Natural resources offer opportunities,
but also bring challenges. They have generally been linked
to a series of negative outcomes like economic decline,
corruption, and conflict. Oil and minerals reserves, in
particular, are often very spatially concentrated, and their
discovery becomes a potential source of conflict between the
governments, the people of the producing areas, and those of
the rest of the country. But can this increased risk of

For many developing countries, natural
resource exports such as oil, diamonds and copper continue
to be important drivers for economic growth and provide a
unique opportunity for generating revenues for much-needed
infrastructure and human development. Dependence on
extractive resources, however, may also increase the
likelihood of underdevelopment, fragility and conflict. The
challenges for managing these resources efficiently are

Bulgaria experienced strong economic
growth prior to and shortly after joining the European Union
(EU) in 2007. Under the better regulation program, the
government adopted over 100 measures to reduce the
regulatory and administrative burden, but no formal
mechanism was introduced to regularly monitor and review its
implementation at the national or municipal level. Some
areas, in which entrepreneurs expected to see improved

This is the first investment climate
assessment (ICA) for Myanmar. The main objectives of this
ICA are to: (i) provide an up-to-date and fact-based
analysis of the business environment for the government and
other stakeholders in Myanmar to help prioritize and
contextualize the reform agenda, and (ii) to offer a
baseline for future assessments of progress in terms of the
investment climate reform agenda. As requested by the

The new Country Partnership Framework
(CPF or framework) presents the engagement of the World Bank
Group (WBG) in Sri Lanka over the next four years (fiscal
years 2017-20 (FY17–20)). The CPF aims to support the
achievement of some of the government’s medium-term goals in
areas that are critical for reducing extreme poverty and
promoting shared prosperity, and that are consistent with
the WBG’s comparative advantage. Notably, the CPF provides

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
presents the World Bank Group (WBG) program for Côte
d’Ivoire (CIV) during the period FY16-FY19. The CPF comes at
an opportune moment to accelerate and scale up the WBG
engagement. The program will take advantage of CIV’s current
climate of renewed stability to modernize the economy and
eliminate long-standing disparities aggravated by a decade
of multifaceted crisis, during which the World Bank Group

Rapid urbanization in Ghana over the
past three decades has coincided with rapid GDP growth. This
has helped to create jobs, increase human capital, decrease
poverty, and expand opportunities and improve living
conditions for millions of Ghanaians. Ghana’s urban
transformation has been momentous, but it is not unique: a
similar process has characterized other countries at similar
levels of development. Ghana’s key challenge now is to

Lesotho is one of the poorest countries
in Southern Africa, and has one of the highest income
inequality in the world. Home to about 2 million people,
Lesotho is surrounded by South Africa, the second largest
and most industrialized economy in Africa. Lesotho generates
income mainly by exporting textiles, water, and diamonds,
and is a member of the Southern African Customs Union
(SACU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC),

This Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD)
aims to identify the major constraints on and opportunities
for sustaining poverty reduction and shared prosperity in
Serbia. The SCD serves as the analytic foundation on which
the World Bank Group and the Government of Serbia will
define a new Country Partnership Framework for FY2016 to
FY2020. It is based on the best possible analysis, drawing
on available evidence, and not limited to areas where the

This report provides a baseline
institutional and regulatory assessment of the oil and gas,
mining (including jade and gemstones) and the hydropower
sectors in Myanmar. As such the report is an input to
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in
Myanmar. However, it is not exhaustive with respect to all
the sectors that may be considered under a scoping study for
EITI .This report is the first in-depth study of the context

Between 2002 and 2012-13, most of the
reduction in poverty was due to increased earnings, as
opposed to higher employment or higher transfers. Although
it is hard to be certain, increases in earnings are
associated with: (i) a slow structural transformation away
from agriculture and into industry and services that led to
productivity increases; (ii) agglomeration around key urban
areas that supported this structural transformation; (iii)

This report argues that urbanization
brings significant opportunities for both rural and urban
areas and that Burundi needs to prioritize issues of
economic growth and job creation. Based on a diagnostic
evaluation of the current urbanization and spatial growth,
GDP, and job potential, the report highlights the importance
of prioritizing policies and investments to address
deficiencies in Burundi urbanization. These remedial actions