The 2013 Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5) advised that warming of the climate system is unequivocal and said that since the 1950s many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. Climate change is one of the greatest...

Globally more than 7 million deaths a year are attributed to tobacco use, approximately 10 percent of which are among nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke. Most of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and among a relatively young population. If current smoking...

Program-based approaches to providing development assistance, especially sector investment programs (SIPs), are receiving increased attention as donors and recipient countries search for effective instruments to foster sustainable development. A SIP is a long-term national program covering...

The World Bank has helped define expenditure reform in 83 countries from 1979 to 1994 through 219 operations. Refrom efforts, through conditions for loans and credits, have focused on reducing and restructuring capital expenditures, reducing subsidies, reforming public employment, cutting the...

A successful demobilization and reintegration program (DRP) for ex-combatants is the key to an effective transition from war to peace. The success of this first step following the signing of a peace accord signals the end to organized conflict and thereby provides the security necessary for...

This study reviews the African Region of the World Bank's current thinking on cost sharing and the poor as apllied in Sub-Saharan Africa. It inventories country experiences and Bank activities in cost sharing for education and health, reviews African experiences with the implementation of cost...

Private participation in infrastructure has taken two distinct forms in the developing world. The first model, applied primarily in Latin America, focuses on privatization of existing infrastructure assets. The second, applied largely in East Asia, focuses on retaining existing assets in the...

Georgia has made impressive economic progress over the past two decades, achieving strong and resilient economic growth and development despite numerous external and domestic shocks. This Fiscal Incidence Analysis (FIA) report serves as a baseline for evaluating current fiscal policy and...

This guidance note helps World Bank teams answer 6 key questions to help prepare a country's blue public expenditure review (PER), a valuable tool for countries on their journey to a sustainable blue economy: (1) what is the scope of the review, (2) how much does the government spend and on...

Nepal has made significant progress across many human capital dimensions in the past twenty years, though shocks remain a threat to achievements. The current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has adversely affected the economy and the delivery of essential services, which can have significant...