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When her teachers first met Lo Mu Du Ly-Et, from Lam Dong Province had no sign language skills. Now, at age of 13 and thanks to the sign language and other learning material developed by the Quality Improvement of Primary Education for Deaf Children Project (QIPEDC), she communicates and attends school. Her life and future have been transformed.

"We were lucky to be able to access a good set of sign language materials suitable for primary school students so that she and her friends could learn quickly," said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Minh, Headmaster of the Lam Dong Province School for the Deaf." Ngoc Minh is referring to the 4,000 Vietnamese sign word catalogue and 150 video lessons covering math and other subjects for students in grades 1–5 developed under QIPEDC.

Ly-Et is just 1 of the almost 2,000 deaf children from 20 provinces across Vietnam whose lives this program has changed. Originally envisioned to serve just 1,200 children, the program—administered by the World Bank with funding from the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches—was an extraordinary success.

Increasing the Use of Sign Language and Creating a Support Community for Deaf Children

 Sign language is not new in Vietnam, but it has not been widely used there. Since the World Bank–managed Intergenerational Deaf Education Project (IDEO) introduced a set of 2,000 gestures in 2015, sign language has gradually become part of preschool and kindergarten curricula. Even so, most of Vietnam's estimated 116,000 deaf children rely solely on reading lips or wearing hearing aids to communicate.

The QIPEDC project piloted an approach to integrate deaf children into the mainstream and special education by training parents, caregivers, teachers, and deaf mentors, thus creating a support community for deaf children from school to home.

The program trained almost 1,800 parents of deaf children and 429 teachers, including Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh. As a deaf person herself, she understood the isolation of not being able to communicate. As a child, she said, "I kept wondering why my parents and others around me could hold long conversations, but they struggled to understand me, which to me was a big disappointment." Wanting a different outcome for deaf children, she became a sign language teacher.

Measuring Success and Widening Children's Prospects

The test scores of deaf students in the schools supported by the project improved significantly, with 97 percent of students in the program passing the exams for their grade levels, well above expectations.

Thanks to her son's success in the program, Tong Thi Nga, the mother of a deaf sixth grader, has an expanded view of his future. "I hope that he can achieve his dream," Nga said, hopeful that he might now qualify for a scholarship that would allow him to continue his education.

Expanding the Program's Reach

As the impact of the training courses became apparent, many project provinces shared training materials with schools that were not part of the project. When the project wound down, in September 2022, Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training agreed to authorize the use of its materials nationwide.

The ministry also expressed interest in expanding the program to reach older students. "Implementation has been difficult, but the results are rewarding," said Nguyen Thi Minh, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education and Training. "The 4,000 new signs are a good start. We will need to work together on the next phases to help with other education levels."

On February 22, the Ghana Ministry of Education held a ceremonial launch of the Ghana Education Outcomes Project—touted as the “largest education outcomes fund in the world.” Notable speakers included Senior Presidential Adviser Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Education Yaw Osei Adutwum, the British High Commissioner, and the World Bank Practice Manager for Education, among others.

GEOP aims to support out-of-school children (OOSC) to reintegrate into Ghana’s formal education system and improve learning outcomes in primary schools.  The $30 million project—funded by GPRBA through a $25.5 grant from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office with a $4.5 contribution from the Government of Ghana—builds on the ongoing work of the IDA-financed Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), which aims to improve the quality of education outcomes in Ghana by supporting teaching and learning.

The operation will target approximately 70,000 OOSC in areas with the highest absentee and dropout rates, in districts historically deprived of a strong educational infrastructure, and in the Greater Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan districts. In addition, students already enrolled in 600 GALOP-beneficiary schools will benefit from strengthened interventions supported by service providers.

The project is one of four impact bonds financed by the World Bank, and the first in the education sector. Under the impact bond model, the government will work with social investors and non-state actors as service providers to implement the program. Social investors will provide the upfront financing in cases where service providers are unable to do so. Payments will be made based on agreed-upon outcomes, transferring the financial risk away from the government and onto the implementers.

“We look forward to seeing the results,” said the Minister of Education during the launch event and, in line with the results-based approach, “if you don’t succeed, we don’t pay you.”

