Developing countries have an enormous stake in the new round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, taking place now, and scheduled to be completed by January 1, 2005. Their full participation in the global trading system could lift and additional 300 million people our of poverty by...

The authors explore the ecological worldviews of eleven major world religions, and consider how these can help shape effective environmental policy. At the heart of this book is a discussion of how religions can work with environment- and development-focused organizations, both to provide...

Many countries around the world are moving toward universal health coverage, while navigating through periods of economic crisis. The impact of the economic downturn of 2008-09 on the health care sector has renewed efforts to make health systems more resilient during and after economic...

Overwhelming evidence indicates that climate change, caused in large part by human activities, is already adversely impacting all people, with the very real prospect of worse to come. Nevertheless, a global treaty to curb carbon emissions remains elusive. In East Asia, all middle-income...

The report starts with an overview and introduces the main findings. It addresses major constraints, instruments, and outcomes important to unleash the potential of infrastructure investments and policy fine-tuning. Chapter one discusses the infrastructure and growth nexus, given the country's...

The requirement that public officials declare their income and assets can help deter the use of public office for private gain. Income and asset disclosure (IAD) systems can provide a means to detect and manage potential conflicts of interest, and can assist in the prevention, detection, and...

Fiscal policy is an important instrument for maintaining and improving living standards. Such living standards can be viewed as an outcome of the interaction between the opportunities offered by society and the readiness and ability of each person to exploit them. Under certain circumstances,...

The Democratic Republic of Congo has the third largest urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa (estimated at 43% in 2016) after South Africa and Nigeria. It is expected to grow at a rate of 4.1% per year, which corresponds to an additional 1 million residents moving to cities every year. If this...