In 1999, nine Nile basin countries came
together in a remarkable partnership. They formed the Nile
basin initiative as a platform for joint working to better
understand and utilize the common Nile resource, to harness
the benefits for equitable and sustainable regional economic
development. This note highlights the key achievements of
this historic endeavor.

Women and girls often risk being left
behind in development, not being fully informed or involved
in decision making about issues that can have a real impact
on their lives. Sometimes, they are already disadvantaged by
cultural and legal norms that affect their rights to
resources. Working together to develop the Nile resource,
the 10 countries involved in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI)
are making it ‘business as usual’ to ensure gender equality

From 2004 to 2012, Zambia experienced a
combination of good economic policies and high rates of
growth not seen since the early years after its
independence. While growth was mainly driven by rising
copper prices, other factors contributed to Zambia’s ability
to take advantage of this growth. The international debt
relief programs in 2004-2005 almost eliminated public debt
and provided the fiscal space for selective, high-priority

China is considered one of the most seriously eroded countries in the world. The
many causes of this degradation can be divided into natural, human-induced and root causes.
The consequences of watershed degradation are severe and reach even beyond the country’s
boundaries. Addressing this issue requires a sustainable participatory and integrated watershed
management approach. The Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Projects, implemented by
the Ministry of Water Resources and co-financed by the World Bank has provided a model that

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, focuses on economic policy as the key to mobilizing a
coordinated global response to climate change. He talks
about the need to confront climate change, without which
there will be no hope of ending poverty or boosting shared
prosperity. He adds that the longer the delay in tackling
climate change, the higher the cost will be to do the right
thing for our planet and our children. He affirms that from the

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, discusses promoting strong economic growth in developing countries. He speaks about the need to invest in people,
especially in education, health and to build social safety
nets and protections against both natural disasters and
pandemics to ensure that people don't remain trapped in
extreme poverty. He talks about the challenges in trying to
work in all kinds of complex political situations, so that

This paper examines the micro and macro
correlates of aid project outcomes in a sample of 3,821
World Bank projects and 1,342 Asian Development Bank
projects. Project outcomes vary much more within countries
than between countries: country-level characteristics
explain only 10–25 percent of project outcomes. Among macro
variables, country growth and the policy environment are
significantly positively correlated with project outcomes.

Comprehensive details about Mizoram state and its environmental and
social sensitivities. Mizoram Investment Plan under NERPSIP (GoI & World Bank Funding).

Road construction has often been viewed
as the precursor to deforestation, especially in tropical
forests. Traditional responses to such threats have been
reactive, with attempts to mitigate impacts through physical
measures, or the establishment of protected areas. These
approaches often have not been entirely successful,
especially in areas where economic potential is significant.
This paper seeks to mitigate such conflicts by proposing a

Permitting, licensing, and other
authorization procedures are an integral part of investing
in renewable energy. For private companies, the quality of
these procedures can drastically affect transaction costs
and project risk. Optimal regimes are tailored to country
specifics and depend on the way in which private investors
access the market in the first place—from auctions to
site-specific tenders to standardized contracts on a

The contribution of women to labor in
African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60
to 80 percent. Using individual-disaggregated, plot-level
labor input data from nationally representative household
surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study
estimates the average female labor share in crop production
at 40 percent. It is slightly above 50 percent in Malawi,
Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37

This paper uses an original database of
469 politically connected firms under the Mubarak regime in
Egypt to explore the economic effects of close
state-business relations. Previous research has shown that
political connections are lucrative. The paper addresses
several questions raised by this research. Do connected
firms receive favorable regulatory treatment? They do:
connected firms are more likely to benefit from trade