This report summarizes the results, lessons and recommendations to the Government of Lao PDR from two Technical Assistance projects (TA) "Supporting Demand Creation for Sanitation through Community Led Total Sanitation" and "Sanitation Marketing in Lao PDR" carried out by the World Bank's Water...

This note presents practical guidance on how to implement a framework for managing fiscal commitments from Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). It draws on specific regional operational experience and on World Bank Institute (WBI)'s wider thematic engagement with different partners worldwide. The...

The difficulty of pursuing a conventional market-oriented development strategy in the Palestinian territories led in the early part of the 2000s to a second-best reliance on public sector employment and wage bill expansion to boost aggregate demand. The main objective of this Programmatic Public...

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies display large variation in terms of income per capita. The richest APEC economies have an income per capita about twenty times higher than the poorest ones. So far most work on fiscal policy and climate change has been written with developed...

Belarus faces significant fiscal challenges, stemming from the structural features of its economic model. As of mid-2011, under a severe exchange rate and balance of payments crisis, the Government needs to pursue a carefully sequenced strategy of macroeconomic adjustment coupled with a strong...

Armenia's structural reforms since 1999 have led to a strong economic record, including low fiscal deficits and declining public debt over the pre-crisis decade. Between 2001 and 2008 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an average annual rate of 12 percent and poverty fell from over 50 percent...

Cameroon's growth achievement is disappointing and the country is not likely to meet most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on its current trajectory. Underemployment is extremely high, with risks of social unrest and instability. The fallout of the current global economic crisis is...

In 2012, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region continued its successful drive to reduce poverty and build the middle class. Poverty reduction was accompanied by strong income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population, the World Bank's indicator of shared prosperity. However,...