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

Pakistan's rebound from the global
financial crisis has been slow and fragile, and unless it
changes course swiftly, it could face the prospects of a
second balance of payments crisis in less than five years.
Its recovery from the 2008-09 global financial crisis has
been the weakest in South Asia, featuring a unique
double-dip growth pattern. With high fertility, Pakistan
will double the size of its already young population by

Pakistan's rebound from the global
financial crisis has been slow and fragile, and unless the
economy changes course swiftly, it could face its second
balance of payments crisis in five years. Its recovery from
the 2008-09 global financial crisis has been the weakest in
South Asia, with a double dip pattern. This report
identifies conditions for a sustainable job-enhancing growth
agenda for Pakistan. Policy must target both goals as they

Kazakhstan aspires to become one of the
world s 30 most developed economies by 2050. The focus is on
laying the basis for the accelerated diversification of the
economy through industrialization and infrastructure
development, including enhancing human capital to drive
innovation and economic efficiency. This country economic
memorandum report adopts an analytical framework that looks
into options that will be explored to help authorities think

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 report addresses the insolvency of
natural persons following this structure: a first part
introduces the objectives and nature of the report, deals
with general issues, and describes the foundations of a
system for the treatment of the insolvency of natural
persons. The second part of the report analyzes the core
legal attributes of system for the treatment of the
insolvency of natural persons: within this system, the most

This paper revisits the identification
of the binding constraints to investment and growth in
Pakistan by rigorously applying the growth diagnostic
framework. It has a central finding: Pakistan's
economy faces two major groups of constraints emerging and
structural. The emerging constraints include infrastructure
(energy) deficit, high macro-fiscal risks, and inadequate
international financing (high country risks and low FDI

This Investment Climate Assessment (ICA)
seeks to evaluate the conditions under which the Palestinian
private sector currently operates in the West Bank
(including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza strip. This
assessment is both an update and expansion on a similar
assessment undertaken by the World Bank in 2006. As such, it
provides both a snapshot of the investment climate in 2013,
as well as a longitudinal view of what has changed in the

The global extreme poverty rate has
fallen by half since 1990, but progress within the
developing world has been uneven. Extreme poverty remains
widespread in most low-income countries while many
middle-income countries also continue to have substantial
levels with many people there who have escaped extreme
poverty remaining poor and vulnerable. Nor has there been
robust progress in sharing prosperity: in many developing

Using a newly compiled database of
women's property rights and legal capacity covering 100
countries over 50 years, this paper analyzes the triggers
and barriers to reform. The database documents gender gaps
in the ability to access and own assets, to sign legal
documents in one's own name, and to have equality or
non-discrimination as a guiding principle of the
country's constitution. Progress in reducing these

Justice interventions in Solomon Islands
over the last decade have focused largely on assisting
Honiarabased state institutions in the form of a variety of
capacity-building programs. This has included a heavy
reliance on expatriate expertise positioned in central
justice agencies. The National Judiciary has benefited
significantly from this support, although to date the direct
effects of increased assistance have not been felt in most