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Africa's rapid population growth and urbanisation has made its socioeconomic development a global priority. But as China ramps up its assistance in bridging Africa's basic infrastructure gap to the detriment of institutions building, warnings of a debt trap have followed. Building upon an extensive body of evidence, the editors argue that developing institutions and infrastructure are two equally desirable but organisationally incompatible objectives. In conceptualising this duality by design, a new theoretical framework proposes better understanding of the differing approaches to development espoused by traditional agencies, such as the World Bank, and emergent Chinese agencies.

As growth and development in Africa increase rapidly, investment in infrastructure projects will often be best accomplished through public-private partnership. This Project Preparation Guide offers the foundation blocks for public sector engagement with the private sector. This book assesses the relevant issues for selecting a project for public-private partnership, the actions for preparing projects for market, and the management process The guide addresses hiring and managing expert advisers, explains how the public sector should interact with the private sector during the project selection and preparation phases to ensure that decisions during these phases are realistic, and analyzes the issues of engagement with the private sector during the tender and after a contract has been signed. 'Attracting Investor to African Public-Private Partnerships' will help the public sector in Africa to attract private sector investment through effective project advertising, management, and implementation. This book will enhance the chances of developing effective public-private partnerships by overcoming major obstacles to project delivery by having the right information, on the right projects, for the right partners, at the right time. This guide is aimed at African public sector officials who are concerned about the delivery of infrastructure projects and services through partnership with the private sector, as well as staff in donor institutions who are looking to support PPP programs at the country-level.

This study surveys active labor market programs (ALMPs) in selected countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, identifies key challenges to their effective and efficient delivery, and proposes a policy framework for reforming public service provision. This study draws on data collected through surveys administered to public social, employment, and education agencies in selected MENA countries to identify key constraints and options for reforming publicly provided employment programs. Recent political transitions arising from the Arab Spring have contributed to the deterioration of labor market outcomes in the MENA region. In this context, ALMPs could become an important policy lever to address some of the challenges facing labor markets. These include: joblessness, skills mismatches, lack of labor market mobility, large and expanding informal sector, and lack of formal employment networks. The study also provides specific details on the beneficiaries, targeting, and expenditures of ALMPs during this same period.

Poverty has long been a developmental challenge in the Global South in general and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. With a fifth, mainly from the rural areas of the world, living below the poverty datum line, the world has a huge challenge to reduce poverty, worse still to eradicate it from the face of the earth. A target was set through the 2000-2015 United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and subsequently through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to reduce poverty by at least half by the years 2015 and 2030 respectively. In pursuing this goal, livelihoods of poor people though meeting with serious challenges, especially in rural areas, play a major role. This book explores the role played by people-centred Public Works Programmes in the fight against poverty and the development of rural communities in Africa. Whereas a number of countries in Africa have been approaching the issue of poverty through several interventions including Public Works Schemes, it is sad to note that poverty still tops the rankings among numerous economic and social challenges facing the continent. One wonders whether the public works strategy is misguided, misconstrued or mismanaged considering that its main objective is to make the unemployed more employable through the provision of temporary employment and training opportunities. The book concludes that Public Works Programmes, if well managed and people-centred, are one of the best ways to alleviate and even eradicate poverty in rural Africa, as it allows governments to make partnership with people, and facilitates implementation while giving space for economic self-sustenance, growth and development.

