2016 Innovation Awards
Program Highlights
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Contents
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................ v
Acronyms and Abbreviations...........................................................................................vii
Why Innovation at the WBG? ........................................................................................... 1
What Are the Innovation Awards?.................................................................................... 1
What Do the Innovation Awards Say About Innovation at the WBG?............................... 2
Characteristics of Nominations.....................................................................................................................................3
Characteristics of Nominated Innovations..................................................................................................................5
Conclusions....................................................................................................................... 6
Winners and Finalists ....................................................................................................... 7
Overcoming the Collateral Constraint for Women Entrepreneurs: Psychometric Testing in Ethiopia........8
Pilot Auction Facility (PAF)...........................................................................................................................................9
Enhancing Tax Compliance in Costa Rica Using Big Data: Innovative Experiment and QuasiExperimental Tools........................................................................................................................................................ 10
Tanzania Local Government Revenue Collection System.................................................................................... 11
Bangladesh Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy (RERED)—Mini-grid Project............................. 12
Bangladesh Public Procurement Reform Project II—Digital Transformation of Public Procurement...... 13
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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Appendix A: Members of Selection Committees............................................................ 17
Cross-VPU Committee................................................................................................................................................ 17
Longlisting Committee................................................................................................................................................ 18
Appendix B: 125 Eligible Nominations........................................................................... 19
Figures
Figure 1. Breakdown of Eligile Nominations by Region..........................................................................................3
Figure 2. Primary Funding Source.................................................................................................................................4
Figure 3. Type of Innovation..........................................................................................................................................5
Boxes
Box 1. Is Innovation Being Developed Efficiently at the WBG?............................................................................7
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Acknowledgments
The 2016 Innovation Awards were conducted by a team from the Innovation Labs of Word Bank Group
(WBG) under the Leadership, Learning and Innovation (LLI) Vice Presidency. This activity was led by Victor
Mulas (TTL) under the direction of Adarsh Desai (Manager) and Abha Joshi-Ghani (Director). Elena Gasol
and Dean Thompson were responsible for daily operations of the Innovation Awards. Arathi Sundaravadanan,
Maria Mboono, and Vinod Beri provided communications support, and led the design and implementation of
the Awards Ceremony in June 2016. Ghia Zaatari and Sandra Pocar helped with the nomination process, and
Anastasia Nedayvoda and Jerry Zhang conducted research for this report. Victor Mulas and Dean Thompson
are the authors of this report. Colin Blackman served as editor and James Quigley formatted it.
The team would like to express its gratitude to Human Resources for their support, particularly Carleen
Victoria and Saniya Anwar, whose guidance on running an awards program and other topics was invaluable.
The team extends its most sincere gratitude to the colleagues who participated in each of the Selection
Committees. These included Behnaz Bonyadian, Marcelo Donolo, Meena Munshi, Mattias K. A. Lundberg,
Nadeem Mohammad, Elena Gasol, Yelena Fedeyeva and Victor Mulas in the Longlisting Committee. They
also included Michael Goldberg, Jeffrey Waite, Bilal H. Rahill, Vijay Pillai, Rocio Castro, Roumeen Islam,
Karin Erika Kemper, and Uzma Basim in the Cross-VPU Committee.
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Acronyms and Abbreviations
AFRGI
ASCI
CCSA
Africa Gender Impact Evaluation Unit
Amhara Credit & Savings Institution
Cross-Cutting Solution Area
DPO
Development Policy Operation
E&E
Energy & Extractives
EAP
East Asia Pacific Region
EFI
Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions
ERs
Emission reductions
ESW
GCCCF
GP
GPVP
HD
IBRD
Economic and Sector Work
Global Climate Change and Carbon Finance Unit
Global Practice
Global Practice Vice Presidency
Human Development
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
ICT
Information and communication technology
IFC
International Finance Corporation
IMF
International Monetary Fund
IP
KP
LCR
LLI
M&E
Indigenous people
Knowledge Product
Latin America and the Caribbean Region
Leadership, Learning and Innovation
Monitoring and Evaluation
MIGA
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
NGO
Nongovernmental organization
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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OPCS
Operations Procedures and Country Services
PAF
Pilot Auction Facility
RAS
Reimbursable Advisory Services
RBF
Results-based Financing
RVP
Regional Vice Presidency
SD
Sustainable Development
SURR
TF
UAVs
VPU
WBG
Social, Urban, Rural & Resilience
Trust fund
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Vice Presidential Unit
The World Bank Group
All dollar amounts are U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
2016 Innovation Awards
Program Highlights
Why Innovation at the WBG?
“Innovation has been and will be pivotal for reaching sustained, scalable solutions to the world’s complex
problems.”1 Indeed, innovation is a key driver of transformational engagements—understood as deep, systemic
and sustainable changes with the potential for large-scale impact—and a key pillar of the World Bank Group’s
(WBG) 2030 strategy.2
How is innovation being applied by The World Bank Group (WBG) to address the world’s complex
problems and achieve the twin goals of reducing extreme poverty and increasing shared prosperity? The
2016 Innovation Awards program offers insights on how innovation is being absorbed and applied in WBG
projects and activities to tackle development challenges. Nominations described different types of innovations in technology, policies, processes, and partnerships—including drones mapping land, solar power
technology, a new climate finance model, and innovative approaches for the use of intangible collateral for
women entrepreneurs in Africa.
This report describes the WBG’s 2016 Innovation Awards program, highlights the diverse innovations
submitted by WBG teams, and presents the six winners and six additional finalists.
