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

Political risk has once again become a
key concern of investors after the perceived openness and
liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) regimes in
the 1990s. Governments that do not recognize this trend pay
a high price in lost investments. Confronting political and
regulatory risks as part of the investment climate is thus
crucial for countries to make their business environments
more competitive. This note suggests reforms that can have

The Egyptian revolution has brought to
the forefront the need to focus on job opportunities;
transparency and accountability; a fair and competitive
environment; as well as equal access to finance, land, and
housing-especially for underserved segments of society.
Although the government of Egypt embarked on a macroeconomic
and structural reform program in 2004, economic and social
progress could not keep pace with the aspirations of many

This study examines the major
constraints of rural business entry and performance in
Yemen. The Yemen rural investment climate survey made it
possible to analyze rural investment climate constraints for
rural businesses. The survey was used to investigate both
farm and nonfarm rural enterprises. The rural investment
climate was assessed using a combination of subjective
impressions related by rural entrepreneurs, and a more

This paper studies the impact of a large
debt relief program, intended to attenuate investment
constraints among highly-indebted households in rural India.
It isolates the causal effect of bankruptcy-like debt relief
settlements using a natural experiment arising from
India's Debt Relief Program for Small and Marginal
Farmers -- one of the largest debt relief initiatives in
history. The analysis shows that debt relief has a

Despite several attempts at reform,
immovable property rights in Albania are not adequately
secure and represent an important governance challenge.
Problems have resulted from incomplete first title
registration, the lack of accurate cadastral records, and,
in many cases, the absence of reliable evidence of
ownership. Although Albania has adopted legislation calling
for restitution or compensation for owners whose property

Theft of public assets from developing
countries is an immense problem with a staggering
development impact. These thefts diverts valuable public
resources from addressing the abject poverty and fragile
infrastructure often present in such countries. Although the
exact magnitude of the proceeds of corruption circulating in
the global economy is impossible to ascertain, estimates
demonstrate the severity and scale of the problem at $20 to

The Country Opinion Survey for FY2013 in Botswana assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Botswana perceive the WBG.

The response to the global reporting
initiative (GRI) indicators provides a brief introduction to
the World Bank’s (WB’s) complex suite of activities. The WB
consists of the International Bank of Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD) and the International Development
Association (IDA). Materiality is determined through an
assessment carried out based on GRI guidance. The assessment
evaluates the risks to the organization, the importance to

Preparation of the $1.45 billion Nam
Theun 2 (NT2) project in the Lao People's Democratic
Republic (Lao PDR) represented an important milestone for
the government, the developers, international partners, and
other stakeholders. The story of its preparation and
implementation is an important one, because it provides
valuable insights and lessons that can be applied in future
projects of similar size, scope, and complexity. Projects

This brief includes the following
headings: increasing access to land by the rural poor in
India; and KCP projects on service delivery for the poor.

This overview paper positions the
question of benefit sharing in the context of REDD plus. It
shares findings from a cursory review of a sample of
Readiness Preparation Proposals (RPP) for REDD plus
submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).
It deconstructs the concept of benefit sharing. It also
provides a summary of the main findings from three recent
studies on benefit sharing that were financed by the Program