Increasing access to basic infrastructure, and social services is critical to reducing poverty, and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, increasing access is a challenge because of the gap between what it costs to deliver a desired level of service, and what can be funded...

Mozambique's first privately operated concession to generate, distribute, and sell electricity is now up and running in a rural area of Inhambane Province isolated from the country's main transmission grid. The contract was won through competitive bidding by a Mozambican and South African...

A landlocked country in South Asia, Nepal has a population of around 24 million, with about 88 percent living in rural areas, and a GDP per capita of about $240. The government, headed by a prime minister, functions as a multiparty parliamentary democracy within the framework of a constitutional...

After decades of war and social disruption in Cambodia, publicly run water, and sanitation services are scarce, and limited mainly to urban areas. While private providers offer relatively good service, their high one-time connection charges put that service out of reach for all, but the more...

Output-based payments are an important tool of government policy. Sometimes governments offer "output-based aid" to subsidize services sold to households. Because output-based payments are tied to the delivery of outputs, they have an obvious advantage over input-based payments. In agreeing to...