This report shows that some investors
still perceive Aceh as a risky place to do business, despite
being relatively peaceful for almost four years. Security
incidents, relatively common in post-conflict environments,
deter businesses and individuals from investing in Aceh,
robbing the economy of necessary capital and innovation.
Other consequences of the conflict, including forms of
illegal taxation, also hurt investment. The Government of

This working paper concerns the growth
of investment climate in the Philippines. There are several
resounding ideas in areas both positive and negative. The
growth potential in the Philippines is considerable. The
country has significant natural resources; a large pool of
managerial and entrepreneurial talent; and widespread
proficiency in English. The Government's Medium Term
Development Plan (MTDP), 2005-2010 sets ambitious growth and

This series "New Frontiers of
Social Policy" aims to promote social development
through systematic attention to the underlying social
context and the social outcomes of development interventions
and public policy. This book series has been conceived and
produced for the broader development community, rather than
for social policy specialists alone. This book is
particularly, although not exclusively, relevant to those

The purpose of this guidance note is to
bridge precisely identify how to implement World Bank
resettlement policies in the context of infrastructure
projects affecting South Asian largest cities, with a focus
on the impacts on poor areas and slums. The guidance note is
intended as a tool to help decision makers in Government
agencies and in the Bank, particularly in respect of the
main aspects: 1) methods to assess and evaluate resettlement

Doing Business 2007: How to reform is
the fourth in a series of annual reports investigating the
regulations that enhance business activity and those that
constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative
indicators on business regulations and the protection of
property rights that can be compared across 175
economies-from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe-and over time. This
publication points out how regulations affecting 10 areas of

This assessment of poverty and
inequality comes at an important juncture for Kenya. The
December 2007 elections and subsequent pronouncements of the
newly formed Grand Coalition have underlined the salience of
these issues to ordinary Kenyans, and for policy makers. The
violence in early 2008 highlighted the importance of
addressing poverty and inequality as major goals in their
own right, but also for instrumental reasons, as major goals

This report is about how to
progressively reduce over time Afghanistan's dependence
on opium - currently the country's leading economic
activity - by development initiatives and shifting economic
incentives toward sustainable legal livelihoods.
Specifically, the report identifies additional investments
and policy and institutional measures to support development
responses that can counterbalance the economic advantages of

Although there has been considerable
recent interest in micro-credit programs, rigorous evidence
on the impacts of forming self-help groups to mobilize
savings and foster social empowerment at the local level is
virtually non-existent, despite a large number of programs
following this pattern. The authors use a large household
survey to assess the economic and social impacts of the
formation of self-help groups in India. They find positive

This paper focuses on the experience of
the national-level adaptation planning efforts and the
lessons that can be derived for more effective adaptation
from an examination of local governance of development and
natural resources. After examining national level adaptation
plans, particularly the NAPAs (National Adaptation
Programmes of Action), the paper analyzes the range of
institutional instruments and relationships visible in

This paper evaluates the impact of the
Thailand Village and Urban Revolving Fund on household
expenditure, income, and assets. The revolving fund was
launched in 2001 when the Government of Thailand promised to
provide a million baht (about $22,500) to every village and
urban community in Thailand as working capital for
locally-run rotating credit associations. The money about
$2 billion in total was quickly disbursed to locally-run

The goal of the Investment Climate
Assessment (ICA) of Uganda is to evaluate the investment
climate in Uganda in all its operational dimensions and to
promote policies to strengthen the private sector and
encourage broad-based economic growth. Sustained
improvements in living standards depend on broad-based
growth. Growth will only occur, however, if firms improve
their productivity by investing in human and physical

Size, age, sector, and productivity are
commonly cited as factors determining a firm s survival.
However, there are several dimensions of the investment
climate in which the firm operates that affect whether it
continues in business or exits. This paper uses new panel
data from 27 Eastern European and Central Asian countries to
test the importance of five areas of the business climate on
firm exit: the efficiency of government services, access to