Poverty has remained stubbornly high in Africa for decades. Top-down plans and donor driven investment programs have been less than successful. Past experience suggests that decentralization will not work without vibrant, participatory communities. And enhanced participation will at some point...

Gender equality has long been central to the World Bank's twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. More recently, women's and girls' empowerment (WGE) has become a priority in the Africa region in the context of the region's demographic...

Evaluation Insight Notes (EIN) offer new insights from existing evidence on important strategic and operational issues. This EIN draws on Independent Evaluation Group evidence to identify lessons for addressing institutional capacity development needs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Institutions shape...

Disaster risk finance is an important component of the disaster risk management and climate change adaptation agenda. It aims to increase the financial resilience of countries against natural hazards by strengthening public financial management and promoting market-based disaster risk finance...

This portfolio review, led by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery's (GFDRR) Disaster-FCV Nexus thematic area, aims to contribute to the GFDRR's overarching objective to help low- and middle-income countries understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and...

Section one of the paper provides a broad overview of the nature and objectives of the projects. Section two contains an objective view of the impact of FIRST funded projects on the growth in insurance markets as measured by insurance market penetration. Rigorous data analysis was used to...

Project development funds (PDFs) are dedicated vehicles that governments establish to systematically support the preparation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The lack of adequate and consolidated resources to appropriately evaluate and prepare potential PPP projects is a key constraint...

Ratings for the Early Childhood Development Project are as follows: Outcome was moderately unsatisfactory, Bank performance was moderately unsatisfactory, and Quality of monitoring and evaluation was modest. This assessment offers the following lessons: (1) Collaboration, strong national...