Golden Genesis and the Teotonio Vilela Foundation: commercializing PV residential electrification with a not-for-profit partner

This article presents a case study of a project which provides photovoltaic-based rural electrification in the state of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil. The project, the Luz do Sol Programme (LdS), was initiated in mid-1996 by the Golden Genesis Company (Golden) and the Fundação Teotônio Vilela (FTV). The article emphasizes some noteworthy characteristics of the project: the partnership between US commercial and Brazilian philanthropic interests; the financial aspect, a dedicated line of credit requiring only the equipment itself as security; and the local ownership and management of system operations, collections, and routine maintenance.
In 1996, the Golden Genesis Company had developed a central battery charging system to bring the price of electrification within the range of the rural poor; it financed the US content of the systems, with the Bank of the Northeast of Brazil (BN) financing the Brazilian content. The article traces the long and arduous path to establish the programme, including both bureaucratic and technical challenges. These difficulties brought the project to an impasse in August of 1998, and Golden withdrew. FTV then re-negotiated the agreement with BN, changing the technical approach to individual solar home systems. This improved the situation, and the project has since enjoyed 100% loan repayment rates from the entrepreneurs. In June 1999, BP/Solarex became FTV's new commercial partner. The project currently shows promise of becoming the commercially viable programme originally envisaged by Golden, with commercial and technical decision-making at the local level.     

Mining development in sub-Saharan Africa

Mineral production from sub-Saharan Africa is an important contributor to the economy at the country, regional and global levels. As an example, in relation to global production, the region provides 40% of diamonds, 20% of bauxite and 20% of rutile. However, with two or three notable exceptions, the region's share of mineral production has been declining compared to that of other regions. Whereas in some cases ore reserve depletion has been a factor, the most important underlying cause has been the absence of an enabling environment to attract high-risk exploration investment and to support private sector mining development. There has also been insufficient re-investment by the region's state dominated mining enterprises. Overall, growth is unlikely to occur unless an enabling environment is created to secure and maintain the appropriate levels of investment. The World Bank has recently initiated an African Mining Policy Study with the objective of recognizing and then introducing required adjustment processes into the region's mining industry.     

Ghana: revival of the mineral sector

After almost two decades of decline, Ghana's mineral sector has rebounded significantly and is currently the main foreign exchange earner. Gold mining is the principal activity within the sector and accounted for 41 percent of total export earnings in 1996. This paper presents an overview of Ghana's mineral industry and covers mineral resources, production and reserves; mining investments; the role of mining in the economy; and the structure of the industry. An overview of the national mineral policy is also presented to depict the current regulatory and fiscal environment in which the industry operates. The spectacular reversal in mineral sector performance can be attributed to the adoption of World Bank recommendations in a new national mineral policy, the 1986 Minerals and Mining Law, aimed at revitalizing the sector.     

The carajas iron ore project: The strategy of a third world state- owned enterprise in a depressed market

This paper describes how the Carajas iron ore project was set up in February 1985 at a time of deep recession in the iron ore and steel industries. Development of the project was met with much criticism, mainly from North American steel makers, who argued that the project would only be successful through the support of a Third World government, highly dependent on foreign exchange, without any consideration being given to its economic feasibility or to the fundamentals of the market. The authors explain why the World Bank took the step of setting up the project and how its development can be partly explained by the interests of the Japanese and European steel makers. The role of the Brazilian government is explained and the authors conclude that the relatively low rate of investment anticipated by the project will be overshadowed by the high gains in foreign exchange.     

Refuting the paradigm of water services privatisation

The aim of this article is to question the fundamental assumptions behind privatisation and public–private partnerships. The article shows that instead of radically increasing private sector involvement, public sector reforms should be seriously considered. Public–private partnerships should be implemented so that the strengths of all the stakeholders may be fully utilised.     