What Are the Innovation Awards?
As part of a broader initiative of Bank leadership to foster an innovative culture, the 2016 Innovation Awards
were designed to recognize staff that innovate at the WBG and to highlight the innovation occurring in
1 A Call for Innovation in International Development . http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/pubdocs/publicdoc/2015/11/8518514468
42304852/Call-for-Innovation-in-International-Development.pdf.
2 Independent Evaluation Group. 2016. Supporting Transformational Change for Poverty Reduction and Shared
Prosperity. World Bank Group. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://ieg.worldbank.org/Data/reports/
WBGSupportTransformationalEngagements.pdf.
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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WBG operations and activities. The WBG has lacked institutional mechanisms for recognizing and providing
incentives, and for strategically managing innovation to accelerate progress towards its goals (see Box 1). The
Innovation Awards were conceived as a soft mechanism to address this gap by providing data that could inform
the establishment of structured internal mechanisms.
This was the first iteration of the Innovation Awards and it took place from January through June 2016.
The WBG’s Innovation Labs, under the Leadership, Learning and Innovation (LLI) Vice Presidency, served
as the administrator of the awards. Staff and consultants in World Bank Vice Presidential Units (VPUs)
were eligible to participate in this program. Although the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) did not officially participate, individual IFC/MIGA staff
could be part of nominated teams.
Bank staff submitted 168 nominations representing diverse sectors from all six World Bank Regions. To
be eligible for an Innovation Award, innovations must have been completed in 2015, and had to be focused on
external client operations. In addition, nominations had to address the following selection criteria:
1. The innovation accelerated development results,
2. The innovation had to have the potential to be scaled up, and
3. Scaling-up could improve results in other contexts (for example, regions and sectors).
In early May 2016, a Longlisting Committee (see Appendix A) composed of staff from LLI and
Operations, procedures and Country Services (OPCS) reviewed the 168 nominations to assess their eligibility,
rate them against the selection criteria, and choose 12 finalist teams (see Appendix B). In late May, a Selection
Committee (Appendix A) made up of senior staff from the Global Practice Vice Presidencies (GPVPs) and
Regional Vice Presidencies (RVPs) scored the 12 finalists to determine the six winners. The winners were
recognized at a WBG-wide awards ceremony in June 2016.
What Do the Innovation Awards Say About Innovation at the WBG?
The Innovation Awards shed light on how WBG staff are applying innovation to address clients’ development
challenges. In nominating themselves, staff demonstrate a healthy desire at the Bank to showcase innovative
approaches in Bank activities and projects. Although this program cannot provide a complete picture,3 it can help
us to understand what, where, and how innovation is happening at the WBG and its usefulness. To this end, the
section below provides an overview of the 125 nominations assessed as eligible for an Innovation Award.
3
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For a more comprehensive analysis of innovation at the WBG, see World Bank. 2016. Unearthing Innovation. (forthcoming)
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Characteristics of Nominations
Regions and GPVPs submitted the most nominations. Regions submitted 41 percent of nominations,
GPVPs 47 percent, and other VPUs 12 percent (see figure 1). Common VPUs in the “other” category
included Cross-Cutting Solution Areas (CCSAs), the World Bank Treasury, Development Economics, and
the Legal Department.
Among Regions, Africa proposed the most nominations with 33 percent, followed by South Asia with 27
percent, and Latin American and the Caribbean with 20 percent. Among GPVPs, Sustainable Development
(SD) proposed 42 percent of nominations, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) 41 percent, and
Human Development (HD) 17 percent. Though Regional VPUs were the source of 41 percent of nominations, many nominations from Regions proposed teams from Global Practices (GP).4
Figure 1. Breakdown of Eligile Nominations by Region
168 Nominations Spanning All Regions
• Among 125 eligible
innovations, 20 were global
and 21 regionally focused, and
84 targeted 50 countries
• 68% of eligible nominations
were New Solutions, 32%
Adaptions
• Trust Funds were the largest
funding mechanism,
supporting 37% of
nominations
• The top two Global Practices
engaged in innovations were
SURR and Energy & Extractives
Nominations by VPU (n=125)
Nominations by Region (n=51)
Other
12%
SAR
27%
Regional
41%
GPVP
47%
4
MNA
4%
LCR
20%
AFR
33%
ECA
EAP 10%
6%
Nominations by GPVP (n=59)
GGH
VP
17%
GGE
VP
41%
GGS
VP
42%
Eight percent of eligible nominations featured two or more VPUs, typically a GPVP and a Region, which suggests cross-VPU coordination. However, the analysis only considers the primary VPU from the nomination form.
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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An analysis of nominations from the GPVPs, and those of Regions nominating principally GP teams,
suggested innovations came from diverse Global Practices. Using the unit of the team lead(s) as a proxy
indicator, the Social, Urban, Rural & Resilience (SURR) GP led with 22 percent of innovations, mainly
focused on working in fragile states, preventing and mitigating disasters, and strengthening engagement with
young people and vulnerable groups. The Energy & Extractives (E&E) GP was second with about 10 percent
of innovations, focused particularly on promoting renewable and clean energy.
