A decline in organized public transport
systems has led to rapid growth in non-conventional means of
public transport, initially provided by minibuses and shared
taxi/vans, and more recently by commercial motorcycles.
Unlike cities in South and East Asia, ownership and use of
motorized two-wheelers as a personalized vehicle is very
small in sub-Saharan cities. However, over the past decade
there has been a significant growth in the use of

The first volume of Independent
Evaluation Group (IEG) series (IEG 2009) examined World Bank
experience with the promotion of the most important win-win
(no regrets) energy policies, policies that combine domestic
gains with global greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. These
included energy pricing reform and policies to promote
energy efficiency. This second phase covers the entire World
Bank Group (WBG), including the International Finance

This paper provides an overview of the
history of development research at the World Bank and points
to new future directions in both what we research and how we
research. Six main messages emerge. First, research and data
have long been essential elements of the Bank's country
programs and its contributions to global public goods, and
this will remain the case. Second, development thinking is
in a state of flux and uncertainty; it is time to reconsider

Carbon finance projects are often
intended to be both a payment for an environmental service
(PES) and an instrument to facilitate sustainable
development in developing countries. To enhance livelihood
objectives, these projects should benefit rural land users,
provided they are willing and able to participate. This
holds particularly true for forest carbon initiatives.
However, high transaction costs and large uncertainties

Regional disparities present an ever
present development challenge in most countries, especially
those with large geographic areas under their jurisdiction.
A neglect of these inequities may create the potential for
disunity and, in extreme cases, for disintegration. In view
of this, most countries actively pursue policies with a view
to helping lagging regions catch up with faster growing
regions. These policies have at best a mixed record of

The objective of the Bhutan Investment
Climate Assessment (ICA) is to evaluate the investment
climate in Bhutan in all its operational dimensions and
promote policies to strengthen the private sector. This ICA
consists of two volumes. Volume 1 summarizes the main
results. Volume 2 presents a more detailed analysis of each
of the three main themes of the report: labor productivity
and skills, access to finance, and business government

The authors use recent data from the
2006 National Family Health Survey of India to explore the
relationship between religion and demographic behavior. They
find that fertility and mortality vary not only between
religious groups, but also across caste groups. These groups
also differ with respect to socio-economic status. The
central finding of this paper is that despite their
socio-economic disadvantages, Muslims have higher fertility

Doing Business 2011: making a difference
for entrepreneurs is the eighth in a series of annual
reports investigating regulations that enhance business
activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business
presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and
the protection of property rights that can be compared
across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over
time. A set of regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of

This report is on the findings of a major international research project examining the links between trade, gender, and poverty. Trade liberalization can create economic opportunities, but women and men cannot take advantage of these opportunities on an equal basis. Women and men differ in their endowments, control over resources, access to labor markets, and their roles within the household.

This paper applies a growth diagnostics
approach to identify the most binding constraints to
private-sector growth in Malawi - a small, landlocked
country in Southern Africa with one of the lowest per capita
incomes in the world. The approach aims to identify the
constraints (in terms of public policy, implementation, and
investments) most binding on marginal investment, and
therefore whose relaxation would have the largest impact on

This report summarizes the findings of
the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa
(CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the
feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and
growth in African agriculture through the identification of
products and production systems that can underpin rapid
development of a competitive commercial agriculture. The
CCAA study focused on the agricultural potential of

The worldwide concern with deforestation
of Brazilian Amazonia is motivated not only by the
irreversible loss of this natural wealth, but also by the
perception that it is a destructive process in which the
social and economic gains are smaller than the environmental
losses. This perception also underlies the diagnosis,
formulation and evaluation of public policies proposed by
government and non-governmental organizations working in the