66 million new Africans with electricity since 1997
1.7 million more with clean water since 2002
120,000km of African roads built, rehabilitated or maintained
15,000 hectares of farm land irrigated
15 million more African children in school since 2002
50,000 classrooms built and rehabilitated
90,000 teachers trained
1.5 million pregnant women treated for HIV
31.5 million children under five-years-old with new malaria nets?
Answer: Results!
Now, through a ground-breaking initiative from the Africa Region, these and other results from World Bank programs are being systematically gathered and shared with staff, partners, and the general public.
Data for dynamic learning
The AfricaResults Monitoring System (AfricaRMS) is a dynamic tool that monitors, records, and reports data and stories of African development. It was created to bolster the Bank’s overall Results Agenda.
With the AfricaRMS, the Bank is for the first time offering publicly a clear window into Bank work and a comprehensive view of country growth in Africa. Anyone can quickly gauge the big picture in the African story.
Led by a core team in the Africa Region ― in partnership with the Development Data Group (DECDG) and nine Africa Sector Teams — AfricaRMS offers access to information and data from both country and Bank systems.
The RMS furnishes project and financing data — describing operations supported by the Bank ― and draws country data from national accounts and administrative and survey sources.
As part of the agenda, the Region is also working to build monitoring and evaluation and statistical systems capacity among partner countries.
It is the only website where donors can see how we spend, what we get for it, and where the results are achieved.
Test, learn, improve, and apply
The AfricaRMS distills lessons and information to reveal what’s working and what isn’t in order to improve future efforts.
It tracks the progress of the Africa Action Plan, IDA, and the Millennium Development Goals, and guides reporting for task teams. The Africa RMS is a vital resource for managers to manage for development results.
The RMS is already steering the application of the Results Agenda to operations and analytical work for the Bank and its partner countries in Africa — for example, by supporting results-based Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and statistical capacity building.
In addition, the RMS is synthesizing data from the Region’s Africa Impact Evaluation (IE) Initiative ― a program to mainstream impact evaluation into Bank operations.
The IE program measures project impact by rigorously comparing outcomes between beneficiaries and a control group before and after a project.
The Africa Impact initiative supports World Bank-related IEs in over 20 African countries, and across several sectors, including education, malaria, health, infrastructure, and community-driven development.
Stories that numbers don’t tell
AfricaRMS is supplying the stories behind the numbers. It relates how good results are changing people’s lives.
And it displays the work of colleagues across the Africa region working hand-in-hand with their country counterparts and other stakeholders in global initiatives.
These initiatives include the Roll Back Malaria (RBM), WSS Joint Monitoring Program (JMP), Education for All Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI), Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP), and the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Program.
The building goes on…
While AfricaRMS is truly ground-breaking, it is not yet a complete superstructure. There are data and capacity gaps that have to be filled as construction continues.
And much of this building will take place in partner countries as they put together their national development strategies.
For example, the Africa Region has already been working with 19 countries to improve their monitoring and evaluation and statistical systems capacity.
In addition, more than 800 government officials have been trained in using the results framework to strengthen operations.
What this means is that each country will build, improve, and expand its own capacity to monitor government programs and assess their impact.
A world of results is taking place in Africa today.
RSS