Kosovo's economic growth in the
past decade has been solid, yet, with a gross domestic
product (GDP) per capita of 1,760, the country remains one
of the poorest in Europe. The end of the conflict, output
was growing at double-digit rates, driven by the
donor-funded reconstruction efforts. Since 2005, annual
growth has decelerated to below 5 percent. However, the
other countries in Southeast Europe have been growing

In this report, in addition to aggregate
results, six brief case studies are used to highlight the
impact of Bank supported mining sector reform on various
indicators at different links of the value chain. These
include: the impacts on investment; production and
employment in Argentina; institutional capacity building in
Papua New Guinea; production and fiscal revenues in
Tanzania; community and regional development in Madagascar;

The goal of the Congo, Democratic
Republic of (DRC's) trade policy is to create a
regulatory, fiscal and institutional environment in which
domestic and foreign trade can develop unhindered, opening
up the country's vast territory and integrating it into
regional and international trade channels. In this respect,
the analyses in this report highlight three priorities: (i)
to streamline and reduce port taxation; (ii) to conclude the

This document proposes a set of
generally applicable recommendations and good practices for
creating a Mineral Rights Cadastre (MRC), an administrative
body responsible for overseeing the process of granting and
managing mineral licenses throughout a country. The document
reviews lessons learned from World Bank-funded projects
aimed at reforming mineral rights management and assesses
the impacts and benefits of the implemented changes. The

This paper explores the reduction of
food insecurity in Bolivia, adopting a supply side approach
that analyzes the role of agricultural spending on
vulnerability. Vulnerability to food insecurity is captured
by a municipal level composite -- developed locally within
the framework of World Food Program food security analysis
-- that combines welfare outcomes, weather conditions and
agricultural potential for all 327 municipalities in 2003,

There have been important changes in the
budgeting process in Vietnam since 2006 when the government
of Vietnam instituted a revolutionary reform in the
management and allocation of the state budget. For the
period of 2007-2010, the norms include ethnic minority
population data, and poverty rates. The purpose of this
research assignment is to describe the evolution of
budgeting mechanisms in recent years, in association with

This study aims to provide the guiding
principles to the government of Mongolia (GOM) towards
creating comprehensive ex-ante risk management strategy
based on the assessment of the pros and cons of historical
approach of livestock risk management as well as best
practices around the world. For instance, it proposes an
option for the National Disaster Indemnification Program
(NDIP) that acts as a state insurance enterprise and

In May 2008, the commission on growth
and development (the growth commission) issued its report
entitled 'the growth report'. In it the commission
attempted to distill what had been learned in the past two
decades, from experience and academic and policy research,
about strategies and policies that produced sustained high
growth in developing countries. It became clear in the
course of the work that politics, leadership, and political

This report proposes a growth strategy
for Sudan that reduces its dependence on oil, while building
an economic foundation for a diversified, inclusive and
sustainable growth path. Specifically, Sudan's near
term strategy should focus on: a) developing and maintaining
the necessary enabling environment for growth, specifically
macroeconomic stability and effective fiscal management
(chapter one); b) implementing policies aimed at improving

This paper reviews the literature on tax
assignment in decentralized countries. Ideally, own-source
revenues should be sufficient to enable at least the richest
subnational governments to finance from their own resources
all locally-provided services that primarily benefit local
residents. Subnational taxes should also not unduly distort
the allocation of resources. Most importantly, to the extent
possible subnational governments should be accountable at

The past decade has witnessed major
shift thinking about water, including how water
infrastructure development strategies can help advance
sustainable development and the global fight against
poverty. This reflects, in part, greater attention now being
paid to governance reforms promoting integrated water
resource management (IWRM), the efficient and wise use of
water, and expanding access to water and energy services. In

Sri Lanka's country vision is to
become a global hub between the East and the West and an
upper middle-income country by 2016. Sri Lanka's urban
vision, as defined in the government's development
policy framework is to develop a system of competitive,
environmentally sustainable, well-linked cities clustered in
five metro regions and nine metro cities and to provide
every family with affordable and adequate urban shelter by