The January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti directly affected the infrastructure and personnel of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (Ministere de l'Agriculture des Ressources Naturelles et du Developpement Rural, or MARNDR). It weakened the ministry's...

Many people in the Europe and Central Asia Region are skeptical about the value of Technical Assistance (TA) provided under donor projects. Governments, for example, prefer investments in hard infrastructure as opposed to borrowing money for knowledge, since the results of knowledge are not...

Doing business is challenging in the Democratic Republic of Congo and presents opportunities for innovative approaches to banking, especially for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) - and particularly for women entrepreneurs. But it is getting easier, thanks to innovating banking. This...

Time banking has been used in the United States since the 1980s to leverage social assistance funding. Time banking engages a community in creating its own reform and progress by establishing a system of exchanging time and skills among community members. Time is exchanged on the basis of time...

An overburdened court system adds to the disadvantages of women in Pakistan. Women entrepreneurs who lack the time and resources to battle a dispute in the courts also run the risk of being victimized for highlighting their problems. Mediation provides a valuable alternative, allowing women and...

In 2010, Pakistan ranked 133 out of the 134 countries evaluated by the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report on economic participation and opportunity for women, lower than Saudi Arabia and ahead only of Yemen. This jarring gender gap is also evident in national data. Women account for...

Meghmani Organics Limited (MOL) is a chemical group located in the state of Gujarat in India. Its main products are specialty chemicals, including pigments, pesticides, and other intermediates. Prior to International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) investment, MOL had four manufacturing facilities...

Vietnam's economic emergence is perhaps best experienced along its rural roads: over 175,000 kilometers of pavement, rubble, and dirt track extend to two-thirds of the country's population, including nearly all of the poorest people, who live among its productive farms, lush forests, and...

In spite of its importance in development and poverty reduction, the water sector has had one of the largest gaps between what women do and the influence they actually have. In Kenya, women are still underrepresented in water governance structures at all levels, yet they are the most negatively...

Social networking and collaboration platforms don't work without people. The most advanced technology won't achieve results without a devoted user base that creates and shares content. The World Bank's social collaboration platform 'Scoop' prioritizes relationships with users as part of the user...