforms. It also increased its collaboration with the Kenya “Compared to the illegal power, it has better and brighter Informal Settlements Improvement Project, a $100 light,” says Bentha Anyango, a resident in Mathare. “It’s million, World Bank-supported government program just as cheap as the illegal power, but it’s safe, so we that has a widespread network in Nairobi’s many embrace it.” slums. This partnership has helped Kenya Power break the slums down into manageable segments Demand has spread for legal connections to the and target particular areas. grid. “People now come to us asking us to light their communities,” says Ben Chumo, former Managing Director and CEO of Kenya Power. “This is no longer a Kenya Power project. It’s their project.” T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 53 LIBERIA After Ebola, health system on path to recovery A challenge for rich and poor nations alike, public health care reflects political will. The overhaul of Liberia’s health system is designed to provide better care and prevent a repeat of the high rates of infection and mortality seen in the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in 2014. Liberia is refurbishing rural clinics and upgrading equipment as of part of efforts to modernize health care services. Photo: Michael Nyumah Sahr / World Bank 54 Expectant mother Shirley Kamara smiles as she receives Ebola revolutionized health services medical care at the C.H. Rennie Hospital in Kakata, just over 68 kilometers north of the Liberian capital of in Margibi, with a transition from a Monrovia. “Our hospital is far better now since the Ebola closed to an open health care system. outbreak,” she says. “We are encouraging our people to Asinya Magnus, a doctor in C.H. Rennie Hospital come here because everything is getting better.” C.H. Rennie Hospital in Margibi County was one of the facilities hardest-hit in 2014 during a major, regional The Liberian government has since developed a “Building outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease. Fourteen of its a Resilient Health System” investment plan. The World health workers died, and the virus killed at least 4,800 Bank is its largest financier, with over $220 million for people throughout Liberia. a wide range of health-related activities. The outbreak attracted international attention that has led to improvements in Liberia’s health care services. More infrastructure, training, equipment Asinya Magnus, a doctor in Kakata, says “Ebola These include the construction of 82 housing duplexes revolutionized health services in Margibi, with a to improve living conditions for health workers and to transition from a closed to an open health care system.” attract personnel to hard-to-reach rural areas. There are The country’s new health infrastructure is more decentralized, plans for a new Teaching Hospital in Monrovia and new and its workers receive more medical supplies and more dormitories and classrooms at the College of Medicine training in preventing and controlling infections. at the University of Liberia. The World Bank is supporting medical education Building a resilient health system programs, including a Graduate Medical Residency Program for practitioners of Internal Medicine, The Ebola outbreak exposed the weaknesses in Liberia’s Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Surgery, health care delivery services, evident when development and Family Medicine. The first 13 specialists in partners intervened in September 2014. That emergency these areas graduated in September 2017. response—led by Liberia’s Ministry of Health with support from the World Bank, U.S. government, World Over 520 pieces of equipment, including X-ray units, Health Organization, and other UN agencies—resulted infant incubators, electrosurgical units, and vaccine in bringing the number of Ebola cases down to zero. refrigerators, and over 120 pieces of laboratory equipment have also been supplied. For infection The many interventions included social mobilization, control, 24 triage and isolation facilities in rural community-driven activities, the provision of drugs and hospitals and health centers in five counties have medical supplies, hazard pay for 20,000 health workers, been created, and existing isolation facilities have and death benefits for the 154 families of health workers been renovated in three major hospitals. who succumbed to Ebola while combatting the outbreak. The National Public Health Institute of Liberia is also Liberia shares a busy border region with two of its being supported to implement the World Bank-backed neighbors, and the disease killed another 6,500 people Regional Diseases Surveillance Enhancement Project in Guinea and Sierra Leone. to strengthen collaboration across West Africa. