The institutional landscape of local
dispute resolution in Bangladesh is rich: it includes the
traditional process of shalish, longstanding and impressive
civil society efforts to improve on shalish, and a somewhat
less-explored provision for gram adalat or village courts.
Based on a nationally representative survey, qualitative
evidence from focus groups, and a telephone survey of 40
Union Parishad chairpersons (a little less than 1 percent of

Liberia aims to achieve middle-income
status by 2030 through broad participation and inclusive
growth. The Government's growth strategy aims to
accelerate growth through the exploitation of natural
resources, while maintaining sound macroeconomic policies,
improving the business environment, and prudently allocating
aid and commodity-based financing resources to expand
infrastructure and formal sector employment. However,

In the past decade, the Palestinian
Authority (PA) has worked to strengthen economic governance
and combat corruption, both essential to sustained economic
growth and improved delivery of public services. This report
finds the PA has made significant progress in its public
institutions, establishing a strong governance environment
in many critical areas. But it also identifies areas where
reforms are underway but incomplete or, in some areas, not

The theme of the 2011 Philippines
development report is 'generating inclusive growth,
uplifting the poor and vulnerable'. This theme is
follows from the priorities set in President Aquino's
Social Contract and the emerging 2011-2016 Philippines
Development Plan (PDP). The PDP details the vision of
inclusive growth and poverty reduction that underlies the
social contract (chapter one). Accordingly, the PDP focuses

The fundamental rationale behind
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is that
increased transparency and knowledge of revenues from the
extractive industries will empower citizens and institutions
to hold governments accountable. By implementing EITI at the
sub national level, countries could reduce opportunities for
mismanagement or diversion of funds from sustainable
development purposes, especially for prominent oil, gas, or

The note is designed to assist Bank task
teams, working together with their country counterparts, who
may have varying levels of experience with promoting the
Rule of Law (ROL); some would be familiar with the African
context but not ROL, and for others, vice-versa. This note
may also represent a first introduction to ROL reform; for
those who have worked on such projects in the past, it
should supplement existing knowledge about this emerging

This essay first sets out the
"business model" problems entailed by corruption
and their effects as well as implications for economic
growth. Key issues are the need for secrecy and co-operation
with partners in crime. Dealing with these leads to behavior
which is ostensibly bizarre and undermines economic
efficiency, but is in fact a rational way of managing
corrupt practices. However, different economic policies can

This paper estimates the relationship
between initial village inequality and subsequent household
income growth for a large sample of households in rural
China. Using a rich longitudinal survey spanning the years
1987-2002, and controlling for an array of household and
village characteristics, the paper finds that households
located in higher inequality villages experienced
significantly lower income growth through the 1990s.

The effects of policy interventions on
women are of increasing concern to policy makers in all
fields, and trade is no exception. This note reviews recent
World Bank projects and studies that 'gender
inform' trade-related interventions, and it uses the
Bank's experience to promote gender-equal opportunities
by highlighting entry points at which trade projects,
studies, and policies can effectively address gender issues.

This Investment Climate Survey Report
(ICSR) for Cote d'Ivoire evaluates the country's
business environment by (i) analyzing barriers to private
sector investment and growth and how they vary among
different types of firms, (ii) benchmarking the Ivorian
investment climate and firm performance to that of other
countries and (iii) providing recommendations to promote and
strengthen the private sector. The ICSR is supported by the

Using data from business environment and
enterprise performance survey (BEEPS) and other enterprise
surveys, studies have shown that firm entry, growth and
productivity are impeded by corruption and overly burdensome
regulation. Most of these studies have been based on
cross-country data (e.g. Barseghyan, 2008), or
country-specific studies of firms in China (e.g. Cai et al.,
2011; Cull and Xu, 2005), Mexico (Bruhn, 2011) and other

This Country Economic Memorandum (CEM)
is the first for Burundi since the 1980s. It has been
developed in collaboration with the government of Burundi.
The CEM has been prepared in cooperation with the African
development bank and the U.K. department for international
development. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the
world, and has suffered from many years of civil conflict
and its consequences. In the last years, peace has been