Project implementation at the country level relies not only on technical expertise and the soundness of a project, but on several external factors such as trust among the participating actors, political will, the absorptive capacity of a client government to actualize reform, and capacity within...

The project, a joint initiative of the investment climate department and International Finance Corporation (IFC) advisory services in the Middle East and North Africa, was launched in response to the Yemeni government's request for assistance with tax reform, a central part of its broad reform...

People in rural areas of Benin have a greatly increased access to safe drinking water, thanks to government vision, donor support, and the investment and advisory assistance of the World Bank. In 2000, the government of Benin began preparing the ministries of key sectors for a shift from a...

Electric Cooperatives (ECs) in the Philippines are generally undercapitalized, and their operational performance is poor. As a result, the supply of electricity in rural areas is unstable, with frequent outages and fluctuating voltages. International Finance Corporation (IFC) Philippines...

Paul Collier estimates that 73 percent of the poorest billion people in the world live in countries affected by conflict. In this book 'The Bottom Billion,' conflict is the first of the 'traps' responsible for keeping the populations of some countries in poverty. The author argues that low or...

In 2000 the UK government, through the Department for International Development (DFID), reached the conclusion that it made sense to use aid financing to help mitigate risks that constrained private-sector investment in badly needed infrastructure development, improvement, and expansion in...

The Bangladesh foundry industry is a crucial element of the country's light engineering sector, but it suffers from reliance on outdated technologies, inefficient production processes, and an inability to diversify products. This smart lesson describes the challenges and lessons learned from...

Most of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries has training institutions that offer corporate governance courses and programs for directors (e.g., the Institute of Directors in the United Kingdom, and the National Association of Corporate Directors in...

For many years, Lesotho has urgently needed to replace its main public hospital, Queen Elizabeth two. In 2006, to maximize the use of limited resources and ensure long-term improvement in facilities and services, the government adopted the public-private partnership (PPP) approach for a new...

International Finance Corporation (IFC) played a key role in helping the Republic of Albania structure and implements it first large public-private partnership (PPP) transaction in the energy sector, which brought a strong and reliable international investor into the country. Verbund, Austria's...