Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute to job creation in all types of economies, but they have a particularly critical role in fragile and conflict-affected states. In Haiti, for example, smaller companies represent the backbone of the economy, employing about 80 percent of the...

One way the International Finance Corporation (IFC) strengthens the overall business environment is by making excellent training programs available to small and medium businesses. Business Edge is a perfect example. Local partner firms use these interactive learning solutions to train and mentor...

Ensuring food security under changing climate conditions is one of the major challenges of our era. Agriculture must not only become increasingly productive, but must also adapt to climate change while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Soil carbon sequestration, the process by which atmospheric...

Climate change threatens to undermine decades of development achievements in China's Huang-Huai-Hai River Basin. Farmers in the 3H Basin have long been plagued by water scarcity and frequent droughts and floods. Development efforts have succeeded in relieving some of these pressures, but the...

The Ukraine Investment Climate (IC) project and the Sustainable Business Advisory (SBA) food safety project in Ukraine formed a partnership-one that has led to tangible results in the form of burdensome regulations being abolished and businesses receiving advice on safety standards that will...

Armenia did it through trade logistics reform - with help from International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) Armenia doing business reform and regulatory simplification project, launched in February 2009. The project team builds constructive relationships-including well-designed and consistent...

The Ukraine Food Safety Project found that the typical way of providing firm-level assistance conducting an in-depth diagnostic for companies in a pilot project, followed by an offer for assistance was scaring off some potential clients with the seeming complexity of the task and cost. But by...

Chile is one of the leading agricultural producers in Latin America and an important player in world agro-alimentary markets-a position it is determined to maintain. In 2008, the government (through the Ministry of Agriculture) requested technical assistance from the World Bank to define how...

Arab countries depend heavily on imported food, particularly wheat. Population growth, rising incomes, and climate change will only increase their dependency on wheat imports, thereby making Arab countries even more exposed to international market volatility. A recent World Bank study, 'the...

Rural development projects target food security and poverty alleviation. In Central Cameroon, a project providing extension of integrated farming technology to rural/subsistence farmers and to periurban/small-scale commercial farmers achieved increases in fish pond productivity, number of fish...