Turning Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Management into Implementation : Adventures in Business Registration Reform Practice

Some developing countries have successfully reformed their business start-up systems, but the majority significantly lags behind. And starting a business is one of the Doing Business (DB) indicators recognized as a major constraint to businesses in developing countries. For over five years, the World Bank Group (WBG) has been on a mission to support the poorest performers in starting a business. Although the WBG is one of several development institutions providing this form of technical assistance to countries around the world, our approach is novel: we use the services of government official's reformers from best practice countries to work with their peers in developing countries. This approach helps us transfer firsthand reform experience between peers. This smart lesson describes how the Business Entry (BE) team discovered another powerful partner governmental agencies and regulators from best-practice countries, and their international associations and engaged with them to make giant strides in introducing business registration reforms and creating an unprecedented peer-to-peer (P2P) learning experience.