Most remaining GPs were responsible for 6 to 10 percent of innovations within this pool. In EFI,
these included Governance, Finance & Markets, Trade & Competitiveness, and Macroeconomics &
Fiscal Management. In the Social Development (SD) network, these included Water, Transport & ICTs,
and Environmental & Natural Resources. In the Human Development (HD) network, the Education
GP contributed about six percent of nominations—with the Health, Nutrition & Population and Social
Protection & Labor GPs about three and four percent, respectively. A few nominations came from CCSAs,
such as Climate Change, and Fragility, Conflict & Violence. Nevertheless, because many innovations cut
across sectors, this simple attribution methodology may not be fully representative of the nomination pool.
Trust funds (TF) and lending were the primary
funding sources for innovations (see figure 2).
Trust funds supported 37 percent of innovations
and lending 26 percent. All other sources of funding
(Reimbursable Advisory Services—RAS, Economic
and Sector Work—ESW, Knowledge Products—KP,
and so on) supported 27 percent of innovations. The
funding source was unclear for about 10 percent of
the nominations.
Figure 2. Primary Funding Source
No Info
10%
Lending
26%
Other
Figure
27%
2. Primary Funding Source
Trust Fund
37%
Trust funds and discretionary funding (for example,
innovation grants) are used by Bank teams to
rapidly pilot and demonstrate the results of innovations. Based on research and suggested by the nominations, Bank teams appear to prefer TFs for pilots and so-called “frontier” innovations as TFs provide relatively
easier access to funds, quick disbursements, and have lenient procedures. This is consistent with the units
that provided more nominations, with those working on fragile states, preventing and mitigating disasters, or
energy-related innovations being most prominent. All of these thematic areas are supported by TF facilities.
When teams pilot within a lending operation, the innovation tends to be funded by TF and other discretionary funding, complementing the existing design of the lending operation
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Characteristics of Nominated Innovations
The Innovation Awards program defined innovation as a brand new solution, or an adaption of an established
approach to different sectors or contexts. Thirty-one percent of eligible nominations were deemed to be new
solutions, and 69 percent adaptations, which suggests that the Bank is playing a key role in scaling innovation
sourced from elsewhere.
Figure 3 illustrates the types of nominated innovations. Nearly
Figure 3. Type of Innovation
half of innovations were a product or technology, while policy and
process innovations each made up 19 percent. Organizational or
Organizational/
partnership innovations made up 13 percent. Though listing all
Partnership
13%
nominations in these types is not possible here, selected examples
are provided below:
Figure 3. Type of Innovation
• Product/technology: Sample innovations included creative
Policy
19%
Product/Technology
uses of satellite and drones, to map slums in India and assess
49%
war damage in Syria, and mobile and tablet-based technologies, such as apps to survey poverty, monitor road condiProcess
19%
tions, compare remittance service providers, and engage
stakeholders in monitoring public services. Innovations
made use of open data and big data, from a new open data
portal supporting development in Sudan, to open source
software tracking taxi trips to improve congestion analysis
in the Philippines, to the World Bank’s PovcalNet, an online poverty monitoring system allowing
external visitors to create new poverty measurements. Other innovations included information systems
to improve procurement, web-based platforms for sharing knowledge, and technologies and risk and
insurance products in agriculture, disaster management, and climate change.
• Process: Nominations focused on innovative ways that Bank teams used, sequenced, and mixed Bank
products, including through programmatic and multisector approaches, and performance-based
contracting and results-based financing (RBF), such as an RBF program to promote clean stoves in
China. Nominations highlighted inventive ways of packaging Bank assistance, such as a program
combining seed funding and technical assistance within Bank operations to develop technological
innovations that improve disaster resilience. Nominations presented new methods of engaging communities, such as mechanisms to involve indigenous people in designing and delivering an environmental
grant program in Peru, and engaging men and stakeholders to prevent violence against women in
Honduras. Teams proposed new methodologies for assessing risks, such as the Bank Treasury’s efforts to
develop methods for assessing credit risk of state-owned enterprises in Indonesia.
• Policy: Nominations highlighted how Bank teams had creatively used Development Policy Operations
(DPOs), such as the first-ever regional DPO to improve transport policies between Burkina Faso and
the Ivory Coast, and a DPO promoting “green growth” policies in transport, energy, and other sectors
in Colombia. Nominations featured new designs and policies for social safety nets, including innovative
targeting mechanisms and measures for channeling social assistance, such as through public works in
postdisaster contexts. Innovations informed policy reform, such as an online portal for recommenda-
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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tions and information on mining legislation in Africa, and a tool combining tax records and household
survey data to assess tax reform in Chile. Nominations highlighted how big data from tax records and
behavioral techniques can improve tax compliance in Costa Rica and other countries.
• Organizational/Partnership: Nominations demonstrated ways that the Bank had brought together
stakeholders to raise awareness of issues, encourage research and knowledge exchange, promote
consensus, and support project design and implementation. In Africa, the Bank helped mobilize 100
journalists from multiple countries to report on the dire condition of coastal fisheries, and convened
governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and organizations from 14 countries to
support research and projects in early childhood development. In the East Asia Pacific region (EAP),
the Bank created a network of finance ministers from Asian-Pacific countries to discuss and foster
commitment to credit infrastructure reforms. A regional, cross-GP initiative in the Latin American
and the Caribbean region (LCR) convened governments, development institutions, and indigenous
peoples (IPs) to support dialogue on IP issues, advocate IP policies, and design projects for IPs and
Afro-descendants. The Bank helped create a global partnership program promoting learning on
carbon pricing and solutions in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
other organizations.
An analysis of how nominations were scored reveals mid-range scores on the first selection criterion:
whether the innovation accelerated development results. Yet scores were higher on other selection criteria—
whether the innovation has the potential to be scaled up, and scaling up could improve results in other contexts.
