In order to have both dynamic and better
balanced growth, Serbia needs to rely more on exports. In
the last decade, Serbia's growth has depended primarily
on demand that was fueled by excessive debt finance. In the
future, the Serbian economy would be better served by
increasing its reliance on exports as a new, potentially
powerful source of growth. Serbia's export share of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently 25 percent, but

Many key development outcomes depend on
women's ability to negotiate favorable intrahousehold
allocations of resources. Yet it has been difficult to
clearly identify which policies can increase women's
bargaining power and result in better outcomes. This paper
reviews both the analytical frameworks and the empirical
evidence on the importance of women's bargaining power.
It argues that there is sufficient evidence from rigorous

This is a Regional Program Review (RPR)
of the World Bank's support for the MBC. The review is
framed around an assessment of five Global Environment
Facility (GEF)-financed World Bank implemented projects in
Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama that had
the common objective of consolidating the Mesoamerican
Biological Corridor (MBC). It also reports on the
achievements of trust fund activities, financed by the Bank

Many countries in Africa suffer high
rates of underemployment or low rates of productive
employment; many also anticipate large numbers of people to
enter the workforce in the near future. This paper asks the
question: Are African firms creating fewer jobs than those
located elsewhere? And, if so, why? One reason may be that
weak business environments slow the growth of firms and
distort the allocation of resources away from

This paper reviews the challenges and
opportunities raised by international trade for developing
countries considering a green growth strategy. A key concern
is the effect of environmental policies on international
competitiveness. For production-generated pollution, there
is evidence that stringent environmental policy reduces some
indicators of competitiveness, but the effect is small in
most sectors. However, tightening up environmental standards

This report looks beyond the current
global financial crisis to the restoration of dynamic
long-run growth in Serbia. The answer in this report is that
Serbia will need to fundamentally alter its growth model to
compete effectively in world markets. The past model relying
on excessive inflows of capital and credit that, in part,
fuelled a consumption boom has run its course in all
European countries. Serbia must shift to a greater export

This note on making livelihoods and
social protection approaches gender- sensitive is the
seventh in a series of guidance notes on gender issues in
disaster risk management (DRM) in the East Asia and the
Pacific region. Targeting World Bank staff, clients and
development partners, this note gives an overview of the
main reasons for including gender sensitive social
protection and livelihoods approaches in DRM; it identifies

In Bangladesh, growth needs to
accelerate to absorb the burgeoning labor force and continue
making dents in poverty. Such acceleration will require
sustained growth in exports and remittances. It will also
need an increase in investment both public and private.
However, growth acceleration alone will not be enough to
absorb the labor force. This will need an improvement in
employment intensity of growth, and a further improvement in

Many experts believe that low-cost
mitigation opportunities in agriculture are abundant and
comparable in scale to those found in the energy sector.
They are mostly located in developing countries and have to
do with how land is used. By investing in projects under the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), countries can tap these
opportunities to meet their own Kyoto Protocol obligations.
The CDM has been successful in financing some types of

Despite decades of war and instability,
Iraq's abundant natural resources, strategic geographic
location and cultural history endow it with tremendous
potential for growth and diverse economic development.
Driven by windfall oil revenues in recent years the
Government of Iraq (GoI) has invested heavily in rebuilding
infrastructure with abundant oil reserves ensuring steady
progress. However, decades of socialist policies have

This study responds to the need for
information and analysis on the urban sector in Sudan, to
inform the Bank's policy dialogue with the Government
of Sudan (GoS) on urban and local government issues, and to
inform the design of future Bank assistance. The first phase
of this analytical exercise, which is the focus of this
report, develops an overview of the urban landscape. The
report is structured as follows: section two describes the

Greenhouse gas emissions are largely determined by how energy is created and used, and policies designed to encourage mitigation efforts reflect this reality. However, an unintended consequence of an energy-focused strategy is that the set of policy instruments needed to tap mitigation opportunities in agriculture is incomplete. In particular, market-linked incentives to achieve mitigation targets are disconnected from efforts to better manage carbon sequestered in agricultural land.