Fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS) have become an important focus of World Bank Group assistance in recent years as recognition of the linkages between fragility, conflict, violence, and poverty has grown. Addressing issues of recurring conflict and political violence and helping build legitimate and accountable state institutions are central to the Bank Group's poverty reduction mission. This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of World Bank Group country strategies and assistance programs to FCS.

Across the developing world, public
goods exert significant impacts on the local rural economy
in general and agricultural productivity and welfare
outcomes in particular. Economic and social-cultural
heterogeneity have, however, long been documented as
detrimental to collective capacity to provide public goods.
In particular, women are often under-represented in local
leadership and decision-making processes, as are young

This First Phase Report on Sierra Leone
growth poles is the result of a 9 months consultative
process led by the Office of the President which
specifically requested that the output of this diagnostic be
in an engaging format. The fundamental concept of growth
poles is that they exploit agglomeration economies and
spillover effects to spread resulting prosperity from the
core of the pole to the periphery. At the basis of this

Within the next two decades Indonesia
aspires to generate prosperity, avoid a middle-income trap,
and leave no one behind as it tries to catch up with
high-income economies. Can Indonesia achieve them? This
report argues that the country has the potential to rise and
become more prosperous and equitable. But the risk of
floating in the middle is real. Which pathway the economy
will take depends on: (i) the adoption of a growth strategy

The cities that emerge from Indonesia s
rapid urbanization will be key determinants of the country s
overall economic development and competitiveness, as well as
their inclusiveness and environmental sustainability.
However, without strategically planned investments, policy
interventions, and institutional capacity, mismanaged
urbanization could become an obstacle to sustainable growth.
The city planning labs core module will be initially

Donors could assist in clarifying the
role, building the capacity, and potentially helping to
secure funding of key disaster risk management organizations
in Ghana. Engagement in Ghana to develop private sector
property catastrophe risk and agriculture insurance should
be seen as a medium term engagement. Banking penetration is
low, as is insurance and micro-insurance penetration, even
when compared to regional countries. That said, Ghana has

This paper sheds light on how to harvest
the "youth dividend" in Sub-Saharan Africa by
creating jobs in agriculture. The agriculture that attracts
the youth will have to be profitable, competitive, and
dynamic. These are the same characteristics needed for
agriculture to deliver growth, to improve food security, and
to preserve a fragile natural environment. With higher
priority accorded to implementation of well-designed public

Bureaucratic reform is a priority of
donor organizations, including the World Bank, but is
notoriously difficult to implement. In many countries,
politicians have little interest in the basic financial and
personnel management systems that are essential to political
oversight of bureaucratic performance. To explain this, this
paper presents a new perspective on the political economy of
bureaucracy. Politicians in some countries belong to parties

This paper contributes to the
long-standing debate on the merits of decentralized
beneficiary targeting in the administration of development
programs, focusing on the large-scale Malawi Farm Input
Subsidy Program. Nationally-representative household survey
data are used to systematically analyze the decentralized
targeting performance of the program during the 2009-2010
agricultural season. The analysis begins with a standard

This review analyzes the profile, trends
and challenges of Georgia's changing urban landscape
since independence in 1991 and provides policy suggestions
to facilitate the economic transition of the country through
its cities. In its analysis and subsequent recommendations
on policy interventions, this report draws on a program of
diagnostics called the 'Urbanization Review' (UR).
The UR diagnostic is based on three main pillars of urban

The Guinean government assigns a
crucial role to agriculture in accelerating growth, reducing
poverty, and creating jobs. This role is inscribed in
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) 3, which was
approved by the government in May 2013, following PRSP 2
(2007-2010) and PRSP 1 (2002-2006). As part of the revival
of its agricultural development strategy, the government
through the Ministry of Agriculture expressed its desire for

The forestry sector in Moldova faces
significant governance and sustainability challenges. The
insufficient level of forest coverage in Moldova has a
serious impact on environment and overall economic growth in
the country. The situation is exacerbated by the reportedly
intense pressure on forest resources exerted by the human
factor. Illegal logging and grazing are considered as
significant factors that contribute to forest loss. There is