Noticias de otros medios

Son 130 los millones de niñas que no van a la escuela en todo el mundo, aunque sabemos ya que invertir en su potencial es una apuesta segura para mejorarlo

La iniciativa St+Art India busca crear conciencia cívica para mantener las ciudades del país más limpias a través del arte callejero

La escuela de Tepapayeca (México) sigue sin clases tras el sismo, convertida en refugio y centro de ayuda psicoemocional. Porque el impacto de la catástrofe para los niños va más allá de los daños materiales

Challenge The economic slowdown caused by the 2008 global financial crisis reversed El Salvador’s achievements in poverty reduction and economic and fiscal sustainability. The impact of the financial crisis was particularly felt in the country’s municipalities, which were highly dependent on fiscal transfers from the central government and which had weak revenue autonomy. Decreased central government income in 2009 therefore led to a 15 percent decrease in municipal government income. This revenue shortfall led to reductions in investment in public service delivery infrastructure of 20 percent, further hampering development. In 2010, half of the country’s households did not have water connections, and a million families (two-thirds of the population) were not connected to sewerage systems. Distance to paved roads for the poorest people living in rural areas exceeded five kilometers, double the distance travelled by nonpoor families. Approach The Local Government Strengthening Project focused on improving municipal service delivery by financing grants for small infrastructure works, as defined and prioritized by communities and municipal leaders. These infrastructure works included road paving and drainage improvements, access to water and electricity, and solid waste management, among others. In response to the request from the government of El Salvador for help closing the financial gap caused by the financial crisis, grants were directly distributed to municipalities using the existing inter-governmental transfer formula allocating resources proportionally according to four key variables: population (50 percent), equal share (25 percent), poverty (20 percent), and land area (5 percent). Additional financial and technical support was provided to the municipalities to help them prioritize and plan for the needed local investments.   Results As indicated in the Final Evaluation Report, from 2010 to 2016, notable achievements were made in building municipal capacity. Achievements included the following: · Municipalities reported improved capacity for municipal finance (54 percent), procurement capacity (79 percent), organizational management (88 percent), and technical processes and municipal services (74 percent). · Technical and/or diploma training courses were completed by 481 municipal staff, of which 201 were women, from 167 municipalities. The courses included economic development, project formulation, municipal management, disaster risk management, and leadership. · All municipalities improved planning capacity through the preparation of a Disaster Risk Management Plan, and 92 municipalities benefited from the participatory strategic planning process.  Two IT systems were rolled out to support the municipalities, including the Ministry of Finance’s financial management system and a new system for municipalities that supports their overall information management and provides citizens with access to all types of municipal information, including accounts, decisions, and so on Bank Group Contribution The World Bank, through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, provided a US$ 80 million loan to finance El Salvador’s Local Government Strengthening Project. Partners Throughout the project, implementation was marked by strong collaboration among the implementing agencies: the Secretariat of the Presidency for Strategic Affairs (Secretaría de Asuntos Estratégicos); the Salvadoran Institute for Municipal Development (Instituto Salvadoreño de Desarrollo Municipal, or ISDEM); the Social Investment Fund for Local Development (Fondo de Inversión Social para el Desarrollo Local, or FISDL); and the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Development (Ministerio de Gobernación y Desarrollo Territorial). Central to the success of the project was coordination and collaboration with the mayors, administrations, and citizens of the 262 municipalities. For example, the investment subprojects were implemented in collaboration between the municipalities (beneficiaries and responsible for selecting and hiring the contractor), FISDL (responsible for technical and procurement review), and ISDEM (providing support to the municipality on citizen consultation). Beneficiaries “The Project has [provided] us jobs that are serving people, and skills in our technical team through trainings. We do not doubt that it was an excellent project and we are ready to continue if there are opportunities.” —Francisco Salvador Hirezi, Mayor of Zacatecoluca, La Paz “We are happy that we have managed to fix the street because we needed it.” —Marisela Melany Méndez, resident of the colony Nueva Guadalupe, California, Usulután Moving Forward The original project was designed to build capacity in the municipalities and in the national municipal support institutions—FISDL and ISDEM—throughout implementation. Success in these efforts have led to the following ongoing and future developments: ·         ISDEM, responsible for continuous municipal training, revised its municipal curriculum and improved its training center, as well as producing additional guides and manuals to support municipal staff. ·         FISDL, responsible for supporting municipalities in implementing municipal infrastructure projects, has created a safeguards team to review and support improved environmental and social sustainability of government investments.   ·         Project-financed investments, as reported by 95 percent of participating municipalities, remain in active use, and 98 percent of municipalities have budgeted for maintenance of these investments, helping to ensure their sustainability. ·         Interinstitutional arrangements to ensure sustainability have also been developed, including the creation of a Governance Committee now chaired by Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Development and the Technical Secretariat to the Presidency, with participation from ISDEM, FISDL, and the Ministry of Finance. Learn More Local Government Strengthening Project/ Proyecto de Fortalecimiento de Gobiernos Locales website:  SIGMUNI ISDEM  Multimedia Project photos Project videos  