A training consultancy for an Ethiopian I.D.A. urban programme evaluated

The author contributed to a short ‘in service’ course for staff engaged on a World Bank upgrading project for Ethiopian housing. The project includes both the building of new houses by self‐build co‐operatives on the periphery of Addis Ababa, and the upgrading of a dense inner city area in conditions of acute deprivation. The paper is a highly personal account of the author's impressions of the value of such initiatives.     

Assessment of public–private–NGO partnerships: Water and sanitation services in slums

The Self‐Employed Women's Association (SEWA) is a trade union founded in 1972 to organize women in the informal sector in the western Indian state of Gujarat for better working conditions and social security provisions. The Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) and the SEWA Bank are independently registered SEWA sister organizations that facilitate self‐employed women's access to housing and financial services, respectively. This paper seeks to document and critically analyze the experiences of MHT and SEWA Bank in partnering with the state, the private sector, funding agencies, urban local bodies and other NGOs in developing and delivering housing, water and sanitation programs for low‐income urban families living in slums. Using MHT as a case study, this paper will shed light upon challenges and opportunities NGOs may face while collaborating with partners with different core philosophies, motivations, working styles, strengths and constraints. The paper also makes recommendations that would enable different actors to play an optimal role in partnerships designed to improve the living and working conditions of the poor.     

Affordable technologies for utilization of methane in a landfill environment: An example of an integrated technology array and evolving institutional networks

CARIBELATE, the Caribbean Environmental Laboratory for the Advancement of Technological Entrepreneurship is an evolving institutional concept, as well as a physical complex, that provides a dynamic environment for public, academic and private sector organizations to conduct proof of concept technology demonstrations in a landfill environment. This article traces the successful networking of demonstrations at a landfill in New Jersey and the subsequent design of the CARIBELATE project in the Municipality of Carolina, Puerto Rico. The institutional model developed for the Puerto Rico facility has brought together an unlikely combination of stakeholders. Those from the private sector, here called industrial partners, are paired with academic researchers to optimize products for local markets. The basic technology system demonstrated in New Jersey and to be replicated in Puerto Rico removes harmful contaminants from landfill gas and in so doing produces a variety of useful products. A portion of the landfill gas is utilized for micro‐turbine electricity generation and for heating a demonstration greenhouse that houses aquaculture coupled with hydroponic crop production, where aquaculture effluents are recycled as plant nutrients. A strict protocol to verify emission reduction is imposed on all the demonstrations at the CARIBELATE project. Although greenhouse gas credit verification is not the prime mission, it is suggested that the credits verified from these demonstrations are of high quality, and can serve as an excellent training platform. CARIBELATE is conceived to be operated at the municipal level and contribute to income generation and economic development. The continuing networking of stakeholders from the public and private sectors offers some potential guidance for replicating this design in the developing world.     

The Assessment of Water Resources Projects Involving Economic, Social and Environmental Costs and Benefits: The World Bank's View

In evaluating the costs and benefits of water resources development projects, the World Bank examines the economic, social and environmental aspects of the project. Some of these aspects are more easily quantified than others. The paper reviews some aspects that have been quantified by the Bank and describes others which have not. By way of illustrating the difficulty of quantification, the Bank's efforts to quantify the health hazards resulting from the introduction of irrigation projects is examined. In addition, the Bank's requirements with respect to social and environmental factors as they affect water resources projects are described.     

New strategy in urban water management in Mexico: the case of Mexico's Federal District

This paper focuses on the strategy of Mexico's Federal District to achieve better water management. It highlights some of the main aspects of the current institutional framework. The article starts by providing a general overview of the current state of the water sector in Mexico. An analysis of the new strategies for the provision of water services in Mexico's Federal District is presented as a case study. It exemplifies the type of private sector participation that has recently been adopted in the water sector in Mexico. The article analyzes the functions of agencies involved in water distribution in the Federal District, and discusses the performance of private firms as well as some of the main difficulties encountered. Lessons have been learned from this application. It can be concluded that long-term commitment on the part of both public and private entities is one of the key factors in achieving a more efficient urban water management. The article reflects plans implemented and approved as of January 1998.     