This suggests that Bank teams nominated innovations not yet fully mature and without demonstrable results,
but with tangible demand and promise for scale.
Conclusions
The scale and breadth of nominations to the 2016 Innovation Awards suggest that there is considerable
bottom-up innovation at the WBG. Nominations spanned all Regions and GPs and several other VPUs,
despite the program’s limited focus on external client operations. Certain groups and GPs were responsible for
comparatively more nominations—SURR and E&E, for example, in such areas as fragile states, disaster resilience, and renewable energy, perhaps because of easier access to agile funding (for example, TFs) or innovation
friendly leadership. The program also featured different types of innovation, with one-third applied globally or
regionally, and the rest focused in 50 countries.
Innovation at the WBG focuses on scaling innovation sourced from elsewhere more than creating brand
new solutions. Most nominations featured adaptations of existing solutions, with almost 50 percent of them being
product or technology related. This is consistent with the role and the scale of the WBG. As the IEG report on
Transformational Engagement puts it, citing the example of Lighting Africa Kenya, the WBG’s role is not necessarily
that of an inventor, but the Bank can help scale-up technologies that have potential to be transformational.5
5 Op cit, Note 2.
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Box 1. Is Innovation Being Developed Efficiently at the WBG?
Nominations and existing research suggest that the preeminence of a bottom-up mechanism for generating innovation
results in multiple teams “reinventing the wheel” and parallel processes of introducing the same innovation in the WBG.
For example, multiple nominations from different GPs showcased the transition from paper to mobile-based monitoring
of public services. Among others, the Water GP employed mobile phones to monitor rural water services in Vietnam, the
Governance GP smartphones to collect data on crime, health, and education in Pakistan; and the Transport & ICT GP
a tablet app to survey the condition of bridges in Nepal. All of these teams are taking similar approaches to problems
faced systematically by WBG activities and operations in the area of data collection and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E).
However, each team approached their solution separately and without sharing core resources. This multiplies costs and
reduces the economies of scope and scale for the WBG. GPs tend to innovate ad hoc and in pockets—without adequate
sharing of innovations and lessons between units, rendering scaling inefficient.
Most nominations used TFs as the funding mechanism, with lending as the second preferred option.
WBG teams seem to prefer TF and grant sources for testing and piloting frontier innovations, as these sources
provide easier, just-in-time access to quick-disbursing funds and more lenient procedures. Although lending
supports innovation, the longer timeframes of lending projects and use of client funds may favor financing
adaptations of tested and proven innovations—minimally a more cautious and planned approach.
Given the importance of innovation to development and high participation in this program, Bank
leadership may want to continue the Innovation Awards in 2017. If such a decision is made, Bank leadership
may want to expand the focus beyond external client operations, possibly to include innovations in internal
Bank processes, and officially include IFC and MIGA.
Winners and Finalists
The six winners of the Innovation Awards are described in the following pages, along with six additional finalists.
These descriptions are based on selected information from the nominations. Congratulations to both groups.
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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WINNER
2016 Innovation Award
VPU: Africa
TEAM LEAD
Markus Goldstein
Lead Economist, AFRCE
Overcoming the Collateral Constraint for Women
Entrepreneurs: Psychometric Testing in Ethiopia
Under the FY12 Women Entrepreneurship project, the WBG worked with
government, financial institutions, and a tech start-up to devise a way to use
characteristics of borrowers as a substitute for loan collateral—captured in a
psychometric testing tool. Potential borrowers could take a 45-minute test,
designed to measure the likelihood of repayment, on a tablet computer in
a branch of Ethiopia’s largest microfinance institution (Amhara Credit &
Savings Institution, ACSI). ACSI provided loans up to $7,500 for those above
a scoring cutoff. 600 borrowers took the test in 2015. Among the 349 offered
loans, repayment is at 99.4%, and women borrowers increased profits by 24%.
ACSI scaled the program from two to 12 branches, and aims to provide 2,000
loans in 2016.
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
WINNER
2016 Innovation Award
VPU: Climate Change CCSA
TEAM LEAD
Scott Cantor
Carbon Finance Specialist, GCCCF
Pilot Auction Facility (PAF)
The multidonor PAF for Methane and Climate Change Mitigation is an
innovative climate finance model to incentivize private investment in projects
that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximize impact of limited
public funds. Through an online auction of put options, the PAF provides a
guaranteed floor price for future emission reductions (ERs). These options
give auction winners a right, but not an obligation, to sell ERs to the PAF. The
PAF’s first auction in July 2015 attracted 28 bidders from 17 countries. 12
won price guarantees for 8.7 million tons of ERs at a clearing price of $2.40/
ton of CO2 equivalent. The PAF released a report on lessons on the first
auction and a briefing note, and discussed the concept with several countries.
Environmental Finance awarded PAF’s first auction its Carbon Deal of the
Year in March 2016.
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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WINNER
2016 Innovation Award
VPU: GGEVP
TEAM LEADS
Anne Brockmeyer
Marco Hernandez
Economist, GFM04
Senior Economist, GFM04
Enhancing Tax Compliance in Costa Rica Using Big Data:
Innovative Experiment and Quasi-Experimental Tools
This project used big data to improve tax compliance in Costa Rica. The
project used a decade-long, nationwide panel of tax declarations submitted
by 400,000 firms and more than 20 million financial transaction reports to
estimate tax compliance gaps. Supported by a unique partnership involving
tax authorities and the U.K. Behavioural Insights Team, authorities sought
to increase tax filing by sending email tax reminders to firms emphasizing
information from credit and debit reports about their economic activities.