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 55 MOZAMBIQUE Trash collection in Maputo? There’s an app for that Small teams of workers use New technology is playing a larger role trolleys to collect garbage from the narrow streets of in helping Africa’s fast-growing cities Maputo’s informal settlements. run. The city of Maputo is using a locally Photo: Gustavo Mahoque / World Bank devised mobile app that allows citizens to let it know when garbage is piling up for collection. The digital platform is fostering transparency, accountability, and better coordinated services. 56 Mozambique’s cities are expanding, turning the collection Citizens are an integral part of the of solid waste into a major issue, particularly in informal settlements or slums. In the capital city of Maputo, home MOPA system. They notify us and to about 1.8 million people, the municipality’s reliance help us monitor the services. This is on 45 different sub-contractors has made garbage changing the mentality and the collection even more complex. But no longer! sense of citizenry in Maputo. With support from the World Bank, Maputo has Florentino Ferreira, municipal councilor for waste worked with a Mozambican digital start-up to develop management in Maputo the Participatory Monitoring platform, known as MOPA for short. By using the free MOPA app or website, or simply by dialing *311# on any mobile phone, Maputo’s With MOPA, the citizens have become a part of the citizens can report waste issues at any time of day, solution. According to Ferreira, “Citizens are an integral anywhere. The city’s municipal services then use the part of the system. They notify us and help us monitor MOPA platform to target and track a rapid response. the services. This is changing the mentality and the For the sake of transparency, all MOPA’s information sense of citizenry in Maputo.” is accessible to everyone. “It’s possible to identify spots of uncollected waste Open data for improved services in our neighborhood and act on them immediately,” says Sebastião João, a MOPA user and resident of The platform is garnering international recognition. the populous Chamanculo neighborhood on the city The UN’s 2016 e-Government Survey improved outskirts. “People can now notify the municipality Mozambique’s rank in its citizens’ Participation Index in real time.” after MOPA was implemented. UNESCO has selected MOPA as a case study for its series, “Improved Livelihoods in a Digital World,” and the Making All Voices Citizens part of the solution Count initiative presented MOPA its Global Award. Since it was launched in 2016, the digital platform has The city of Maputo can see for itself that MOPA is helped the municipality identify and eliminate over 180 working, and it is exploring ways to expand the informal garbage dumps across the city. About 20 reports platform to sanitation and traffic. This is part of a come in every day, bringing the total number of reports push to use technologies to create greater transparency made by late 2017 to over 6,800 from 3,500 different and accountability in city government. In 2017, Maputo citizens and locations. Over 88 percent of these issues have became the second Sub-Saharan city with an open data been resolved, with an average response time of 2.7 days. portal. It is now asking local entrepreneurs, students, and Today, over a million kilograms of solid waste are developers to come up with other digital tools using city collected every day in Maputo’s informal settlements. data to serve its citizens. “These results represent an enormous increase in efficiency and civic participation,” says councilor Florentino Ferreira, who oversees waste management in the city. “Before this, it was difficult to know what was going on in the narrow streets of most of our informal settlements.” T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 57 SENEGAL Road leads to economic opportunity The Dakar Toll Road connects As Africa’s cities grow, so do the benefits the city center to suburbs and the new international airport. and challenges of urbanization. In Photo: Dominic Chavez / IFC Dakar—a sprawling city of 2.5 million— traffic has long been a roadblock to progress. The city’s new 41-kilometer toll road is reducing commuting times, curbing pollution, and boosting business. 