Integrating fisheries into the national development plans of Small Island Developing States (SIDS): Ten years on from Barbados

The development and effective introduction of strategies designed to ensure the ecologically and economically sustainable utilization of coastal and marine resources is perhaps the major challenge for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In response, the 1994 Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA) called upon the SIDS to implement appropriate coastal and marine strategies and, crucially, ensure that such strategies were integrated into sustainable national development plans (NDPs). This article examines the extent to which contemporary NDPs and donor support programmes have incorporated the fisheries sector — arguably the most important coastal/marine resource for many SIDS — into such documents. Applying an assessment methodology, originally developed to identify levels of environmental mainstreaming within World Bank country assistance strategies to NDPs and donor support programmes, we are able to identify those SIDS who have most effectively integrated the fisheries sector into such documents. Comparison with data indicating the importance of the sector to the national economy (in terms of generating foreign exchange, employment generation and/or supporting domestic protein consumption levels) enables us to pinpoint those countries with substantial fisheries sectors, but a correspondingly lower than expected degree of sectoral mainstreaming. We suggest that the January 2005 review of the BPoA offers an opportune moment for such countries to redress these omissions.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Gùnter B. Fettweis, Weltkohlenvorräte, eine vergleichende Analyse ihrer Erfassung und Bewertung
D. M. Leipziger and J. L. Mudge, Seabed Mineral Resources and the Economic Interests of Developing Countries
The World Bank, The LANDSAT Index Atlas of the Developing Countries of the World     

The small-scale water provider in Paraguay: bringing private sector efficiency to water resource use and the provision of drinking water to the poor

This article provides a case study of small-scale private sector provision of water supply in Paraguay, where the Government has sought sector policy reforms that would encourage private investment in drinking water supply. Ironically, while the Government has focused almost entirely on garnering the interest of large private international water companies, much smaller local firms have already made significant investments in drinking water services for the poor, all without any participation or encouragement from the Government. Outside Paraguay's two major cities, Asunción and Ciudad del Este, large numbers of aguateros currently provide piped potable water to lower-income people. Though the aguateros have little legal footing — they are in many respects informal and unregulated —they have constructed as much as one third of all the new drinking water connections in these two cities over the past 20 years. The small-scale water systems in Paraguay offer a model of financial, economic, and water-use efficiency. This article asserts that an abundance of groundwater resources, cheap access to electricity for pumping, and a spirit of informal investment, among other variables, has spawned widespread use of this approach. This article documents and analyzes the features of these independent small-scale water providers in Paraguay and the efficiency they bring to the use of water resources in meeting drinking water demands among the poor. It also cautions against policies that may trample on such entrepreneurial spirit in the name of State-managed privatization.     

Implementing gender policy in the water and sanitation sector

Using a case study approach, this article examines how the gender aspects of policy are implemented. It presents examples of gender policy implemented by different types of organizations, with particular emphasis on the water and sanitation sector. Implementing agencies include a UN agency, developing country governments, bilateral donors, and local and international NGOs. Observations from project implementation in the water and sanitation sector reveal the degree of effectiveness of the gender policies applied. Cases were chosen to provide interesting examples, rather than illustrate lessons that can be generalized. Much more research is needed before that can be done. The article also addresses project implementation strategy considerations, including how policies and implementation address women's needs, whether gender issues are treated separately or mainstreamed, and what factors are linked to successful implementation. Problems of coordination between different project implementation aspects/agents are endemic in the water and sanitation sector. Thus physical installation work is typically completed by engineers, while NGOs mostly deal with social aspects of projects, and the two groups often do not communicate effectively.     