In addition, the team evaluated the impact of a policy whereby debit card
companies withhold tax on card transactions. The project showed good
results: randomized email reminders tripled the tax filing rate and doubled
the payment rate among targeted firms, and the withholding policy increased
sales tax payment by 50% among affected firms. The team has started big data
projects with Guatemala, Poland, and Uruguay, and received interest from
Bank teams in Croatia and Madagascar. Such techniques hold promise for
other uses, such as in enhancing payment of service fees to public utilities.
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
WINNER
2016 Innovation Award
VPU: Climate Change GGSVP
TEAM LEADS
Chyi-Yun Huang
Onur Ozlu,
Urban Specialist, GSU19
Senior Urban Economist, GSU11
Tanzania Local Government Revenue Collection System
The Tanzania Strategic Cities Project introduced an innovative Local
Government Revenue Collection Information System (LGRCIS) to help
Tanzanian cities collect own source revenue (OSR) from multiple sources, such
as property taxes, service levies, and business fees. Now operational in seven
cities, the system supports identification of taxpayers and defaulters, invoicing
and receipts, bill generation, and online payment through a single gateway.
It enables reporting and analysis by geography, payers, and revenue type.
Participating cities increased their OSR by 30% in the first year, which has
been critical in meeting budget shortfalls from central government transfers,
and the system is being scaled countrywide and through Bank projects.
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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WINNER
2016 Innovation Award
VPU: GGSVP
TEAM LEAD
Zubair Sadeque
Senior Energy Specialist, GEE06
Bangladesh Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy
(RERED)—Mini-grid Project
This project tested a business model implemented for solar home systems
on new technologies: solar irrigation pumps (SIPs) and solar poweredminigrids. A $1.1m grant financed 41 SIPs benefiting 1,356 poor farmers,
and a 100kW minigrid providing energy to 253 poor households. The
project leveraged an innovative PPP with the state-owned Infrastructure
Development Company Limited (IDCOL), and innovative financing,
including capital buydown grants to ensure access to poor households
and farmers to clean energy. Farmers reported reduced irrigation costs
and savings in time and labor. Customers linked to the minigrid replaced
polluting fuel sources, such as diesel, with clean energy. Income generating
activities developed in project areas. Lessons are being shared with Mali,
Uganda, Tanzania, and other countries, and additional financing is
supporting the scaleup of the two technologies.
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
WINNER
2016 Innovation Award
VPU: GGEVP
TEAM LEAD
Zafrul Islam
Lead Procurement Specialist, Governance, GGO06
Bangladesh Public Procurement Reform Project II—Digital
Transformation of Public Procurement
The Bank supported Bangladesh to build a single uniform integrated
e-GP system covering bid invitation up to final payment, including online
bid evaluations, contract awards, contract management, payments, and
procurement measurement (e-PMIS). The e-PMIS module captures real-time
procurement and contract management indicators, allowing stakeholders and
citizens to monitor public procurement. The e-GP system drove good results:
the number of registered bidders grew 35-fold, the days from tender opening
to award fell from 51 in 2012 to 29 in 2015, and there is evidence of less fraud.
The Bank is helping to scale-up of the program, and several countries have
shown interest in the e-GP solution, such as Uganda, Zambia, and Nepal.
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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FINALISTS
2016 Innovation Award
Innovation Title
Team Lead(s)
VPU
Description
Country Disaster
Risk Profiles
Oscar Anil
Ishizawa,
Sr. Disaster Risk
Management
Specialist, GSU10
LCR
Countries are increasingly exposed to high risks
of meteorological and geophysical hazards, but
governments lack capacity to quantify sovereign risk due
to disasters. The Bank supported the development of
open, free, and globally consistent Country Disaster Risk
Profiles (CDRPs), which provide estimates of potential
economic losses and future risks to property and other
asset classes from natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes,
earthquakes). CDRPs were used to estimate fatalities and
direct economic losses to property within one week after
the Nepal earthquake at an accuracy of over 90%, and
help produce maps and information on building types,
distribution, and economic value in African cities, helping
the Bank to assess the level of investment in these cities.
GGSVP
Imaging and mapping land are important to property
rights and resource decisions, but conventional aerial
surveys and national-level orthophotos can cost millions
of dollars and take more than a year to deliver. The
Bank supported using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs,
or drones) to collect aerial imagery, and produce highlevel orthophotos and accurate maps and 3D models
at a fraction of the cost and time. The team used UAVs
to map and develop in under a week orthophotos of a
village where war widows lack formal property titles, and
Kosovo’s National Cadastral Agency helped these women
register their rights. UAVs were used in a fast growing city
to support a government program to legalize property
rights. The team used UAVs to develop within 24 hours
a 3D map of an area where an archeological site had
stopped construction of the national highway, providing
accurate information for rerouting of the road and
preservation of the site.
South
Asia
The April 2015 earthquake damaged bridges in Nepal,
but assessing bridge conditions and devising remedial
measures was difficult given postquake physical and
institutional constraints. The Bank team worked with
the client to develop an Android-supported, tabletbased application for assessing quake-affected bridges.
This application was designed to record each bridge
element, survey the condition of each component,
measure the extent and severity of defects, and prioritize
remedial measures. It included photos to corroborate
information and help produce the best remedial designs.