View the project page here, and read more about GEOP in this blog.

About 330 participants joined a three-day international webinar (half-day each) on performance measurement and intergovernmental fiscal transfer on February 22-24, 2021. Representatives from five key Indonesian government institutions*  engaged in discussions on improving services through performance assessment, performance benchmarking, data analytics, and an overview of performance measurement systems in Indonesia and Australia. The governments of Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia organized this event, which was the result a GPRBA technical assistance (TA) activity initiated in 2014 to support Indonesia's Local Government and Decentralization Project (LGDP) to expand and scale up verification mechanisms to measure outputs and outcomes of fiscal transfer spending.

The webinar marked an important milestone to further institutionalize the reforms within the Indonesian government, as well as a key foundation to advance the performance measurement system. This GPRBA TA has demonstrated the sustainability of the output verification mechanism by utilizing Indonesia’s own independent auditor (BPKP) and thereby achieving one of GPRBA’s main objectives to mainstream output-based aid/results-based financing in World Bank client country systems. The goal is to connect more countries to learn from governments with well-established performance measurement systems such as the Australian example while sharing Indonesia’s achievements.

As a follow-up to the webinar, a Focus Group Discussion was establised to facilitate brainstorming sessions among key representatives from the ministries to develop a draft roadmap for the infrastructure grant performance measurement system improvement in Indonesia. A follow-up learning and knowledge exchange is also being explored with the South African government on infrastructure grant scheme best practices, associated results framework and measurement.

For more details, read a summary of this webinar and training event "Measure-and-Benchmark Subnational Government Performance for better Public Service Delivery: Lessons from Australia and the Philippines"

 *Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Public Works and Housing, National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), and the National Government Internal Auditor (BPKP)

Ramallah, November 6th. The World Bank, acting as administrator for the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches (GPRBA), signed a Grant Agreement on November 6th for US$4.6 million with the Palestinian National Authority to improve access to registered land and property-related services.

The project funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), also benefits from co-financing from the World Bank for US$5 million, as well as US$3 million from the Palestinian Partnership for Infrastructure Development Multi-Donor Trust Fund (PID MDTF) administered by the World Bank.  

The grant will support the Palestinian Authority in its plan to complete systematic land registration (SLR) across the West Bank territories through a results-based payments approach. This is the first World Bank and GBRBA project that will apply results-based approaches in the delivery of land registration services. The project is expected to register 350,000 properties and to have a major focus on increasing the participation of women and vulnerable groups in the process.

Gender outreach and inclusion have been mainstreamed in the design of the project to support the ongoing efforts of the Palestinian Authority to ensure the rights of women and vulnerable groups are protected in the SLR process. In addition to improving tenure security, land rights will also provide women with increased access to finance and improved economic opportunities.

Access to land and real estate in the Palestinian territories is one of several impediments to economic growth, as limited land registration and ambiguous property rights present major challenges to business and housing development. Registered real estate is the most important source of collateral and the primary instrument used by banks to secure mortgages and loans, especially to micro-Enterprises and small and medium enterprises.

“Securing land registration has economic benefits at the national, community, and family levels,” said Kanthan Shankar, World Bank Country Director for West Bank and Gaza.  “Only 38 percent of land in the West Bank is registered, with a significant portion of unregistered properties in the urban centers. The project aims to push for greater registration across the Palestinian territories, an asset to tap for economic resources. It matters deeply for social inclusion, particularly disadvantage groups and women and will offer secured tenure and opportunities to improve living standards.”

The project will be implemented by both the Palestinian Land Authority and the Land and Water Settlement Commission through a performance-based scheme. Disbursements will be linked to specific results where the government will be reimbursed for eligible expenditures based on agreed periodic targets for verified properties registered.

Press Release in Arabic: ضمان حقوق الحيازة في 350 ألف عقار بالضفة الغربية

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Related: 

US$12.6 Million to improve land registration and modernize services for Palestinians (July 22, 2019)

Gaza and West Bank - Real Estate Registration Project

World Bank Support to Secure Property Rights in West Bank (April 26, 2012)