Challenge Agriculture has been one of the most important sectors in Bolivia’s economy, contributing about 13 percent of GDP and accounting for just under 30 percent of total employment. Yet performance in the agricultural sector was disappointing; productivity in Bolivia was substantially lower than in neighboring countries due, among other factors, to the widespread use of antiquated technologies, limited uptake of modern inputs, and lack of knowledge and skills among farmers. With many in the population dependent on agriculture as their principal livelihood, increasing agricultural productivity was a national priority. Unlike many other countries in the region, which had mature public innovation institutes and systems to address technological challenges in the agriculture sector, Bolivia had only the National Institute of Agriculture and Forestry Innovation (Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal, INIAF), a recently formed national innovation institute, along with a dispersed, largely uncoordinated set of public and private research organizations. Approach The Agricultural Innovation and Services Project was undertaken to strengthen INIAF’s capacity to lead the national system for innovation in agriculture and forestry while at the same time supporting research, technical assistance, and seed certification activities. The primary emphasis during the project period was on pursuing shorter-term institutional objectives: specifically, strengthening INIAF and the national agricultural innovation system. Over the medium to long-term, it was believed that these activities would increase agricultural productivity, enhance food security, and improve the welfare of the rural population. Bank financing responded to the shared vision of the Bolivian government and the Bank that the public sector would assume a leading role in mobilizing a diverse coalition of partners to generate the innovations needed to drive agricultural-sector development. Using a competitive grants mechanism, the project financed an extensive network of public-private collaboration that had previously been uncommon in Bolivia. Results Between 2012 and 2017, INIAF’s capacity was strengthened, as reflected in the following key outcomes: Improved Flow of Innovations: By project close, at least 20 innovations introduced by INIAF in collaboration with national and international partner institutions had been adopted in the field by smallholder farmers. These innovations included new varieties of cereals (maize, wheat, rice) and vegetables (carrot, beet, onion) with high yields and greater tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as improved seed production methods and more efficient silage systems. The project not only provided funds but also introduced an alliance-based approach that allowed INIAF to effectively introduce, assess, validate, and disseminate improved technologies. Adoption is expected to accelerate significantly in the coming years, as these technologies are delivering substantial economic benefits for farmers. Increased Availability of Certified Seed: The performance of INIAF’s Seed Program exceeded expectations, as reflected by the certification during the life of the project of more than 109,000 incremental tons of seed. INIAF’s seed testing laboratories and seed conditioning plants benefited from major upgrades financed with project resources. Procedures for planning, implementing, and monitoring seed certification processes were completely overhauled and automated, allowing the INIAF Seed Directorate to achieve major operating efficiencies even as it significantly scaled up the volume of seed certification activities.Enhanced Collaboration Among Innovation Agents: At project close, INIAF was serving as the leader of a national innovation network comprising more than 130 research and extension agencies at the national and regional levels. With the help of project financing, INIAF established national and regional innovation councils, led multiple regional innovation agendas, and financed 23 research subprojects prioritized by the regional councils and undertaken by partner organizations. INIAF’s strong leadership role was recognized by nearly three-quarters of the partners and stakeholders participating in the final impact evaluation.