The team recruited 11 engineers to conduct the bridge
surveys, and remedial designs were completed and the
Bridge Management System updated. Lessons helped
to develop another tablet-based application for the
supervision of bridges.
Rashmin
Gunasekera,
Disaster Risk
Management
Specialist, GSU10
Drones Kosovo
(Mapping)
Kathrin Kelm
Sr. Land
Administration
Specialist,
GSULN
Assessments
and Design of
Earthquake
Affected Bridges in
Nepal
A.K. Farhad
Ahmed, Sr.
Transport
Specialist, GTI06
14
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2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Innovation Title
Team Lead(s)
VPU
Description
Big Data for
User-focused
Identification of
Road Infrastructure
Condition and
Safety Concerns
Wei Winnie
Wang, Transport
Specialist, GTI03
GGSVP
Road agencies face challenges in monitoring road
conditions and developing cost-effective asset
management strategies given limited funds. In
collaboration with Belarussian authorities, the Bank
developed a smartphone app to determine userfocused road condition indicators and safety concerns
by extracting information from big data collected
from drivers and road users. Using accelerometers in
smartphones, this app automatically evaluates pavement
roughness and detects road bumps, and users can
upload pictures of potholes, black spots, and accidents.
This crowdsourcing approach provides wider and more
frequent coverage of road networks, supports better
decisions on asset management, and enhances citizen
engagement and government accountability. The team
is working with the Global Solutions Group for Road
Asset Management to make the mobile app universally
applicable.
Code for Resilience
Keiko Sato,
Disaster Risk
Management
Specialist,
GFDRR
Climate
Change
CCSA
An initiative of GFDRR’s DRM Innovation Labs, Code
for Resilience (CfR) explores ways to introduce scalable,
technological innovations to strengthen community
resilience to natural disasters within World Bank
operations. Continuing outreach to nine countries in
2014, the CfR team sought further collaboration with
World Bank operations in 2015. Given demand from Bank
teams for innovation in hydromet services, CfR provided
seed funding and TA to codesign innovations, especially
open source approaches for hydromet. For example,
the team helped Haiti use open technology to collect
and aggregate data to improve decision making and
information for flood risk management and food security
operations. CfR helped Togo to prepare for floods by
supporting development of an innovative model for
upstream flow prediction, dam operations, downstream
flow prediction, and early warning. Early testing showed
excellent results.
TransFORM/
China Transport
Transformation
& Innovation
Knowledge
Platform
Gerald Paul
Ollivier, Senior
Infrastructure
Specialist, GTI02
GGSVP
Launched by President Kim and China’s Minister
of Finance, TransFORM sought to make transport
safer, cleaner, and more affordable for development
in China, and share China’s experiences with other
countries, relying on pilots; engagement with academia,
practitioners, and development institutions on strategic
topics; and accelerated knowledge exchange (e.g., 21
workshops and 1,600 people trained through distance
learning). Among other activities, TransFORM promoted
innovative solutions of key pilots, including employerbased voluntary green commuting initiatives in Beijing;
development of an electric vehicle business model
in Wuhan; and use of open data for transit analysis,
information service, and transport service analysis in
Zhengzhou and Nanchang.
Ke Fang,
Lead Urban
Transport
Specialist,
GTIDR
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
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15
Appendix A: Members of Selection Committees
Cross-VPU Committee
Name
Represented VPU
Title
Unit
Michael Goldberg
GGEVP
Lead Operations Officer
GFMDR
Jeffrey Waite
GGHVP
Adviser
GEDDR
Bilal H. Rahill
GGSVP
Director
GGEND
Vijay Pillai
AFRVP
Adviser
AFRVP
Rocio Castro
EAPVP
Adviser
EAPVP
Roumeen Islam
ECAVP
Economic Adviser
ECADE
Karin Erika Kemper
LCRVP
Senior Regional Adviser
LCRVP
Najy Benhassinea
MNAVP
Practice Manager
GTCME
Uzma Basim
SARVP
Senior Country Officer
SACPA
* Nominated for cross-VPU committed but did not participate in scoring process
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
•
17
Longlisting Committee
Name
Title
Unit
Operations Officer
OPSRR
Senior Operations Officer
OPSRR
Integrated LLI Engagement Leader
LLICC
Lead Specialist, Global Youth Programs
LLICC
Lead Operations Officer
LLIOP
Elena Gasol Ramos*
Senior ICT Policy Specialist
GTI09
Yelena Fadeyeva
Senior Operations Officer
LLIOP
Victor Mulas
Senior Operations Officer
LLIIL
Behnaz Bonyadian
Marcelo Donolo
Meena Munshi
Mattias K. A. Lundberg
Nadeem Mohammad
* In cross-support capacity to LLIIL for this activity
18
•
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Appendix B: 125 Eligible Nominations
Responsible VPU
Geographic Focus
(Country, Regional, Global)
