This website provides practical knowledge and tools focusing on social, environmental and economic development issues for companies, civil society, local and regional governments.
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Channels for change: private water and the urban poor
May 2010
For the rapidly urbanising developing world, safe and affordable water is key to health and livelihoods, as well as meeting the Millennium Development Goals. But providing it demands innovative models. Where the context allows and the approach is appropriate, private sector involvement can generate win-win outcomes. Poor people can gain access to high-quality, affordable services, and companies can gain access to new and profitable business opportunities. Two examples of innovative ‘private’ water suppliers are the Manila Water Company’s Water for the Poor Communities (TPSB) programme, and the Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) partnership. Both have a multisector approach to service expansion and provision, including partnerships with local authorities; strong community involvement in selecting, designing and operating options; appropriate service levels to reduce costs; and a flexible range of services. Many elements of these models are also replicable.
Paying for watershed services: an effective tool in the developing world?
May 2012
Payments for watershed services (PWS) are an increasingly popular conservation and water management tool in developing countries. Some schemes are thriving, and are pro-poor. Others are stalling or have only mixed success. Most rely on public or donor finance; and other sources of funding are unlikely to play a significant role any time soon. In part, financing PWS schemes remains a challenge because the actual evidence for their effectiveness is still scanty — it is hard to prove that they actually work to benefit both livelihoods and environments. Getting more direct and concrete data on costs and benefits will be crucial to securing the long-term future of PWS schemes.
Building Climate Change Adaptation on Community Experiences
2012
This publication, produced in collaboration with WWF Southern Africa, looks at how community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) can inform and contribute to climate change adaptation at the community level, specifically to community-based adaptation (CBA) to climate change. It provides a framework for analysing the two approaches at conceptual and practical levels. Using case studies from southern Africa, the publication demonstrates the synergies between CBA and CBNRM, most important of which are the adaptation co-benefits between the two. While local incentives have driven community action in CBNRM, it is the evolution of an enabling environment in the region, in the form of institutions, policies, capacity and collaboration which characterises the scaling up of CBNRM to national and regional levels.
Promoting Good Local Governance through Social Funds and Decentralization
September 2000
This study was therefore commissioned to examine the interaction between social funds and decentralization in seven countries at different stages of decentralization: Bolivia and Honduras (advanced decentralization), and Peru and Zimbabwe (some decentralization) and Cambodia, Malawi and Zambia (little or no decentralization). It explores the relationships between social funds, decentralization and local governance. Specifically, it seeks: (i) to identify a range of issues for improving local development that are relevant for social funds and decentralization; (ii) to discuss and analyze research findings based on field work in the seven country cases; and (iii) to present conclusions that inform the debate on social funds and decentralization, and provide some guidance to policymakers and program managers on important issues and different policy options.
The Water Footprint Assessment Manual
2011
This book contains the global standard for ‘water footprint assessment’ as developed and maintained by the Water Footprint Network (WFN). It covers a comprehensive set of definitions and methods for water footprint accounting. It shows how water footprints are calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses. It also includes methods for water footprint sustainability assessment and a library of water footprint response options.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Handbook for Business Environment Reform
June 2008
The purpose of this Handbook is to strengthen awareness about M&E, engage interest in M&E, and to clarify what it entails, specifically for BEE practitioners. To date, attention has been paid to measuring the delivery and performance of BEE programs, for example by monitoring program processes, activities and outputs. However, evaluating the benefits that have arisen as a result of development interventions has been much less robust and to a large extent has relied on assessments of outputs rather than focusing on outcomes and impacts.
Community Development Toolkit
July 2012
The original Community Development Toolkit (CDT), which this document updates and replaces, was produced in 2005. It was the product of a joint project between the World Bank Group’s Oil, Gas and Mining Policy Division, the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). The development of this revised toolkit was informed by a review of the usage of the 2005 version. It was also informed by approaches developed in the intervening period by other organizations, notably the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
This toolkit aims to:
• Foster constructive working relationships and alliances among communities, companies and governments
• Build capacity within governments, companies and communities to address sustainable development issues at the local level
• Promote the value-adding potential of mine development and operation in support of local and regional social and economic sustainable development efforts
• Improve opportunities for the sustainable development of communities around mining and metals operations and regions during all phases of the mining and metals cycle.
Why Banks in Emerging Markets Are Increasingly Providing Non-financial Services to Small and Medium Enterprises
July 2012
This study, Why Banks in Emerging Markets Are Increasingly Providing Non-financial Services to SMEs, builds on recent studies from the World Bank Group and other research organizations to determine market trends related to commercial banks serving the SME sector in emerging economies on a profitable basis. For example, a recent study by Beck et al. surveyed 91 banks in 45 developed and developing countries and found that the majority of banks view the SME sector as a sizable market with good business prospects.
Measuring returns on community investments in mining
2011
The paper presents findings from field testing the FV Tool at Newmont’s gold mine in Ghana and Rio Tinto’s greenfield project in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lessons learned from these projects indicate that the FV Tool answers critical business questions
How to Value Returns on Sustainability Investments in Emerging and Frontier Economies
2011
This case study analyzes experience and learning from implementing the Sustainability Planning and Financial Valuation Tool (FV Tool) for oil, gas and mining sectors with two pilot projects: Newmont’s Ahafo gold mine in Ghana and Cairn’s oil pipeline in India. This study suggests that companies can develop metrics to guide their community investments and translate community program outcomes into company value, in terms that are understood by the market – risk reduction, productivity gains, savings, return on investment, and enhanced.