This overview summarizes the key findings of the eight chapters and one policy note. It is organized as follows. The first section provides a background of Guangdong, while the second describes the current situation of inequality in the province. Next is a discussion of the potential impacts of...

This report contributes to the effort to improve Middle East and North Africa's (MENA's) growth and employment performance by providing a diagnostic of MENA's financial systems and proposing a roadmap for more diversified, competitive, and inclusive financial systems. The report recognizes the...

The objective of this report is to provide some policy guidelines for the fight against poverty. In particular, it hopes to be able to identify the growing sectors, as well as the constraints faced by the poor in benefiting from this growth. The report is part of a series of studies conducted...

Technological innovation drives economic progress. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can be leveraged for development, but harnessing this potential depends on an enabling environment for their production, diffusion, and use. Otherwise, technology can widen rather than narrow...

Some see trade in services as irrelevant to the development agenda for least developed countries (LDCs). Others see few benefits from past market openings by LDCs. This book debunks both views. It finds that serious imperfections in Zambia's reform of services trade deprived the country of...

This report analyzes the Bank's assistance to support pension reform to determine if the Bank's strategy was relevant and if it was followed. The evaluation assesses whether pension reform decisions reflected best practice guidelines at entry, and whether Bank-assisted reforms achieved their...

This evaluation provides an independent assessment of lines of credit financed by the World Bank during the period FY93-FY03. It is the first of a two-part evaluation looking at Bank support to the financial sector. The second part focuses on Bank support for financial sector reform. This volume...

This book contributes to the empirical and theoretical analysis of the performance of cities in a globalizing world, bringing together a range of perspectives on the policy implications for urban management. It provides guidance for policymakers on ways of capitalizing on the global economy that...

Interest in farmland is rising. And, given commodity price volatility, growing human and environmental pressures, and worries about food security, this interest will increase, especially in the developing world. One of the highest development priorities in the world must be to improve...

This World Bank annual report focuses on the work of the World Bank Group as it relates to countries and people striving to overcome poverty in all regions, especially in Africa. The World Bank Group is working with partners on more than 620 projects: to give both boys and girls a chance to...