Overcoming the Collateral Constraint for
Women Entrepreneurs: Psychometric Testing
in Ethiopia
AFR
Ethiopia
Guinea Power PPP
AFR
Guinea
Engaging Africa’s Journalists for Sustainable
Fisheries
AFR
Regional
Innovations to Boost Fisheries Benefits in West
Africa (P156759)
AFR
Regional
Regional Study on Confronting Drought in
Africa’s Drylands
AFR
Regional
Madagascar ACGF Financial Services Project
(P109607)
AFR
Madagascar
Data-Driven Decisions in FCS: The Sudan
Evidence Base Program
AFR
Sudan
Obtaining Health Results at Scale in
Cameroon
AFR
Cameroon
Preparation of Saving One Million Lives
Program for Results
AFR
Nigeria
CAR Emergency Public Services Response
Project (P149884)
AFR
Central African Republic
Urban Fragility and Violence in Africa—A
Cross-country Analysis
AFR
Regional
Kenya Devolution Support Program—PforR
Preparation
AFR
Kenya
Urgent Response to the 2015 Malawi Floods
AFR
Malawi
Nomination Title
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
•
19
Responsible VPU
Geographic Focus
(Country, Regional, Global)
Local Government and Service Delivery
Project (LGSDP) Supervision
AFR
South Sudan
Competition & Market Regulation in Kenya—
From Analytics to Action
AFR
Kenya
São Tomé Investment Climate
AFR
Sao Tome
Implementation Monitoring Mechanism (I2M)
AFR
Togo
Code for Resilience
CCSA
Global
Commodity Market Outlook
DECVP
Global
PovcalNet/Global Poverty and Shared
Prosperity Monitoring 2015
DECVP
Global
National Video Contest for Primary School
Teachers in Vietnam
EAP
Vietnam
East Asia and Pacific Clean Stove Initiative
EAP
Regional
China: Jiangsu Water and wastewater Project
(P096926)
EAP
China
Russian Education Aid for Development
(READ)
ECA
Russia
Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program
for Aral Sea Basin
ECA
Regional
Poland—Enhancement of Public Sector
Accounting and Finance
ECA
Poland
Framework for Sub-national Infrastructure
Investment Programs
ECA
Romania
Kazakhstan Technology Commercialization
Project (TCP) (P090695)
ECA
Kazakhstan
End to Gas Flaring Video
ECRVP
Global
PabsyLive
ECRVP
Global
Pilot Auction Facility (PAF)
GCC
Global
Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (P154382)
GCC
Global
Bangladesh Public Procurement Reform
Project II
GGEVP
Bangladesh
Making Housing More Affordable for the Poor
in Kyrgyzstan
GGEVP
Kyrgyzstan
Project Greenback (P156193)
GGEVP
Global
Pick Remit Smartphone App
GGEVP
Global
Nomination Title
20
•
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Responsible VPU
Geographic Focus
(Country, Regional, Global)
Kenya National Agriculture Insurance Program
GGEVP
Kenya
Enhancing Tax Compliance in Costa Rica Using
Big Data: Innovative Experiment and QuasiExperimental Tools
GGEVP
Costa Rica
Financial Infrastructure Development Network
(FIDN Launch)
GGEVP
Philippines
India MSME Growth Innovation and Inclusive
Finance project (P151544)
GGEVP
India
Performance Monitoring, Beneficiary
Feedback and Transparency Innovations in the
Punjab Public Management Reform Program
(P132234)
GGEVP
Pakistan
Second Public Financial Management Reform
Project (P120427/P150632)
GGEVP
Afghanistan
Tanzania Open Government and Public
Financial Management DPO (P133798)
GGEVP
Tanzania
Central Asia Tax Program—Implementing RBA
in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
GGEVP
Regional
Strengthening Citizen Engagement through
Complaint Handling Mechanisms (CHMs) in
Palestine
GGEVP
Palestine
Chile Tax Reform (P151824)
GGEVP
Chile
Applying Behavioral Insights to Improve Tax
Compliance in Poland
GGEVP
Poland
Enhancing Financial Capability in Ebola
affected countries
GGEVP
Regional
Piloting Multi-country DPOs to Tackle
Regional Policy Challenges
GGEVP
Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire
Real-time Tracking of Market Prices in South
Sudan
GGEVP
South Sudan
Estimating Poverty with Household Surveys in
Less than 60 Minutes
GGEVP
Regional
Applying Behavioral Insights in Policy
GGEVP
Global
Using WBG-developed Software to Improve
Online G2B Service Delivery in Africa and FCS
Countries
GGEVP
Regional
Great Lakes Trade Facilitation
GGEVP
Regional
Boosting Youth Participation in Governance
through ICT in Bulgaria and Beyond
GGEVP
Regional
Strategic Data Dissemination Blogging with
the LAC Equity Lab
GGEVP
Regional
Nomination Title
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
•
21
Responsible VPU
Geographic Focus
(Country, Regional, Global)
Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls
and Young Women
GGHVP
Liberia
Supporting the School-to-University Transition
of Romanian Disadvantaged Students
GGHVP
Romania
Think! Technology and Incentives for Capacity
Strengthening, Accountability, and Results in
Fragile Contexts
GGHVP
Haiti
Jamaica Education Transformation Capacity
Building Project (P107407)
GGHVP
Jamaica
Africa Early Learning Partnership (P144137)
GGHVP
Regional
Reproductive Health Vouchers Program in
Uganda (P144102)
GGHVP
Uganda
Working with Counterparts to Use Evidence to
Improve Programs
GGHVP
Myanmar