58 Commuters battling bumper-to-bumper traffic to get As soon as you improve urban mobility, to their jobs in Dakar used to pay a heavy price for the chronic road congestion: their time was wasted, the entire economy benefits. their cars often broke down, and they arrived at work Dominique Ndong, Deputy Director of APIX, the Senegal exhausted by the long, hot commute. government’s investment promotion agency For Ruf Universel Service, a transport company based near Dakar in Rufisque, trips that took longer than with most of the expansion expected to take place in the expected led to higher fuel costs and truckers’ wages. outer suburbs. The area is already home to more than a The company found itself fined by clients whose cargo quarter of the country’s population and contributes to missed their arrival times. “When you have a 40-ton about 60 percent of its GDP. truck, delays can mean thousands of dollars in penalties a day,” says the firm’s manager, El Hadji Djibril Mbengue. Increasing competitiveness But the 41-kilometer toll road that now connects Dakar to its suburbs has sped things up, smoothing the way for “As soon as you improve urban mobility, the entire more business and creating opportunities for companies economy benefits,” says Dominique Ndong, Deputy like Ruf Universel to expand. Director of APIX, the Senegal government’s investment promotion agency. Cutting commuting time Studies on the new toll road bear this out. A recent report by APIX indicates that nearly 60 percent of the Completed in two phases, the highway is the first companies based in the area have profited from having public-private partnership for a greenfield toll road access to a wider area for distributing their goods, in West Africa. The World Bank’s IFC coordinated the increasing their competitiveness. partnership and mobilized €26 million ($32 million) of its own resources, as well as €50 million ($61.5 million) The impact is visible. According to Didier Payerne, from other sources. Director of Development for Africa at Eiffage, the French group that won the 30-year concession to build and The first section, a 24-kilometer stretch from Dakar to maintain the road, “The bottleneck has disappeared and Diamniadio was inaugurated in 2013 and has slashed allowed the area to be developed. Now we see houses, commuting time between the two places from over new cities, industries sprouting up along the highway.” two hours to about 30 minutes. The second stretch, commissioned in 2016, links Dakar to Senegal’s new For Ruf Universel Services, the toll road is saving the international airport in Thiès, and creates a faster company time and money. Quicker trips have resulted route to seaside resorts south of Dakar that are a in fuel savings averaging 20 percent, better trucker source of employment and income. conditions, and rewards from clients for deliveries made ahead of schedule. The company is now considering In Greater Dakar, traffic problems have long been expanding its fleet. “More trucks mean more business,” a roadblock to progress. The region’s economic says Mbengue. performance revolves around Senegal, so better urban mobility is crucial to its prosperity. Projections suggest Dakar’s population may double to five million by 2030, T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 59 SOUTH SUDAN Linking peace with development More community involvement Development tends to wait on peace, in local government planning is helping to foster peace. but it is not always necessary to do so. Photo: LGSDP With guidance, members of some rival Implementation Unit communities in South Sudan are coming together to choose local development projects, showing that communal progress can be possible even amid conflict. 60 Stephen Makoi’s reaction to his brother’s murder in People must debate and vote for what 2016 surprised many. He went to the house of the man responsible and chatted to him, something he repeated they want. This formula has helped our over a period of several days. His approach confused and communities deal with many issues in frustrated his grieving family, who sought revenge, as a peaceful and constructive way. well as members of the killer’s clan. Stephen Makoi, local development committee chairperson Makoi hails from Amongpiny payam (community), one in Amongpiny payam of the areas of South Sudan where inter-communal conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths. His response to his brother’s murder was his way of Conflict resolution, communication restraining his own clan from retaliating, preventing further bloodshed. It also paved the way to the Launched in 2013, the project has been carried out suspect’s detention by law enforcement officers, in seven of the ten original states of South Sudan. allowing a judicial process to take place. Communities take part in planning at payam and boma (county) levels, with committees identifying the “I did this because I wanted to teach my people we development projects they want. These are often small can handle such things differently,” Makoi explains. infrastructure projects funded through grants and subsequently integrated into county development Shifting dynamics plans and budgets. Makoi credits the nature of his intervention to his The process also serves to support conflict resolution. involvement with the Local Governance and Service “What we have learned is that the way people prioritize Delivery Project (LGSDP), which is supported with $50 their needs cannot just be done at random,” says Makoi. million in IDA funding from the World Bank. By using a “People must