Challenge The Chilean education system faced the challenge of unequal access to quality education, which permeated the entire educational system from primary through tertiary education. At the primary level, since admission decisions were made at the school level, students of lower socioeconomic status were occasionally denied admission to better-quality schools. In addition, high copayments and/or private school fees frequently meant these students were unable to afford the better-quality schools. Similarly, poor students were often unable to afford tertiary education. As Chile made substantial progress in monetary poverty reduction, measuring vulnerability to multidimensional deprivations became equally important. Likewise, in its efforts to make public resources available for the people who needed them the most, the government sought to improve resource targeting and to reduce inefficiencies by replacing its predominantly self-report-based data-gathering system with a new targeting system that relied on administrative data. Approach Working with the government of Chile, the World Bank designed the Social Inclusion for Shared Prosperity Development Policy Financing operation to support government efforts to promote equal opportunities in education, strengthen institutions for poverty measurement, and  enhance targeting mechanisms social programs. The operation effectively supported the government in kick-starting the education reform process and in getting traction during implementation. Gradual roll-out of the reforms allowed the government to assess the results of the pilots and to incorporate lessons learned before scaling up. The Bank provided technical assistance on poverty measurement and on the design and implementation of an integrated social information system, and it produced a study proposing different institutional arrangements for poverty measurement and a diagnostic of the Social Information Integrated System that served as a basis for the Household Social Registry (HSR). Results The operation effectively supported the Chilean government in kick-starting its education reform process and getting traction during implementation. Several key results were achieved, including:The allocated nominal budget for the Ministry of Education increased by 13 percent in 2015 and by 16 percent in 2016, relative to an increase of only 6 percent in 2014.In the single region chosen for the first year of implementation, the lowest grade in each school receiving public funding rolled out a centralized, regulated admission system with the result that 75 percent of applicants received their first preference for school admission. In the second year, the selection system was rolled out in four regions and applied to all grade levels.The elimination of copayment has been widely accepted. As of 2016, 783 schools had applied for this system from a total of 5,730 private subsidized schools in Chile.The Preferential School Subsidy (SEP) was expanded. The SEP effectively eliminated tuition fees for vulnerable students in most private subsidized schools. In 2016, 58.5 percent of enrolled students received the SEP, while in December 2015 only 38.3 percent of enrolled students had received it.The number of students awarded scholarships for tertiary education has increased significantly. In 2016, 48,555 students received full scholarships during their first year, compared to 2,479 in December 2015.Improving the quality of public tertiary education is a long-term objective. Resources to public universities have been increasing since 2015, with a target to increase capital expenditures in 2017 to 22.1 million Chilean pesos, up from 10.3 million in 2015. The new HSR contains information on approximately 12.7 million individuals, accounting for 72 percent of the Chilean population, relative to 46 percent covered by the old system Bank Group Contribution The World Bank, through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, provided a loan in the amount of US$ 100 million to finance the Social Inclusion for Shared Prosperity Development Financing operation. Partners The success of this operation was achieved through close coordination between the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Development, and the Budget Office (Dirección de Presupuestos) of the Ministry of Finance. The latter, the Bank’s main counterpart in Chile, helped coordinate the efforts and relevance of the policies and actions taken to achieve the operation. The Ministry of Education’s efforts, particularly the Direction of Higher Education and the PACE program (Programa de Acompañamiento y Acceso Efectivo a la Educación Superior) were crucial to understanding the thrust of the educational reforms and their effects on inclusion. Finally, the Ministry of Social Development’s role was essential to understanding the changes in the new monetary poverty measurement methodology, the components of the multidimensional poverty measure, and the characteristics of the new social-information-based system to target social programs.

Washington, October 20, 2017 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved the following project: Paraiba Sustainable Rural Development Project IBRD Credit: US$ 50 million Terms: Maturity = 18 years, Grace = 5.5 years Proje…

