This survey report will help the
government of Afghanistan think through its approach to
private sector development. Historically, there has been a
dearth of information and reliable statistics about
Afghanistan's economy. This report reviews the
constraints that firms currently operating in Afghanistan
face and provides a basis for possible policy
recommendations to address these constraints. It is hoped

The primary goal of this Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS) is to provide a plan for reactivating Angola's productive sectors that reduces the country's reliance on imports while enabling the restoration of export capacity in the medium to long term. Executing such a plan will involve investing in the rehabilitation of infrastructure destroyed by war and making and adjusting policies that affect the institutional underpinnings of a market economy, as well as incentives for exporting and importing.

Through an analysis of selected topics,
this study aims to offer inputs for a successful recovery
strategy for the city and the metropolitan region of Sao
Paulo (MSRP) in Brazil. The study first presents an analysis
of the underlying factors of the economic transition in the
MRSP, highlighting the factors behind the recent performance
of the MRSP in terms of job creation and growth. Then, four
inputs that would lead to a 'recovery strategy'

There is compelling evidence of the
importance of gender equality for poverty reduction and
sustainable growth. So it should come as no surprise that
most development actors-international agencies, bilateral
donors, and most developing countries, have an official
policy for promoting gender equality. Millennium Development
Goal 3 (MDG3) on gender equality and women's
empowerment is shared global commitment. With only seven

A 2003 World Bank study, "Governance of Natural Resources in the Philippines," analyzed natural resources management and governance in the Philippines. It assessed sector policies, particularly property rights, institutions, and financing mechanisms as well as program implementation.

Tanzania's Pilot Rural Investment
Climate Assessment (RICA) measures the economic environment
of non-farm entrepreneurs. The pilot assessment has three
key objectives: it aims to better understand the rural
non-farm economy in Tanzania, shed light on rural enterprise
dynamics and business constraints, and reflect on areas
where government policies are readily directed to help
promote rural non-farm enterprise activity. The RICA is

The objective of this report is to
identify ways of enhancing competitiveness through sector
reforms in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali (the
Cotton-4). The report promotes best practices to manage cost
and define sales strategies so as to enhance the
contribution of the cotton sector to shared growth and
lessen the risk of contingent liabilities borne by the
countries. Areas of improvement, investigated in the report,

This report contends that the key to unleashing the North West Frontier Province's possibilities and to improving the lives of its citizens is strengthening the governance and policy environment in the province for both the private and the public sectors, and investing in the provinces' most valuable resource - its people. Reforms and efforts in the past few years have already started to translate into higher growth, improved incomes, and better living conditions for the citizens of the NWFP.

This document presents the main findings
of the Guyana Investment Climate Survey (ICS) conducted
between November 2004 and March 2005. The ICA report
provides an evaluation of different aspects of the
environment of doing business in Guyana. It covers
governance-related obstacles, labor and technology issues,
the financial sector, and infrastructure. The ICA is based
on the results of the World Bank Guyana Investment Climate

This paper investigates how reductions
of barriers to migration affect the decision of middle
school graduates to attend high school in rural China.
Change in the cost of migration is identified using
exogenous variation across counties in the timing of
national identity card distribution, which made it easier
for rural migrants to register as temporary residents in
urban destinations. The analysis first shows that timing of

The author applies a systems-oriented "holistic" approach to China's radical economic reforms during the past quarter of a century. He characterizes China's economic reforms in terms of a multidimensional classification of economic systems. When looking at the economic consequences of China's change of economic system, he deals with both the impressive growth performance and its economic costs.

The aim of this report is to identify a set of concrete steps that the government of Mongolia might take to promote private-sector activity and greater integration with the global economy in a way that leads to job creation, broad-based growth and most importantly, poverty reduction. It does this by combining an assessment of the investment climate faced by firms (through analyses of firm and household surveys and supply chains in selected sectors) with a diagnostic trade integration study. The report is structured as follows.