debate and vote for what they want. This community-driven development approach, the project formula has helped our communities deal with many integrates governance, service delivery, peacebuilding, issues in a peaceful and constructive way.” and community participation. The LGSDP program typically kicks off with events Makoi admits that, at first, his decision not to seek at which communities analyze the roots of conflicts revenge made it hard for him to be taken seriously and identify their local resources before talking about in his capacity as elected chair of his payam’s local development priorities. The recurrence of communal development committee. conflict in South Sudan makes conflict mapping essential to local government planning. This guided process is However, Jonas Njelango, the Project Manager with promoting peaceful interactions and gaining respect. ACROSS, the World Bank’s implementation partner, has observed the project’s transforming effect on James Biith, a local development committee chairperson the dynamics of conflict. He sees perceptions and in Jiir payam , says that before, the Amongpiny, Jiir, and behaviors gradually shifting away from conflict as Matangai payams were constantly fighting each other. local participation in development grows. “The fact “For a long time, we could not come together and sit that this issue did not escalate into conflict is, in next to each other like this,” he explains. “You could not itself, a big deal,” he says. even sit for 15 minutes without hearing gunshots. The project talked to all of us equally and eventually brought us together.” T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 61 TANZANIA New bus system saves riders time and money Clean and efficient, Dar es Mass transit is vital in Africa’s mega- Salaam new BRT is cutting commuting costs and time, cities. In Dar es Salaam, a new bus rapid reducing traffic, and providing better working conditions for transit system is easing traffic. Its bus drivers. passengers have reclaimed 16 working Photo: TrueVision / World Bank days spent each year in traffic jams. Once the full fleet is running, ridership is expected to leap from 190,000 to 400,000 passengers a day. 62 With an urban population that ballooned from 2.5 million My transport budget has been in 2002 to as many as 5 million today, fast-growing Dar es Salaam may well achieve “mega city” status by reduced by more than 70 percent. 2027, when its number of inhabitants is expected to hit Ibrahim Mwalafyale, who now takes the bus rather 10 million. Accompanying this growth in people is their than driving into the city traffic, and a lot of it! The World Bank estimates that the residents of Dar The new system has created new opportunities for business es Salaam spend about 34 percent of their monthly in real estate and services along the route. Near the Kimara income on transport, limiting the resources left to them, bus terminal, brothers Juma and Kasim Kassim have turned including time, for productive work. About 60 percent of an empty plot of land into a paid parking lot, and a thriving commuter trips are made in minibuses (known as dala- car wash and auto repair business. dalas), 15 percent in private cars, and the rest by other means, including walking. “We charge Sh2,000 to wash a car,” says Kassim. “Since we are skilled mechanics, we also fix cars on request if they are To ease the traffic, Dar es Salaam has invested in a new having problems or service them. We are very busy.” Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, financed in part with a $290 million credit from the World Bank’s IDA provided under the Second Central Transport Corridor Project. Growing ridership BRT’s ridership has risen from 70,000 passengers a The first phase of Dar es Salaam’s BRT system day when it was launched in May 2016, to 190,000 in comprises 21 kilometers of trunk road with exclusive December 2017. BRT lanes, five terminals, 27 stations, and a bus depot. Procurement of operators for more buses, fare collection, Less traffic, more opportunity and fund management is ongoing. By June 2018, the complete fleet of 305 buses is due to be operational, “My transport budget has been reduced by more than and ridership is expected to reach about 400,000 70 percent,” says Ibrahim Mwalafyale, who used to passengers per day. spend 25,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $11) a day driving into the city. He now parks his car nearer home With a tentative fleet of 140 buses, BRT’s operator has and takes the bus. employed 400 bus drivers who work in shifts. “I am happy to drive BRT buses because it’s a much better As well as reducing costs for commuters, travel time working environment than I had before, and a much from the outskirts of the city to the center has dropped better income,” says Catherine Mpanda, 32, a mother from 1.5 to 2.5 hours a day to 40 to 50 minutes. BRT