More than 200 million people in the developing world were out of work this year. Over 1 billion are hungry, while millions more are confronting the threat that climate change poses. The United Nations estimates that 884 million people don't have safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion...

Bond markets play an essential part in economies. As part of a diversified financial system, a well-developed domestic bond market can help provide the long-term financing needed for sustainable growth. It can also produce broad-ranging benefits throughout the economy. In South Asia the...

The World Bank Group has a unique opportunity to match the increases in financing for agriculture with a sharper focus on improving agricultural growth and productivity in agriculture-based economies, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa. Greater effort will be needed to connect sectoral interventions...

Access to reliable cross-country data on private sector development is crucial when formulating responses to economic crises. The data sources presented in this book report on the scope and types of regulations that enhance and constrain business activity and provide information on business...

This publication aims to complement existing methodologies by establishing a comprehensive framework for the assessment of banks, not only by using financial data, but also by considering corporate governance. It argues that each of the key players in the corporate governance process (such as...

The publication of this fifth edition coincides with the convergence in accounting standards that has been a feature of the international landscape since the global financial crisis of 1998. The events of that year prompted several international organizations, including the World Bank and the...

This World Bank Annual Report highlights the focus of the Bank activities in addressing worldwide poverty, describing the Bank work in promoting sustainable, economic growth, and in channeling needed services to poor people. Also detailed is the Bank's work toward achieving the Millennium...

There are significant economic gains to be realized if the East Africa sub region improves the overall integration of its markets. But infrastructure development that links markets across countries faces particular challenges, political, institutional, and economic. In the case of East Africa,...

Revenue administration is a major point of contact between government and the people. Good revenue administration thus becomes an important feature of good governance. This fact has made policy makers increasingly mindful of the need to promote voluntary tax compliance by reducing the costs...

This book is specifically designed for bank supervisors, some of whom may be looking for ways to devise a program of anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) supervision. Others may have encountered difficulties in elements of their systems of supervision and are...