The Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program, started in 1998, was the Bank's response to clients, and civil society who called for a more systematic integration of the indigenous knowledge (IK) in the development process. The program developed partnerships, and collaborative links with...

A Task Force was set up to recommend changes in the way the Bank affects African capacity, both directly through operations aimed at capacity development, and indirectly through the way it conducts its overall business of development lending and cooperation in Africa. Key messages are emerging,...

Migrants have received heightened international recognition from the development community in recent times. New World Bank estimates on the volume of remittances show that documented remittance flows continue to increase at a rapid rate, putting global annual flows at US$88 billion for 2002...

The objectives of the project ($9.37 million, 1996-2001) were to (a) enhance the capacity of the mining sector institutions to carry out their functions of encouraging and regulating investments in the mining sector in an environmentally sound manner and (b) support the use of techniques and...

The World Bank-assisted Borgou regional pilot rural support project was designed as part of the participatory management approach. It originally involved 250 villages of Benin's Borgou region participating to the Village Level Participatory Approach (VLPA) with the objective of bringing to the...

During the 1998 Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD II), a set of ambitious poverty reduction and human development goals were established for the Africa region, drawing on and reaffirming commitments made three years earlier at the First TICAD conference and at...

Governments in Africa are showing increasing interest in tourism as a source of growth and diversification. Recent work indicates that tourism in Africa can contribute effectively to economic development. The tourism industry throughout Africa often operates below international competitive...

Providing effective and efficient infrastructure underpins all attempts to reduce poverty. Trade is the engine of economic growth, and reliable and efficient transport is essential for successful trade. Transport is needed to facilitate production and exchanges, enable farmers to produce and...

The widely-acclaimed Economic Recovery Program launched by Ghana in 1983 faced the challenge of sustaining the gains achieved in terms of economic liberalization and macroeconomic stability. The country needed to enter a phase of accelerated export-led growth and social equity that would deliver...

The Niger Delta is one of the world's largest wetlands and includes by far the largest mangrove forest in Africa. Within this extremely valuable ecosystem, oil activities are widespread - Rivers State and Delta State produce 75 percent of Nigeria's petroleum, which represents over 50 percent of...