and one of three women drivers. users have reclaimed approximately 16 working days that were being spent in traffic jams annually. “The buses are faster,” says Ronald Lwakatare, chief executive of the DART Agency in the Tanzanian Prime Minister’s Office that oversees BRT’s private operator. “The system is also having an impact on overall congestion because as more people drop their cars, the mixed lanes are visibly less congested even at peak hour.” T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 63 UGANDA Land administration reforms cut the red tape Increasing security of land tenure by digitizing ownership records, such as title deeds and leases, goes a long way toward boosting local and foreign investor confidence. Uganda has digitized its land registry—a manual system since 1908—reducing the time to access records from 435 days to mere moments. Land administration reforms aim to increase land titling and surveying and to ensure records are secure, verifiable, and accessible. Photo: Dasan Bobo / World Bank 64 When Justine Namayanja first heard a radio Now I am at peace because I know that announcement for the trial run of a new system for tracking land titles, she dismissed it. Ever since her our land titles exist in the system and husband’s death five years earlier, she had been trying my land is safe. to verify her land titles to avoid becoming a victim of the Justine Namayanja, landowner in Masaka district land-grabbing incidents occurring in her village. When she heard the announcement again—calling people to try the new system out at a World Bank Open Day Bazaar in her home district of Masaka, south of Kampala, she Streamlining procedures decided to go. Studies show that good land governance can eradicate land grabbing, encourage agriculture, and increase food The process was easy and instantaneous. “Now I am security—transforming development prospects. at peace because I know that our land titles exist in the system and my land is safe,” she says. Uganda ranked 120 out of 185 economies in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report (2013), in large part due Namayanja thought it would be expensive to check to poor land governance. Since then, the Ministry of on her land titles, involving a journey to the Ugandan Lands has built 10 offices outside Kampala and digitized capital, Kampala, and a hunt for the right officials once some 600,000 land titles. there. That may have been the case in 2006, when it took an average of 435 days to access land records, “All land that is titled and surveyed is online,” says but not anymore. Moses Kibirige, who works with the World Bank’s Trade and Competitiveness sector in Uganda. “We’ve still got Digitizing records 80 percent to go, which we’re working on now.” Officials at the Open Day Bazaar helped her find her Kibirige emphasizes the long-term nature of land reform, titles using the new Land Information System, a mapping with having to incorporate the different land tenure software designed for the registration and administration systems laid out in Uganda’s Land Act (1998): customary of land. “The system they brought here was very tenure, freehold, mailo , and leasehold. In northern and efficient,” Namayanja says. eastern Uganda, land is often held communally. The project encourages communal land associations to form. The Land Information System is the cornerstone of So far, 200 have formed, with a target of 600 for 2018. Uganda’s land administration reform. It has digitized a registry that had been manual since its inception in 1908. Registering the sale or purchase of a property now takes Just 18 percent of Uganda’s land mass had been registered 30 days, down from 52 in 2013. Easier public access to by the time the digitization process began in 2013. verifiable data is helping to provide banks and courts of law with credible information that can help solve land The push to modernize the complex systems and ownership disputes. procedures that govern land ownership in Uganda is part of the World Bank’s Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project. It is being financed with $100 million from IDA, and implemented by Uganda’s Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development. T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 65 EAST AFRICA REGION Networking labs to save lives Countries are working together— sharing resources and know-how— to find regional solutions to regional problems. To curb the spread of communicable diseases in cross border areas, public health officials have mounted joint efforts to reach 6 million people through a network of 41 upgraded laboratories in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Trained lab technicians in Rwanda wear protective gear to conduct clinical work and research on communicable diseases like TB. Photo: Miriam Schneidman / World Bank 66 Barely a decade ago, public