Challenge In Santa Catarina, issues of environmental degradation, rural poverty and status, and agriculture sector trends are interdependent. Despite its strong macroeconomic performance, Santa Catarina’s economic opportunities are not equally available to all. About 5 percent of the population (275,000 people) live in poverty (defined as US$ 1.00 per day per family), 20 percent of them in the state’s rural areas. Most reside on agricultural family farms, do rural work, or are indigenous people. In addition, other social challenges in rural areas include (i) lack of productive and commercial skills development and training for farmers and their families; (ii) few employment opportunities, resulting in an exodus of youth to cities; (iii) low education levels among middle-aged and aged adults; and (iv) food security problems in the poorest rural households. Growth in the agricultural sector has also contributed to increasing conflicts over water quantity and quality. Agriculture, along with domestic sewage, is the main source of water pollution in rural areas. Pressure is growing in the state to implement integrated water resource management and to strengthen local institutions’ and rural communities’ capacity to implement key water management instruments. Approach The Santa Catarina Rural Competitiveness Project established a platform and enabled the environment for the state to increase small farmers’ productivity through targeted technical assistance for innovation and improved production efficiency, product quality, and resource-based management. The technical strategy focus supported beneficiaries at two levels: directly, to implement collective and associated individual investments included in business plans; and indirectly, through an improved framework for delivering complementary public services to shore up the effectiveness and long-term sustainability of private investments. Results The project substantially achieved its development objectives “to increase the competitiveness of family agriculture producer organizations while providing support for an improved framework of structural competitiveness-inducing public services activities” through direct investments supported by technical assistance and capacity building for small farmers’ productive organizations and their affiliates, contributing to the long-term goal of improving productivity, competitiveness, and market access. Specific project interventions included the following: Financing demand-driven business initiatives for 723 small farmers.Establishing and strengthening 259 institutional business arrangements to add value to agriculture products produced by individual family farmers, directly benefiting 10,900 rural families.Executing 59,834 individual production-system improvement plans. Providing technical assistance and rural extension services to 134,460 family farmers, 42,735 rural young people, and 1,950 indigenous families.    Certifying that 2,500 small farmers meet vegetal sanitary requirements for market access.Certifying that 728 small farms are free of brucellosis and tuberculosis.Rehabilitating 474.8 kilometers of rural roads to improve market connectivity. The impact evaluation carried out by the project indicated the following: Average total annual sales for participating small-farmer productive organizations increased by 64 percent, as compared to sales of nonparticipating farmers, a 113.3 percent increase from the original 30 percent target. Responses from a beneficiary perception survey of 518 young people (31 percent of young beneficiaries) indicated that 64.5 percent had seen an increase in household income, with amounts ranging from 15 to 50 percent.Environmental management achievements supported by a previous World Bank loan were maintained, with 65 percent of the state’s water resources now under decentralized, community-level, participatory planning and management and 10 percent of state territory was now managed under an “ecological corridor” concept emphasizing coexistence of sustainable production and natural resources preservation.  Additional project outputs and achievements included the following:  Water Management The State Register of Water Resources Users database registered 74,000 users, allowing estimates of water demand for the Santa Catarina hydrographic basins.A water resource information system was implemented and improved. Aero-photogrammetric and hydrogeological mapping were undertaken. A Hydrometeorological Monitoring and Warning System was implemented.Sixteen basin committees with decentralized structures were established and 14 river basin plans were elaborated.Ecological Corridor Management: This program created a Forest Area Register and Ecological Corridor Management Groups. The database includes incremental forest inventory areas covering 273,040.31 hectares and can be used to evaluate and monitor forest areas, set payments for environmental services and conservation credits, and help plan environmental recovery programs.The Conservation Credit System: This institutional legal framework created a secure environment in which forest-area investors and owners can operate and provided an unprecedented environmental management tool using private resources derived from legal obligations arising from suppression of vegetation for the conservation of biodiversity in the Ecological Corridors; owners and entrepreneurs acquire Conservation Credits to pay off their environmental commitments, with project-sponsored information and tools used to guarantee reliability in negotiations and contracts.

Challenge Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, as in most metropolitan urban areas in Brazil, the São Paulo Metropolitan Region has faced growing water demand-supply gaps, affecting the city’s economic growth and social and envir…

Published on Medium.  Just a month following the devastation brought by Hurricane Irma and Maria in the Caribbean, affecting millions of people, the small Caribbean islands are left with no choice but to build back better and stronger as frequency of storms is turning into the ‘new normal’. This has been a particularly active hurricane season with a record of 10 consecutive storms growing to hurricane strength. As the Caribbean delegations met with international partners during the World Bank Group- IMF Annual Meetings earlier this month, one of the main messages was that disasters like these can be a turning point to build more resilience and plan for a more sustainable future. Grenada Prime Minister Mitchell recalled how Grenada was determined to build back better after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. “Where there is a crisis, let’s not make it go to waste”, he said. Every year, natural disasters trap some 26 million people in extreme poverty around the world. © World Bank Every year, natural disasters trap some 26 million people in extreme poverty around the world. In the Caribbean, eight countries experienced a disaster event with an economic impact of over 50 percent of their annual GDP since 1980. The main difference for such small islands is that the entire country can be impacted, with every single inhabitant affected by the storm. Early estimates of damages after Hurricane Irma point to about 15 percent of GDP for Antigua and Barbuda, where more than 90 percent of the infrastructure in Barbuda has been damaged and most of the electricity and telecom network need to be rehabilitated. In Dominica, the damage assessment is ongoing, but losses are estimated to exceed US$1 billion or 200 percent of GDP losses following Hurricane Maria. So, what will it take for the small island states of the Caribbean to become more resilient and sustainable following the recent hurricanes? Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit shared his vision of how his country can become the first climate resilient nation in the world:

