In 2012 Papua New Guinea undertook a
national Service Delivery Assessment of rural water, rural
sanitation, urban water and urban sanitation services to
identify coverage and targets, how well services are being
delivered and the financing shortfalls in these subsectors.
Immediately following this assessment, stakeholders, through
a national policy task force, have developed a draft of the
country s first National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

The Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
will succeed the Myanmar interim strategy note (FY13-14) and
be the first full country strategy for Myanmar since 1984.
This CPF comes at a time of great opportunity for Myanmar;
over the three year period covered in this CPF, the reforms
initiated in 2011 have the potential to bring Myanmar into a
new era of peace and prosperity. Myanmar s history, ethnic
diversity, and geography combine into a unique set of

The paper investigates determinants of
civic participation in local budget processes in rural areas
in the Kyrgyz Republic by using data from the Life in
Kyrgyzstan survey, conducted in 2012. The analysis of the
data suggests that although civic awareness and interest in
local budget processes is relatively high, the participation
rate in local budgeting processes is low. The paper also
shows that interest, awareness, and participation are

As Vietnam enters a crucial period of
urbanization corresponding to its present stage of economic
development, the Government of Vietnam has placed strong
emphasis on developing its system of cities. In accordance
with this objective this Urbanization Review is dedicated to
understanding the key dimensions and aspects of
Vietnam's urbanization process and to identifying
trends, opportunities, challenges and core policy priorities

Previous research on sex-selective
abortions has ignored the interactions between fertility,
birth spacing, and sex selection, despite both fertility and
birth spacing being important considerations for parents
when deciding on the use of sex selection. This paper
presents a novel approach that jointly estimates the
determinants of sex-selective abortions, fertility, and
birth spacing, using data on Hindu women from India's

Regional trade in Africa can play a
vital role in diversifying economies and reducing dependence
on the export of a few mineral products, in delivering food
and energy security, in generating jobs for the increasing
numbers of young people, and in alleviating poverty and
promoting a shared prosperity. Women play a key role in
trade in Africa and will be essential to Africa's
success in exploiting its trade potential. In many countries

In this issue: Facilitating labor
migration from the Philippines; Incentives and teacher
effort; Electoral accountability and local public spending
in Indonesia; Why don't poor countries do R&D?; How
effective are efforts to raise voluntary enrollment in
health insurance?; How insecure property rights affect
migration in China; the challenges of public service
delivery in the Pacific Islands.

In declaring 2012 the international year
of sustainable energy for all, the United Nations (UN)
general assembly (2011) established at the personal
initiative of the UN secretary general- three global
objectives to be accomplished by 2030. Those goals are to
ensure universal access to modern energy services (including
electricity and clean, modern cooking solutions), to double
the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and to

Panama's economic growth has been at the
top of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region in
recent years. The country s rapid growth has been largely
pro-poor and translated into significant poverty reduction.
The new Administration is well placed to tackle these
challenges, with its commitment to maintaining an open and
diversified economy and redressing social imbalances.
Looking ahead, the country s main challenges are to maintain

The purpose of this report is to assess
the climate change impacts on water resources in Romania
from an integrated, multi-sectoral perspective, and to
recommend priority actions for addressing the identified
risks and opportunities. The analysis is presented from an
integrated water resources perspective, thereby including
all pertinent water-related sectors, viz. municipal water
supply and sanitation, industrial water supply, agriculture,

With limited land, capital, and a fast
growing population, Burundi's main asset is its
youthful population. Its main challenge is also to create
good quality jobs for its youth. With low levels of
educational attainment and poor health status, the quality
of this young population is poor. After more than 13 years
of conflict ending in 2000, and a period of modest recovery,
Burundi has the opportunity to stimulate growth. Burundi is

Despite considerable progress in the
area of environmental management over the last decade,
Colombia still faces significant impacts from population
exposure to urban air pollution, inadequate access to water
supply and sanitation, and indoor air pollution from solid
fuel use. This study estimates that the total health cost
attributable to these three factors amounts to about 10.2
trillion Colombian Pesos (COP) annually, or about 2 percent