Access to well-secured, well-zoned and well-serviced land is a crucial condition for industrial and commercial investment. In many developing countries, where the land market remains underdeveloped and the land governance framework is weak, systemic policy and institutional reforms are needed to...

The continuing rapid growth and development of China's cities brings many complex challenges. Tasked with supporting strong economic development that provides jobs and a good quality of life for its growing number of residents, China's cities also must ensure sustainable development in line with...

This toolkit provides a novel approach and a set of tools that allow policymakers and analysts to identify non-tariff measures (NTMs), assess their trade restrictiveness and impact on prices and welfare, and to strengthen the institutional coordination mechanism, transparency, and regulatory...

Millions of migrants worldwide send billions of dollars in remittances each year to their families or communities of origin. In many developing countries, remittances are an important source of family and national income and also are the largest source of external financing. Remittances are...

Takaful, which means 'cooperative', is an insurance approach that is instrumental to providing insurance services to Muslims and others with religious objections to aspects of conventional commercial insurance models, specifically interest payments, uncertainty, or gambling kind of transactions.

Contents; Foreword; About the Editor and Authors; Abbreviations; Introduction and Overview; Chapter 1 Consensus, Institutions, and Supply Response: The Political Economy of Agricultural Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa; Tables; 1.1 Production before and after the Reforms; 1.2 Changes in the Producers'...

Trusting Trade and the Private Sector for Food Security in Southeast Asia challenges policymakers who oversee the rice sector in Southeast Asia and reexamines deep-rooted preceptsabout their responsibilities. The authors argue that fixating on national self-sufficiency hasbeen costly and...

Vietnam is at a crossroads. It can grow as an export platform for GVCs, specializing in low value-added assembly functions with industrialization occurring in enclaves with little connection to the broader economy or society; or it can leverage the current wave of growth, enabled and accelerated...

Moving toward universal access to financial services is within reach, thanks to new technologies, transformative business models, and ambitious reforms. Instruments such as e-money accounts and mobile accounts, along with debit cards and low-cost traditional bank accounts, can significantly...

"The Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP) Survey is an initiative of the World Bank in cooperation with other development partners and nongovernmental agencies and carried out in more than 14 countries globally. In Ghana, the first phase of the survey focusing on adults in urban...