¿En algún momento hiciste un curso y sentiste que no aprendiste nada? Si la respuesta es "sí", imagínate multiplicar esa sensación por muchos años. Y si a eso le sumamos que de ese conocimiento nunca aprendido dependen tus posibilidades de mejorar de vida. ¿Cómo te sientes? Las sensaciones de fracaso e impotencia, entre otras, acompañan a millones de estudiantes pobres de países en desarrollo que no saben leer, escribir correctamente o hacer una operación de aritmética, incluso después de varios años de escolarización. Además de nacer en desventaja debido a la pobreza, a su género o a una discapacidad, llegan a la edad adulta sin las aptitudes más básicas para la vida. Algunos datos del último Informe de Desarrollo Mundial (WDR 2018, por sus siglas en inglés), del Banco Mundial, revelan las disparidades que existen entre los estudiantes ricos y pobres de un mismo país y entre esos mismos alumnos y los de una economía desarrollada. Estos son algunos de los hallazgos más notables:Hay una crisis global de aprendizaje. La escolarización sin aprendizaje es una gran injusticia ya que está fallando particularmente a aquellos estudiantes que necesitan una buena educación para tener éxito en la vida.La base de datos mundial sobre la calidad de la educación, recientemente actualizada, sugiere que, en los países de ingresos medios y bajos, más del 60% de los niños evaluados no lograron alcanzar habilidades mínimas en matemáticas y lectura. Mientras que, en los países ricos, casi todos los niños superaron ese nivel.Las estadísticas globales no tienen en cuenta a los 260 millones de niños que, por motivos de conflicto, discriminación, discapacidad y otros obstáculos, no están matriculados en la enseñanza primaria o media. Según el documento, la crisis global de aprendizaje no solo impide a estos jóvenes tener salarios mayores -de entre un 9% y un 11% más, en el caso de América Latina y el Caribe (véase el gráfico) -, sino que también profundiza las diferencias entre ricos y pobres.

O Tocantins cairá em breve no gosto popular. O estado e suas belezas naturais, como o Parque Nacional do Jalapão, são pano de fundo para a novela O Outro Lado do Paraíso, da Rede Globo. Para além de seus encantos, o mais jovem estado brasileiro, criado com a promulgação da Constituição em 1988, tem investido recursos e esforços para oferecer melhores serviços à população e também aos turistas, que devem se multiplicar com a estreia do novo folhetim. Em parceria com o Banco Mundial, por meio do projeto Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável Integrado do Tocantins, o governo do Estado tem promovido diversas ações com o intuito de estimular o desenvolvimento local e estadual, em setores como transportes, agricultura, pecuária, educação e turismo. Ao todo, o programa beneficiará mais de 300 mil pessoas, distribuídas em 72 municípios, incluindo 13 mil indígenas e 7,5 mil quilombolas. Se a ficção de fato fizer do turismo a principal porta de entrada para o estado, posto ocupado até então pelos agronegócios, não pegará despreparados os trabalhadores do setor. O projeto deu origem a um conjunto de medidas para receber melhor o turista, facilitar a atividade das agências operadoras, mapear riscos e também oportunidades no setor.   O primeiro grande passo dessa estratégia é a criação do Observatório do Turismo, que permitirá contabilizar o número de visitantes recebidos pelo estado, e analisar os serviços prestados, gerando assim uma rede de informação que permitirá que agências de turismo e rede hoteleira tenham dados concretos para promover a melhoria de seus serviços. “Hoje, as pesquisas sobre a qualidade do serviço turístico são feitas de maneira irregular, contando muito com a ajuda dos guias”, explica Mauricio Fregonesi, diretor da Unidade de Gerenciamento de Projetos do Estado do Tocantins. “Vamos implementar pontos fixos de pesquisa nas principais atrações turísticas, hotéis e outros locais públicos, permitindo que o visitante dê sua opinião com facilidade e quando melhor lhe convier.” Uma vez compilados os dados, os profissionais do observatório realizarão análises regulares, cujos resultados serão apresentados às empresas turísticas e à rede hoteleira em seminários ou capacitações. Para os que não puderem comparecer aos encontros, a Secretaria de Turismo está desenvolvendo um aplicativo, que servirá de repositório de informações sobre o setor, trazendo desde a lista de hotéis até as análises qualitativas dos dados. “A ideia é difundir o máximo de dados para que as empresas identifiquem onde é possível melhorar e onde há oportunidades de aumento de ofertas de serviços”, diz Fregonesi. Destino número um do estado, o Parque Nacional do Jalapão recebeu melhorias na estrutura de seu entorno – como a reforma de praças – e capacitação para a população local que trabalha com turismo. Outro local que vem passando por mudanças é o Parque Estadual do Cantão, uma área de cerca de 90 mil hectares que reúne três diferentes biomas: cerrado, floresta amazônica e pantanal. Nele, o projeto está ajudando a construir uma trilha de arvorismo e uma tirolesa.