Economics & Development

This document collection explores the challenges and opportunities facing local governments in a region. It examines how to improve data platforms and user engagement, the impact of decentralization on local governance, and the role of digital transformation in public service delivery. The collection also considers the requirements for regional policy and the development of a framework for effective local government service delivery.

Ratings for the Skills Development for Growth Project for Niger were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory, Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation (M and E) quality was substantial. Some lessons learned included: skills development projects can be successful in fragile countries when project designs include flexible short-term training that can reach the maximum number of young people in rural areas. Entrepreneurship training in value chain sectors, seed funds, and sustained entrepreneurship training are critical for new entrepreneurs to begin and sustain their businesses. The establishment of an M and E system should always be prioritized to ensure that the achievements and challenges of a project are well-documented and monitored. Dual apprenticeship programs can be an effective approach to fostering job market integration and or self-employment. Strong private sector engagement is essential for developing and maintaining the relevance of skills training programs. Promoting girls’ participation despite cultural barriers is essential. Cross-sectoral collaboration between education and agriculture, or education and social protection, can be an effective strategy for expanding entrepreneurship and supporting job creation and sustainability in the agriculture sector.

Ratings for the Secondary Road Asset Management Project for Georgia were as follows: outcomes were moderately satisfactory, bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was substantial. Some lessons learned included the following: with more frequent extreme weather events causing disruptions in the road network, especially in mountainous terrains as in the case of Georgia, collecting data systematically and being able to assess the exposure, vulnerability, and criticality of infrastructure can help to better estimate investment needs and prioritize interventions. When assessing the capacity and readiness of the construction industry, accounting for contextual developments in neighboring countries is essential, especially for small geographies. SRAMP builds on the achievements of previous WB-funded projects aiming at improving, increasingly, not only the physical quality of the secondary road network but also the institutional capacity to manage their road assets and sustain the progress in time through enhanced planning systems. Building such capacity requires time and a series of sequential steps that can be better achieved and sustained through continued engagement and commitment. Several modifications were done on the procurement side throughout the SRAMP implementation to help RD respond to challenges to tender some civil works based on market conditions. For instance, the WB issued no objection to RD splitting specific DB packages into multiple lots and reducing the qualification requirements to increase competition in both DB contracts and the climate resilience works in the Racha region. Some of these changes were possible to implement thanks to the parallel financing from the Borrower (the project was designed to draw counterpart finance later in the implementation, as opposed to co-financing a share at the level of each invoice). Similarly, the parallel financing allowed RD to engage a local contractor, with whom RD holds an ongoing framework contract for road maintenance in the Guria region, to take over rehabilitation work quickly from a contractor after contract termination due to non-performance and limit further delays.