Examining innovative ways to address Africa?s infrastructure deficit is at the heart of this analysis. Africa?s infrastructure stock and quality is among the least developed in the world, a challenge that significantly hinders economic development. It is estimated that the finance required to raise infrastructure in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) to a reasonable level within the next decade is at US$93 billion per year, with two-thirds of this amount needed for capital expenditures. With the existing spending on infrastructure being estimated at US$45 billion per annum and after accounting for potential efficiency gains that could amount to US$17 billion, Africa?s infrastructure funding gap remains around US$31 billion a year. One approach to address this challenge is by facilitating the increase of private provision of public infrastructure services through public-private partnerships (PPPs). This approach, which is a relatively new arrangement in SSA is multifaceted and requires strong consensus and collaboration across both public and private sectors. There are several defined models of PPPs. Each type differs in terms of government participation levels, risk allocations, investment responsibilities, operational requirements, and incentives for operators. Our definition of PPPs assumes transactions where the private sector retains a considerable portion of commercial and financial risks associated with a project. In more descriptive terms, among the elements defining the notion of PPPs discussed in this study are: a long-term contract between a public and private sector party; the design, construction, financing, and operation of public infrastructure by the private sector; payment over the life of the PPP contract to the private sector party for the services delivered from the asset; and the facility remaining in public ownership or reverting to public sector ownership at the end of the PPP contract. The observations and policy recommendations that follow draw on ongoing World Bank Group PPP engagements in these countries, including extensive consultations with key public and private sector stakeholders involved in designing, financing, and implementing PPPs. The study is structured around the most inhibiting constraints to developing PPPs, as shared by all six countries.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Overview -- 1. Background -- Current Status of PPP Markets in Selected Countries -- This Report -- 2. Sources of Financing -- Sources of Local Financing for PPP Projects -- Sources of International Financing for PPP Projects -- 3. The Legislative and Institutional Framework -- 4. A Well-Structured PPP Pipeline -- 5. Risk Allocation and Fiscal Management of PPPs -- 6. Medium-Term Options for PPP Financing -- Tackling High Upfront Capital Costs -- Longer-Term Local Debt Financing -- Risk Mitigation Guarantee Products -- PPP Market Failures Deriving from Country Size and Cross-Border Infrastructure Financing Constraints -- 7. Recommendations -- Developing Long-Term Financing for Infrastructure -- Strengthening Other Aspects of a Strong Enabling Environment -- References -- Boxes -- Box 2.1: Pension Funds and Investments in Infrastructure in Latin American Countries -- Box 2.2: Potential Steps for Governments to Tap Financing for Infrastructure from Institutional Investors -- Box 2.3: PIDG Facilities -- Box 3.1: Examples of Sector Reforms that Supported PPP Transactions in Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal -- Box 5.1: The Examples of a Preferred Risk Allocation Matrix -- Box 6.1: Description of MIGA Coverage Products -- Figures -- Figure 1.1: Fiscal Flows Devoted to Infrastructure -- Figure 1.2: Infrastructure Inefficiency Waste -- Figure 1.3: Infrastructure Funding Gap -- Figure 1.4: Private Participation in Infrastructure-by Sector -- Figure 1.5: Private Participation in Infrastructure-by Sector-Excluding Telecom -- Figure 1.6: Private Participation in Infrastructure-by PPP Type -- Figure 1.7: Private Participation in Infrastructure-by PPP Type-Excluding Telecom -- Figure 2.1: Financial Life Cycle of a PPP Project -- Figure 2.2: Private Credit (US billions).

This study assesses the potential for job creation through infrastructure investment in the Middle East and North Africa. The region has experience in making the most of infrastructure investments, but maintaining and spreading the momentum in infrastructure will be important to support future growth and job creation. To do so, policymakers will have to recognize that there are large differences in initial conditions across the region in terms of starting stock, needs, fiscal commitments, private sector participation and job creation potential. Overall, the region’s infrastructure needs through 2020 are quite large and estimated at about 106 billion dollars per year or 6.9 percent of the annual regional GDP. The differences in infrastructure and maintenance needs across sub-regions are also impressive, with developing oil exporters expected to require almost 11 percent of their GDP annually, while the oil importing countries and the GCC oil exporters expected to need approximately 6 and 5 percent of their GDP, respectively. Investment and rehabilitation needs are likely to be especially high in the electricity and transport sectors, particularly roads. Rehabilitation needs are expected to account for slightly more than half of total infrastructure needs. While oil exporters will be able to meet their national infrastructure needs if they maintain investment spending at rates prevailing in the 2000s, oil importers will fall short. The infrastructure sector has the potential to contribute to employment creation in MENA. The region could generate 2.0 million direct jobs and 2.5 million direct, indirect and induced infrastructure-related jobs just by meeting estimated, annual investment needs. However, the potential varies greatly across countries, and infrastructure alone will not resolve MENA’s unemployment problem. Going forward, decisions on what types of public spending to expand and what to downsize in order to achieve balanced budgets will have important implications for jobs. In designing country specific solutions, governments will have to tackle predictable challenges: the governance of job creation, the proper targeting and fiscal costs assessment of subsidies needed to create jobs, the design and fiscal costs of the (re)training programs needed and the expectations on the job creation effects of infrastructure.

Unlocking the Potential of Women Entrepreneurs in the MENA Region The Environment for Women's Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa reveals that female-owned firms in the region are as established, productive, and technologically advanced as their male counterparts. This insightful analysis challenges common perceptions and highlights the untapped potential of women in the MENA business landscape. This report is for policymakers, researchers, and anyone seeking to understand and promote women's economic empowerment. Discover how to: * Identify and address the unique challenges facing women entrepreneurs. * Reform the business climate to foster greater inclusivity. * Mitigate social norms and legal barriers that hinder women's progress. By addressing these issues, the MENA region can unlock significant economic growth and diversification, empowering a new generation of women leaders.