This month, we are announcing the publication of our fourth "Lessons Learned" (Morocco Water and Sanitation) and the availability of a recently issued book co-funded by GPOBA on how small service providers are key players in the expansion of electricity in rural communities in Africa. The latter is a useful resource for policymakers and practitioners, and coincides with our most recent grant agreement for the Mali Hybrid Energy project. On the media side, both the Malian and Kenyan press prominently featured the signing of grant agreements for GPOBA projects in the respective countries. As part of our goal to further mainstream OBA within the World Bank Group, GPOBA is organizing three events during the World Bank's Forum 2014 (February 24-28) to create a greater awareness of OBA as an effective development financing mechanism. During the coming year, we anticipate welcoming additions to our staff, who will enable us to continue reporting the positive results of our efforts in the field and becoming a Center of Expertise on OBA.

Morocco Water and Sanitation "Lessons Learned" Now Available

Guide on Rural Electrification for Africa Published

ICR for Manila Water Project

Although many Moroccans benefit from the couhtry's well-developed water and sanitation infrastructure, more than one million poor residents living in the outskirts of Morocco's sprawling peri-urban areas still lack access to quality serrvices. This poses a significant health and environmental problem and keeping people in unproductive and inefficient daily routines that required the manual transport of water. 

The government's directive in 2005 made it a priority to provide water and sanitation services to these informal settlements, and laid the foundation for collaboration between private national operators, local municipalities, and GPOBA. The US$7 million grant awarded by GPOBA was to be the first OBA project in the Middle East and North Africa region, and would leverage investments of over US$30 million during its implementation from 2007 to 2011. Approximately 52,000 residents received improved access to sanitation services (9,000 households) and piped water supply (10,500 households). Six key lessons from the implementation of the OBA scheme are summarized in this note. Read more and view project video.

GPOBA partnered with the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the World Bank's East Africa Region (AFREA) to co-sponsor the publication of "From the Bottom Up: How Small Power Producers and Mini-Grids Can Deliver Electrification and Renewable Energy in Africa," a guide for policymakers and practitioners looking to improve access to energy in rural areas.

This 400-page book focuses on a decentralized approach, providing practical guidance on how small power producers and mini-grid operators can deliver both electrification and renewable energy in rural areas. Read or download the guide.

The most recently published Implementation Completion Report (ICR) for a GPOBA-funded project, "Improved Access to Water Services in the East Zone of Metro Manila Project," describes the outcomes of the Metro Manila Water project. This 49-page report rates the project's outcomes and performance by the Bank and borrower as satisfactory, while rating the risk to development outcome as low. The US$2 million project provided OBA subsidies to connect low-income households of the East Zone of Metro Manila to the water network, and benefitted 28,000 households (surpassing the target of 20,000). Some of the lessons that emerge from this report: (i) the improved hygiene and reduced incidence of water borne diseases resulting from increased consumption levels of piped water by beneficiary households; and (ii) the reduction in household expenditure on water by target households, which would provide a proxy indicator for increased household welfare.  GPOBA funded a beneficiary assessment that provided data from a household survey to report on the projects outcomes. The findings of this survey have been incorporated into the ICR in particular in Annex 3 as part of the economic and financial analysis. Important lessons learned have been draw from this pilot. GPOBA and the World Bank will continue to support the Government of the Philippines to scale up this pilot into an National OBA Facility for water and sanitation.   Read additional ICRs

  GPOBA in the News

Nairobi Water and Sanitation Project Featured in Kenya's Leading Business Newspaper

Mali Hybrid Energy Grant Agreement Featured Prominently in National Online Media

The December 23 signing of the US$5.0 million grant agreement for the Mali Hybrid Energy project received important coverage in Malian online media, including photographs showing the World Bank Country Director, Ousmane Diagana, along with the Minister of Economics and Finance. The signing, which took place in Bamako, was also announced in the government's official information portal (Primature) as well as several online media outlets (Abamako.com, Koulouba.com, Mali-Web.org, Maliactu.Net, Mali-Midi, Maliweb.net, Niarela.net). An estimated 130,000 low-income rural residents in isolated communities will benefit from this project (Press Release in English and French).

  PUBLICATIONs / reports / Articles

" Access to Electricity in Small Island Developing States of the Pacific: Issues and Challenges"

One of the findings of this report concludes that output-based aid and off-grid solutions should be considered as part of an effective strategy to achieve the electrification of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Pacific. It finds that the traditional approaches to rural electrification emphasizing grid extension are less useful given the region's disperse population and geography. Approximately 70 percent of households in the SIDS lack reliable access to electricity, a rate comparable to those of sub-Saharan Africa and slightly below average access for low-income countries. GPOBA has explored applying OBA in the region by providing technical assistance to the Republic of Vanuatu, an archipelago of 82 islands with a population of nearly a quarter of a million inhabitants. Read more

 "Assessing the population-level impact of vouchers on access to health facility delivery for women in Kenya"

(Social Science and Medicine, vol 102, February 2014, pp. 183-189).

Kenya has implemented a voucher program for the safe delivery of babies that shares many commonalities with GPOBA's Uganda Reproductive Health Voucher Program. The report, published in the latest issue of "Social Science and Medicine" examines the effectiveness of Kenya's safe motherhood voucher program, with a detailed analysis of data over a two-year period. The results show that home declined by more than 10 percentage points while the proportion of babies delivered in health facilities increased by a similar margin in voucher sites. The report's findings suggest that the voucher program has contributed to improved access to attended deliveries by shifting births from home to health facilities. The paper also suggests that many women who purchased the vouchers, did not use them due to high transportation costs, and also illustrates a need to subsidize travel costs for beneficiaries. (Read / download report)

EVENTS

Forum 2014 will include GPOBA's participation in three venues to highlight OBA among our World Bank colleagues.

Video Presentation / February 24 (1:00-3:00): GPOBA's commemorative video "10 years of Output-Based Aid Around the World," followed by a discussion panel on GPOBA-WBG collaboration.

Project Expo: Demystifying the Science of Delivery / February 25, 26, 27 (10:00 - 4:00) Poster displays introduce viewers to projects that meet two or more of the five core concepts underlying “Science of Delivery.” Task team leaders to present their projects from 12-2 pm.

"Experts on Call" - Results Based Financing: Various methods used to transfer project risk to the clients / February 26 (10:00 - 11:30) GPOBA Manager Carmen Nonay will be one of the "experts on call" during this event, in which people schedule a brief informational interview