This report focuses on areas with highest potential efficiency gains to increase the value for money from investments in core public goods and services such as extension, irrigation and rural roads. This is a first attempt to carry out such an analysis in Cambodia, and even in the Greater Mekong sub-region. Based on extensive data gathering and surveys, this chapter analyzes the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural sector expenditures in Cambodia and assesses various options for increasing the impact of government expenditures on agricultural growth.

By 2013, the Armenian economy has left behind most of the hangover from the global financial crisis and a look at medium-to long-term growth drivers is therefore in order. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth reached 7.2 percent in 2012, and the current account deficit narrowed, although it remained high. Macroeconomic buffers have been rebuilt to some extent, although the public debt-to-GDP ratio, at 44 percent, remains too high to relax fiscal restraints.

Ethiopia has many advantages as a destination for mining investment. These include promising geology, a well-designed fiscal regime, stable government and a growing domestic market. Additionally, it has a well-managed and successful artisanal and small scale mining sector. Under the second phase of Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan, Ethiopia has the ambitious target for the mining sector to contribute 10% of GDP by 2025. Ethiopia must overcome significant challenges to achieve this target.

One of the most compelling reasons for pursuing low-carbon development is that the potential impacts of climate change are predicted to be severe, for both industrial and developing countries, and that reducing greenhouse gas emissions can reduce the risk of the most catastrophic impacts.

The city of eThekwini or Durban has undergone a period of rapid urbanization that has contributed to the degradation of the city’s natural environment. Climate change is placing further strains on the city’s ability to manage the urban environment. The urban environmental profile of eThekwini has been prepared as the first component of the assignment promoting green urban development in Africa: enhancing the relationship between urbanization, environmental assets and ecosystem services, a project being conducted under the leadership of the World Bank.

This report is about forests that provide a substantial contribution to mitigation in Romania by sequestering carbon, helping to counter carbon emissions from other sectors in the economy. Sustainable forest management is challenged by fragmented ownership and insufficient financial resources in particular. A summary of key existing analytic studies, and the construction of a marginal abatement cost curve for mitigation actions in the forestry sector, was the basis for identifying key adaptation and mitigation measures for Romania’s forests.

This report presents the water and climate adaptation plan (WATCAP) developed for the Sava river basin (SRB) as result of a study undertaken by the World Bank. The WATCAP is intended to help to bridge the gap between the climate change predictions for the SRB and the decision makers in current and planned water management investment projects that will be affected by changing climate trends.

The MEM is the World Bank's biannual flagship publication on Malaysia. It provides analysis of recent economic developments and the near-term outlook for Malaysia. Each publication also focuses on a special topic related to Malaysia's transformation into a high-income economy. Malaysia is at the forefront of a "new generation" of trade agreements that will shape trade and investment over the next decade. The 14th MEM focuses on how Malaysia can use trade agreements to bring new opportunities to the Malaysian economy and accelerate its transition to high income status.

This systematic country diagnostic is structured in two main parts, one backward looking and the other forward looking. The backward-looking analysis aims to draw lessons on the determinants of poverty and sustainable and inclusive growth from (a) stakeholder consultations; (b) a poverty profile; (c) a jobs profile; and (d) a review of Cote d’Ivoire’s experience, and a comparison with Ghana and Sri Lanka, countries with similarities to Côte d’Ivoire, but with different growth trajectories.

This Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) is designed to assess the key constraints and opportunities facing Mozambique as it strives to sustain robust growth and macroeconomic stability while accelerating poverty reduction and promoting greater economic inclusiveness. The SCD is organized into six chapters. Chapter two describes the evolution of poverty and inequality, explores their regional and demographic dimensions, and identifies strategies for accelerating poverty reduction.

This document is hence organized not around the three types of challenges, but around five themes of governance, public finance issues, private sector-led economy, poverty and environment, and human capital, all crucial to achieving faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth. Chapter one provides the country context. Chapter two discusses the quality of governance, an overarching issue in Madagascar. It has a direct bearing on the pace, the inclusiveness and sustainability of growth.

Cameroon is a lower-middle income country with social indicators and levels of poverty which are below those for comparator countries. Large and rising inequalities between north and south, inefficiencies in public resource allocation and an adverse business environment explain this. While insecurity due to Boko Haram activities and rapidly rising public debt constrain efforts at poverty reduction, there exists a huge potential for economic growth and poverty reduction. This potential remains mostly untapped.