Ask three people to describe a special economic zone (SEZ) and three very different images may emerge. The first person may describe a fenced-in industrial estate in a developing country, populated by footloose multinational corporations (MNCs) enjoying tax breaks, with laborers in garment...

Biodiversity is critical to maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and the ecological processes that support species and human well-being. The world is facing an unprecedented rate of species extinction: one in eight bird species, one in four mammals, and one in three amphibians are threatened....

Youth employment issues are a major concern for many countries because they have negative effects on the welfare of young people, and may also adversely affect economic performance and social stability. This is the first Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) evaluation of the World Bank Group's...

This book examines issues at the forefront of the debate on land law reform, pays particular attention to how reform options affect the poor and disadvantaged, and recommends strategies for alleviating poverty more effectively through land law reform. It reviews the role of the World Bank in...

The International Finance Corporation is at the forefront of private sector development: it is redefining how poverty can be reduced and lives improved through a stronger private sector in emerging markets. Accomplishing this goal means reaching people, regions, and sectors that have not yet...

The five countries of Central Asia expanded their trade significantly since beginning their transition with exports quadrupling to almost USD70 billion between 2003 and 2008 but without substantial diversification. These countries achieved this by promoting private investment, property rights,...

The goal of this book is to shed light on the extent to which Nigeria's much improved economic performance has impacted the labor market, and to develop a growth strategy that can enhance the employment intensity of growth. The report consists of six chapters. Chapter one provides an overview of...

Informality: exit and exclusion analyzes informality in Latin America, exploring root causes and reasons for and implications of its growth. The authors use two distinct but complementary lenses: informality driven by exclusion from state benefits or the circuits of the modern economy, and...

This evaluation, which covers the period fiscal 2002-08, finds that the Bank made progress in gender integration, compared with an earlier evaluation by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) on gender covering the period fiscal 1990-99. Gender integration into Bank support increased both in...