An examination of the compatibility of World Bank policies towards population, development and biodiversity in the Third World

This paper addresses the compatibility of World Bank policies towards population growth, development and biodiversity in the Third World. The World Bank has been central to the design and implementation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the remit of which includes the conservation of global biodiversity. However, the Bank's influence over the facility has in itself created controversy which may undermine its effectiveness. More significantly, the Bank's commitment to the GEF is subverted by its policies in other social and economic sectors. The World Bank, together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), directs the structural adjustment of Third World economies through economic deregulation and privatization. This approach exacerbates inequalities and further empowers large landowners who may then displace tenant farmers and claim exclusive rights to former common land. Thus, biodiversity loss occurs as large landowners reorientate the land use towards the production of export goods and dispossessed farmers invade marginal land. Population growth influences biodiversity loss through its contribution to agricultural intensification and the settlement of marginal land. The World Bank encourages this trend through its non-committal approach to population control, but more especially through structural adjustment's positive effect on fertility.     

从世界银行对二滩水电站环境影响评估中得到的启示

本文介绍了二滩水电站环境影响评价，以及世界银行评估过程中专家提出的一系列环境问题，并结合我院１０多年来的环境影响评价工作简述几点启示，供参考。     

关于世行贷款农业灌溉项目环境影响评价问题的讨论

农业灌溉工程建设是我国第十二个五年规划纲要中提出的全面加强农田水利建设工作的重要组成部分。随着越来越多农业灌溉项目的兴建及我国环境影响评价制度的发展,农业灌溉项目的环境影响评价也在不断发展和完善中。本文根据世行贷款项目——中国四川武都农业灌溉项目环境影响评价实践和工作经验,分析总结了世界银行及我国在农业灌溉项目环境影响评价工作方面的特点和要求,其中世界银行在有些方面,如评价等级、公众参与等与国内环评要求基本一致,而有些方面,如回顾性评价、替代方案分析、累积性影响分析、环境管理计划、移民安置行动计划、病虫害管理计划等在国内环境影响评价中尚未引起足够的关注或与世界银行要求存在较大差异,值得我国环评工作参考和借鉴。     

Local participation, international politics, and the environment: the World Bank and the Grenada Dove

The process of locating waste disposal sites in the Eastern Caribbean country of Grenada illustrates important lessons in the implementation of new international mandates to invite stakeholder participation in projects with environmental and social impacts. This case study analyzes the participatory methods and results of the World Bank-funded project in Grenada, including an unexpected shift in the policy agenda toward habitat protection for the elusive Grenada Dove, the national bird of Grenada. We conclude that the impact of new requirements for stakeholder inclusion by funding agencies such as the World Bank and Global Environmental Facility has been palpable, but mixed. As the catalysts of more participatory methods, funding agencies still must give more careful consideration to the methods by which their participatory requirements are implemented. In particular they must develop more effective knowledge of and relationships with a broader range of stakeholders than are routinely considered by existing methods, allow for and learn from unexpected contingencies, and be flexible as to project goals and methods.     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Learning by doing : WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: a World Bank Policy Paper. Prepared by K. William Easter, Gershon Feder, Guy Le Moigne and Alfred M. Duda
Evaluating uncertainty : ECONOMIC VALUES AND THE NATURAL WORLD by David Pearce     

The agricultural development of sub-Saharan Africa

A study prepared by FAO on the irrigation potential of sub-Saharan Africa is compared with the results of a similar study by the World Bank. The FAO study estimates that there are approximately 33 million hectares potentially suitable for irrigation. The World Bank study indicates that the actual number may be closer to 20 million. Reasons are offered to explain the difference in the conclusions of the two studies. This paper also examines the cost of developing irrigation in the sub-Sahara as well as the food-producing potential from irrigation. Costs are found to be in line with irrigation schemes of similar size in other regions. Nevertheless, because much of the irrigation potential is located in only six countries, irrigation does not appear to be a viable means of agricultural development in the sub-Sahara.