At the request of the Government of
Egypt (GOE), the objective of this brief note is to provide
concise recommendations on next steps for the National
Housing Program (NHP). These recommendations and policy
analysis are an elaboration of the framework for housing
policy reform in urban areas in Egypt, a draft of which was
endorsed by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban
Development (MHUUD) and the Ministry of Investment (MOI) in

The purpose of this Independence
Evaluation Group (IEG) special study is to illuminate the
scale and scope of Bank support for municipal development
and to draw specific lessons from the achievements and
failures of a sample of individual projects. The study
focuses on three dimensions of municipal management:
planning, finance, and service provision that figure
repeatedly in Bank financed municipal development projects

The present study examines the
challenges facing municipal governments in FYR Macedonia.
The introductory chapter provides some further context for
these developments, in terms of the challenges they pose
for urban areas and their governments. Chapter Two examines
issues for financial management of municipalities under the
decentralized regime, and the attendant need for improving
local government capacity. The third chapter highlights

This document presents the main
governance indicators for the country, as compiled by the
World Bank Institute (WBI), and how are they used by
international institutions in making decisions about
assistance to Nicaragua. Although these indicators have
weaknesses, they can provide a general indication of what
are the priority areas for investigation. Accordingly, the
present review concentrates on a few key areas where the

In the urban planning literature, it is
frequently explicitly asserted or strongly implied that
ongoing urban sprawl and decentralization can lead to
development patterns that are unsustainable in the long run.
One manifestation of such an outcome is that if extensive
road investments occur, urban sprawl and decentralization
are advanced and locked-in, making subsequent investments in
public transit less effective in reducing vehicle kilometers

Doing Business in Egypt 2008 covers
three topics at the sub national level: starting a business,
dealing with licenses and registering property. These
indicators have been selected because they cover areas of
local jurisdiction and practice. In the last two years,
doing business in Egypt has become more affordable the
minimum capital required to start a business and the costs
of registering property and dealing with licenses have been

This book argues that Peru faces an
unprecedented opportunity to become the next success story
in Latin America. In the coming five years, policy making
could put the country on a development path similar to the
one that, say, Chile, Costa Rica, or Spain have followed
over the last two decades. This book includes 32
sector-specific chapters and 2 historical perspectives that
precede them. The beginning chapter, a synthesis, builds a

Sub-national Governments play an
important role in the Romanian public sector. In 2009,
sub-national spending was equivalent to 8.5 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP). Romania has frequently adjusted its
system for financing sub-national government over the last
decade. These changes reflect ongoing Government concerns
over the performance of local governments as well as
attempts to increase the transparency and stability of the

This is a summary report of the South
Asia Region and the East Asia Pacific regions training
workshop from April 28-30, 2008 on the importance of
disaster risk reduction and risk transfer including major
concepts, models, and various applications of disaster risk
reduction around the globe. This report represents an
analysis and summary of the main presentations made during
the course of the workshop. It provides a comprehensive

Agricultural and Rural Development (ARD)
is a fundamental component of Ethiopia's economic
growth and poverty reduction strategy. The agricultural
development strategy under Agriculture Development Led
Industrialization (ADLI) and Sustainable Development and
Poverty Reduction Program (SDPRP) focused on enhancing the
productive capacity of smallholder farmers, promoting crop
diversification, shifting to a market based system, ensuring

Moldova is one of the poorest countries
in Europe. It is landlocked, bounded by Ukraine on the east
and Romania on the west. Like many other former Soviet
Republics, Moldova has experienced economic difficulties.
Since its economy was highly dependent on the rest of the
Soviet Union for energy and raw materials, the breakdown in
trade following the breakup of the Soviet Union had severe
impacts, exacerbated by drought and civil conflict. Moldova

The Lao PDR economy continues to grow, but at a relatively slower pace as the impacts of the global financial turmoil are starting to be felt. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to slow in 2008 to about 7 percent as result of the impacts of the global financial crisis. GDP growth is also projected to slow to between 5 and 6 percent in 2009. However, growth remains fairly strong and still driven by the ongoing hydropower projects as well as agro processing industries, construction and other services.