Strengthening Social Safety Net Project SSNP
(P145699)
GGHVP
Egypt
Insuring the Poorest—Innovative Safety Net
Design
GGHVP
Uganda
Ethiopia: Urban Productive Safety Net
Program
GGHVP
Ethiopia
Operating in High-risk Environments:
The LONDO Project in CAR (P152512)
GGSVP
Central African Republic
Bangladesh Rural Electrification and
Renewable Energy (RERED)—Minigrid
GGSVP
Bangladesh
IDA Guarantee Mobilizes $500 million
Commercial Financing for Kenya Power and
Lighting Company Debt Restructuring
GGSVP
Kenya
Global Geothermal Development Plan
(P130625)
GGSVP
Global
Value Chain Approach to Ghana’s Challenges
GGSVP
Ghana
Rejuvenating Mozambique’s Forests and
Landscapes
GGSVP
Mozambique
Piauí Productive and Social Inclusion DPL and
IPF (P156131)
GGSVP
Brazil
Programmatic Approach to Peace and PostConflict Consolidation (P153567)
GGSVP
Colombia
Promoting Resilient Infrastructure across
sectors in South Asia (P153443)
GGSVP
Regional
National Violence Monitoring System
(Indonesia) (P127133)
GGSVP
Indonesia
Drones: New Mapping Solution (P101214)
GGSVP
Kosovo
Nomination Title
22
•
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Responsible VPU
Geographic Focus
(Country, Regional, Global)
From Satellites to Settlements: Mapping
Slums from Outer Space in Metro Manila
GGSVP
Philippines
Iraq Emergency Operation for Development
(P155732)
GGSVP
Iraq
CityStrength Diagnostic: A Multisectoral Tool
That Aims to Enhance Resilience in Cities
GGSVP
Ethiopia
Saweto Dedicated Grant Mechanism: Building
Real Capacity through Participatory Project
Preparation (P148499)
GGSVP
Peru
Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Program
(NSP) Jobs for peace initiative (P117103)
GGSVP
Afghanistan
Tanzania’s Local Government Revenue
Collection Information System (LGRCIS)
GGSVP
Tanzania
Testing Evidence-based Approaches to Foster
Collective Action in Addressing Intimate
Partner Violence
GGSVP
Honduras
TransFORM/China Transport Transformation &
Innovation Knowledge Platform (P129850)
GGSVP
China
Open Traffic
GGSVP
Global
Transport Contribution to the Africa Climate
Business Plan
GGSVP
Regional
Big Data for User-focused Identification of
Road Infrastructure Condition and Safety
Concerns (P153697)
GGSVP
Belarus
Mainstreaming ICT in Results Verification of
Water PforRs
GGSVP
Vietnam
Confronting Climate Uncertainty in Water
Planning and Project Design—The Decision
Tree Framework
GGSVP
Global
Multi Sectoral Action for Nutrition (MSAN)—
P158769
GGSVP
Pakistan
ICSID
Global
Colombia Green Growth and Sustainable
Development DPL
LCR
Colombia
Brazil: Rapid Agriculture Risk Management
Review (P155386)
LCR
Brazil
UY SCD
LCR
Uruguay
Country Disaster Risk Profiles (TF014499)
LCR
Global
Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Descendants
Engagement in LAC
LCR
Regional
Strengthening the Capacity of Procuradoria
LCR
Brazil
Nomination Title
32nd Joint Colloquium on International
Arbitration
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
•
23
Responsible VPU
Geographic Focus
(Country, Regional, Global)
Rural Water and Sanitation Information System
(SIASAR)
LCR
Regional
Caribbean Growth Forum preparation for
Phase II (P159034)
LCR
Regional
Road to Lima
LCR
Regional
Brazil: Skills and Jobs (P133162)
LCR
Brazil
LEGVP
Regional
Saudi Arabia Energy Efficiency Financing RAS
(P143872)
MNA
Saudi Arabia
Syria Damage and Needs Assessment (DNA)
MNA
Syria
India Partial Risk Sharing Facility (PRSF) for
Energy Efficiency
SAR
India
Study of Electricity Dispatch Efficiency
SAR
Bangladesh
India—Energy Efficient Urban Street Lighting
Knowledge Activity (P149482)
SAR
India
BAN Climate Resilient Participatory
Afforestation Reforestation Project
SAR
Bangladesh
Impact of Afghanistan REDP on Rural Women
SAR
Afghanistan
FATA Rural Livelihoods and Community
Infrastructure Project (P126833)
SAR
Pakistan
Creating Demand for Modernizing Public
Financial Management in India
SAR
India
Social and Economic Empowerment of Youth
through ICT Solutions
SAR
Pakistan
Development of National Platform for Risk
Assessment and CAT Risk (P132625)
SAR
Pakistan
Rebuilding Local Government in War-torn
Areas of Sri Lanka
SAR
Sri Lanka
Pakistan: FATA Urban Centers Project
SAR
Pakistan
Railway Engagement in India: EDFC 1-3
Program and RIDF Projects
SAR
India
Assessments and Design of Earthquake
Affected Bridges in Nepal
SAR
Nepal
KP, Federally Administered Tribal Areas(FATA)
and Balochistan MDTF (P120179)
SAR
Pakistan
Disaster Risk Management Intermediation
Platform
TREVP
Global
FX Hedging for Emerging Market Currency
TREVP
Global
Nomination Title
African Mining Legislation Atlas (AMLA)
Project (P155194/P150234)
24
•
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
Responsible VPU
Geographic Focus
(Country, Regional, Global)
Contingent Liabilities Risk Management in
Indonesia
TREVP
Indonesia
BlueTrack Modeling Lab: Risk Decomposition
TREVP
Global
Integrated Strategic Asset Allocation
TREVP
Global
Core Technical Advisory (CTA) Program
TREVP
Global
Nomination Title
2016 Innovation Awards: Program Highlights
•
25