health officials in East I thought it was HIV …. With the aid of Africa recognized their health systems were ill prepared to deal with the emergence of multidrug-resistant the GeneXpert machine, my illness was tuberculous (TB) and an elevated threat of disease correctly diagnosed and I was placed outbreaks, such as Ebola, Marburg, or yellow fever. on the proper treatment. Historical underinvestment in laboratories contributed Aliyi Mwanika, recovering patient at Mbale Regional to misdiagnosis, compromised patient care, and an Referral Hospital in Uganda inability to detect public health threats quickly, resulting in disease transmission and higher health care costs. faster, more accurate diagnosis of multidrug-resistant Achieving more together TB. Since inception, over 157,000 GeneXpert tests have been conducted network-wide, providing results Policymakers in East Africa came together to establish within several hours, rather than waiting months for a network of public health laboratories to improve clinical culture results. care and speed disease outbreak responses. With roughly $128 million in IDA financing spanning five countries— “Before I visited the Mbale Hospital I had been receiving Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda—the treatment for fever and flu at a clinic near my home 41-laboratory network promotes quality standards without any sign of recovery. I thought it was HIV,” and serves as a platform for learning, training, and shares Aliyi Mwanika, a 30-year-old motorcyclist. The research. Each country serves as a center of excellence GeneXpert machine correctly diagnosed his illness as in a specialized area, piloting innovations, sharing good multidrug-resistant TB, and he was immediately placed practices, and fostering efficiencies in disease outbreak on the proper treatment. “After six months I was able preparedness and response. to go back to work,” he says. Enhanced disease control: Capacity to detect Results on many fronts outbreaks and respond rapidly is stronger thanks to an Specialization: In 2013, the Uganda TB Reference 80 percent rise in laboratory confirmation of pathogens Laboratory achieved international accreditation and and better regional collaboration, including eight new qualified as a Supranational Reference Laboratory of cross border committees across the five countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), the second of 10 joint investigations and tabletop simulations for its kind in Africa. It is now supporting over 20 countries diseases like Ebola, and a mobile phone disease outbreak on the continent. reporting system for timely sharing of information. Accreditation: By 2017, 96 percent of facilities attained Training and research: An expanded pool of qualified at least a two-star rating in a regionally recognized assessors, lab managers, and disease surveillance WHO-endorsed quality improvement scheme toward officers—over 13,000 trained—and operational research accreditation, and four laboratories achieved the gold have generated new evidence and knowledge to inform standard ISO 15189 accreditation. public policy. For example, Rwanda’s experience with performance-based financing for laboratories has New technologies: Installation of state-of-the-art served as a model for other countries. GeneXpert machines in remote, cross border locations, like Uganda’s Mbale Regional Referral Hospital some 200 kilometers from the capital Kampala, has facilitated T RANS FORMING AFRICA | P O LI TI CAL W I LL 67 Acknowledgements This book was a collective effort of the World Bank Africa Region External Communications and Partnerships (AFREC) team, led by Haleh Bridi and Steven Shalita. These results stories about Africa transforming would not be possible without the tireless efforts of World Bank Country Directors, Country Managers, and Team Task Leaders, who support implementation of critical projects and programs in Africa, and communications officers from across the World Bank Group, who ensure stories demonstrate impact and are shared broadly. Special thanks to Edmond Dingamhoudou, Gelila Woodeneh, Stephanie Crockett, Kennedy Fosu, Diana Styvanley, Zeria Banda, Nina Vucenik, Franck Bitemo, Sylvie Nenonene, Carlyn Hambuba, Zandile Ratshitanga, Maria Nghidinwa, Louise Engulu, Daniella Van Leggelo Padilla, Olufunke Olufon, Rogers Kayihura, Odilia Hebga, Mamadou Bah, Keziah Muthembwa, Vera Rosauer, Michael Sahr, Rafael Saute, Charlotte Doyle, Loy Nabeta, and Sheila Kulubya. A great deal of editorial thought, planning, and skill went into this publication. Special thanks to Leslie Ashby, Catherine Bond, and Elena Queyranne for their commitment and timely execution of this project. Finally, thanks to Dasan Bobo, Sarah Farhat, Amelody Lee, Alexandre Hery, Selena Batchily, and Bittersweet Creative for photographs, design, and production. © The World Bank www.worldbank.org/africa 68