The conference brought together 44 African ministers of finance and of education from 28 African countries for a structured dialogue on sustaining Africa's economic and educational progress in the current context of a global economic slowdown. African countries have achieved laudable progress...

The main purpose of this report is to assist the Democratic Republic of Cong (DRC) to identify the priorities for education policy and present options in order to assist the government in developing an education strategy. This is necessary for preparing the government's Poverty Reduction...

Ninth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulations in 183 economies, Doing Business 2012 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity: • starting a business • dealing with construction permits • employing workers • registering property • getting...

The Little Data Book (LDB) 2007 is a pocket edition of World Development Indicators (WDI) 2007. It is intended as a quick reference for users of the WDI 2007 book and CD-ROM and WDI online, electronic subscription database. Together, they cover more than 800 indicators and span 40 years. The 208...

New forces are at work in the agricultural sector: the growth of markets and private entrepreneurship, the changing global demand for food and other agricultural products, the rise of multinationals, and the expansion of integrated food chains. To realize the potential benefits, the public...

The global financial crisis is no longer the major force dictating the pace of economic activity in developing countries. The majorities of developing countries has, or are close to having regained full-capacity activity levels. As a result, country-specific productivity and sartorial factors...

The main objective of this regional paper is to provide an in-depth diagnostic of where Central American countries stand along several education dimensions, underscoring the most urgent and serious challenges and suggesting policy options to address them. The report focuses on El Salvador,...

World Development Indicators (WDI) 2009 arrives at a moment of great uncertainty for the global economy. The crisis that began more than a year ago in the U.S. housing market spread to the global financial system and is now taking its toll on real output and incomes. As a consequence, an...

This evaluation reviews the World Bank Group's (WBG's) experience with guarantee instruments during 1990-2007. Although these instruments have been an established product line of the WBG for two decades, they have not been rigorously evaluated across the World Bank, International Finance...

The little data book 2009 is a pocket edition of World Development Indicators (WDI) 2009. It is intended as a quick reference for users of the WDI 2009 book and CD-ROM and WDI online, and electronic subscription database. Together, they cover more than 800 indicators and span more than 40 years....