This paper provides the results of an
international survey of practitioners with experience in
facilitating the participation of African smallholder
farmers in supply chains for higher-value and/or
differentiated agricultural products. It explores their
perceptions about the constraints inhibiting and the impacts
associated with this supply chain participation. It also
examines their perceptions about the factors affecting the

The study on the sources of rural growth
in Burundi results from a meticulous work carried out by
eminent experts of the World Bank in response to a request
of the Government of Burundi. It describes the global
environment, which explains poverty aggravation and builds
proposals to overcome most binding constraints to growth in
Burundi. This study is an important contribution in the
fight against poverty, as it identifies ways to resume

This paper develops and tests a proposed
methodology that puts forward a new integrated method for
evaluating the performance of development finance
institutions. This methodology applies assessment criteria
that take into account both the social objective that the
development finance institution addresses and the subsidies
it received in order to achieve such an objective. This
methodology is applied to two pilot case studies-Banadesa

The Government of China has placed
strong emphasis on addressing problems related to
agriculture, farmers, and rural society, with the
development of a "new socialist countryside"
designated as a top priority for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan
(2006-2010). The financing of public services in rural
areas will be a key determinant of the Plan's success.
This report analyzes the performance of the

This report was prepared in close
collaboration with the Bank of Albania. This report focused
on trade, services, and agriculture; however, the limited
scope of their operations still leaves a potentially large
unmet demand for credit in agriculture. This report focuses
on problems related to the operation of Immovable Property
Registry System (IPRS) and other institutions and the
formalization of property rights and inscription of

This evaluation examines the track
record of the regional development programs that the World
Bank has supported over the past 10 years. While these are
relatively few in number, together they offer valuable
lessons for how such programs can be designed and
implemented to deliver good outcomes. This evaluation, which
assesses World Bank support for regional development
programs over fiscal years 1995-2005, finds that a majority

This report is about how women
entrepreneurs can contribute more to the quality and
direction of economic and social development in the Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) region. Economic growth in the
Middle East has been remarkable since 2004, mainly because
of higher oil prices. Rapid job growth has followed, driven
mainly by the private sector. Yet the region still faces two
important challenges: the first is to create better jobs for

This paper provides microlevel evidence of how past institutions impact present economic outcomes. It looks at the impact of colonial land tenure institutions on local governance and education outcomes in northern India. Outcomes are worse in villages that belong to areas with a history of concentration of power with the elites. Such areas continue to retain a greater political presence of socially and economically dominant classes. Future research should examine the success of policies that attempt to break such persistence through empowerment of nonelite groups.

Despite strong beliefs that property
titling and registration will enhance credit access,
empirical evidence in support of such effects remains scant.
The gradual roll-out of computerization of land registry
systems across Andhra Pradesh's 387 sub-registry
offices allows us to combine quarterly administrative data
on credit disbursed by all commercial banks for an
eleven-year period (1997-2007) aggregated to the

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

Executive Directors continued to play an
important role as the World Bank faced many challenges in a
global post crisis economy. The Board considered a number of
key documents in preparation for the committee on
development effectiveness meetings. These included the World
Development Report 2011, which focuses on conflict,
security, and development, and responding to global food
price volatility and its impact on food security, which

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