Croatia, the newest member-state of the
European Union (EU), undertook significant justice reforms
during the last decade. Many were part of its
justice-related EU accession process, including the
enactment and implementation of new laws and amendment of
others, improved case management and enforcement and
computerization of land registers. Benchmarking
Croatia's justice sector indicates that it compares

Despite the remarkable progress achieved
since the end of the conflict, Burundi still faces
significant development challenges. Since 2005, the
Government of Burundi has embarked on a potentially
transformative process of decentralization, with the aim of
strengthening social cohesion, improving local governance,
and promoting access to basic infrastructure and service
delivery. The weakness of the communal tax system, coupled

World Bank carried out an enterprise
survey in Myanmar for the first time. Enterprise survey is
the world's most comprehensive company level data in
emerging markets and developing economies. The enterprise
survey is standardized, so it allows comparisons: (i) across
countries, and (ii) across time - when the survey is
repeated. Therefore, early findings are also a baseline for
measuring future changes. Through analogous enterprise

This study is highly selective
and organized into four thematic chapters.
Specifically, chapter 1 provides a snapshot of
Burundi’s political and macroeconomic context,
and reviews the evolution of the decentralization
process to better understand how institutional,
political, and bureaucratic dynamics have shaped
the historical trajectory of decentralization
and generated the outcomes observed today.
Chapter 2 provides a systematic investigation of the status of fiscal decentralization in Burundi,

The development community is
increasingly accepting the importance of evidence, feedback,
and learning. Some of which is generated through research,
monitoring, and self-evaluation during policy-making,
program design, and implementation. Others come from
feedback from people directly affected by interventions who
have gained a greater voice, be it through third-party
feedback mechanisms, social media, beneficiary surveys, or

Panama's economic growth has been at the
top of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region in
recent years. The country s rapid growth has been largely
pro-poor and translated into significant poverty reduction.
The new Administration is well placed to tackle these
challenges, with its commitment to maintaining an open and
diversified economy and redressing social imbalances.
Looking ahead, the country s main challenges are to maintain

The paper investigates determinants of
civic participation in local budget processes in rural areas
in the Kyrgyz Republic by using data from the Life in
Kyrgyzstan survey, conducted in 2012. The analysis of the
data suggests that although civic awareness and interest in
local budget processes is relatively high, the participation
rate in local budgeting processes is low. The paper also
shows that interest, awareness, and participation are

After decades of turmoil and
instability, a period of calm and progress evolved in
Guinea-Bissau in 2009. A military coup in April 2012
interrupted it. A fresh start is needed to alter the
dynamics that kept Guinea-Bissau poor. In 2013, Gross
National Income per capita was US$590. Average economic
growth barely kept pace with population growth. In 2010,
poverty at the national poverty line of US$2 a day was 70

Millions of coffee farmers and coffee
trading enterprises lack sufficient credit. This is partly
due to myriad challenges and considerable costs that formal
lending institutions face serving rural, often isolated
markets. A better understanding of coffee sector risks is
needed to respond with strategies, training, and tools that
can help farmers and enterprises, mitigate their exposure to
risk, and strengthen their resilience against inevitable

The inability to unlock natural resource
wealth for the benefit of developing countries’ local
populations, a phenomenon popularly known as the ‘resource
curse’ or the ‘paradox of plenty’, has spawned extensive
debate among researchers and policy makers in recent years.
There is now a well-established body of literature exploring
the links between natural resources and conflict, with some
sources estimating that over the past 60 years, 40 percent

The Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
will succeed the Myanmar interim strategy note (FY13-14) and
be the first full country strategy for Myanmar since 1984.
This CPF comes at a time of great opportunity for Myanmar;
over the three year period covered in this CPF, the reforms
initiated in 2011 have the potential to bring Myanmar into a
new era of peace and prosperity. Myanmar s history, ethnic
diversity, and geography combine into a unique set of

This report summarizes the key themes
and findings from three in-depth case studies of EET
programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique. Each case study
produced rich information on the programs context, the
landscape of programs in each country, and the qualitative
insights from local EET stakeholders. This report
synthesizes information from across the case studies to
analyze the extent to which these countries programs are