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Zambia's Jobs Challenge : Realities on the GroundIn September 2013, the World Bank
 launched the second Zambia economic brief, entitled
 Zambia's jobs challenge: realities on the ground. This
 report presents response of the youth to the facts and
 figures shared in the Zambia economic brief. It gives a
 broad range of discussion, often provocative, as to how
 Zambia's employment challenges can be tackled. It
 discusses the issues as diverse as cultural mind-set,
 absence of entrepreneurial training, weaknesses in labor
 laws, and low investments in agriculture research and development.
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Priorities for the Development of Smallholder Agriculture in SwazilandThe purpose of this policy note is to
 contribute to an understanding of the factors that combine
 to constrain the development of smallholder agriculture in
 Swaziland. It seeks to shed light on why, despite being
 well-endowed in land and water resources, and despite having
 a climate that is generally favorable for the production of
 crops and livestock, Swaziland is obliged to import
 substantial amounts of food to feed the population. Also,
 why, in spite of the significant investments that have made
 in the agricultural sector and in spite of the extensive
 farming experience of the 70 percent of the population that
 lives off the land, smallholder farm productivity and
 production have been declining over time. Finally, the
 policy notes identify priority areas where strategic
 interventions are needed to turn things around and get
 smallholder agriculture going as a driver of growth and
 poverty reduction. This note provides an overview of
 smallholder agriculture in Swaziland, identifes constraints
 that may be contributing to poor performance in the
 smallholder sector, and evaluates technological options that
 could improve productivity of smallholder farmers. In
 addition, it summarizes the findings of a recent review of
 public spending on agriculture, undertaken to identify
 trends and patterns in agricultural spending over the last
 five years and to determine whether the government's
 budget allocations have been effective in supporting the
 intended development of smallholder agriculture. After
 addressing these questions, the policy note points to entry
 points where future government interventions could help to
 reverse the current negative trends.
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Growth without Borders : A Regional Growth Pole Diagnostic for Southern AfricaSeveral countries in Southern Africa have enormous potential to expand trade and mutually benefit from regional integration, and thus truly achieve 'growth without borders'. At the same time, several African countries are adopting growth pole strategies in order to deepen the economic linkages around the development of their natural resources and improve their competitiveness and connectivity to domestic and international markets. This report stems from economic sector work whose purpose was to identify potential growth poles across Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in three industries, agribusiness, mining, and tourism, that might benefit from improved regional integration. This report used geographic information systems (GIS) to identify potential growth poles based on the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI), market connectivity, revenue sources, and other input factors and then selected from that list those areas which might benefit from regional cooperation. This report provides background information, elaborates the concepts, details the spatial analysis framework, selects specific areas for a rapid assessment, summarizes findings, and outlines future work. The overarching purpose is not to explain or quantify the links between identified factors, but rather to find spatial correlation between factors in order to begin a discussion about defining a data driven way of finding suitable regional growth poles.