The Operations Evaluation Department
(OED) is an independent unit within the World Bank. The
goals of evaluation are to learn from experience, to provide
an objective basis for assessing the results of the Bank’s
work, and to provide accountability in the achievement of
its objectives. This report on the Post-Conflict Fund (PCF)
is one of twenty six case studies that have been prepared as
source material for the second phase of OED’s independent

This book analyzes the development of
knowledge-based economies in the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA). Its principal messages are: Because of the
so-called "knowledge revolution" resulting from
the rapid growth in information and communication
technologies (ICT), the acceleration of technical change and
the intensification of globalization, a new form of economic
development is taking shape worldwide. The knowledge

The Investment Climate Study is a
evaluation of the Operations Evaluation Department (OED).
The OED report reviews the Bank’s investment climate lending
and non-lending activities during fiscal years 1993 through
2002-03. The report presents the collected findings of
several evaluative exercises: a literature review; an
analysis of investment climate themes in country assistance
strategies and sector strategies; an analysis of lending

This study, perhaps the first of its
kind in this region, is based on a study that explores the
practice of casual sex among truck drivers and commercial
sex workers in the border areas of Poland and Lithuania at a
point of time, and uses this evidence to extrapolate the
potential impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS in these
countries. After the Introduction which provides background,
Section 2 reviews similar studies carried out elsewhere in

The present Report is motivated by the
coming together o f three widespread perceptions about
inequality, two somewhat newer and one long-standing. The
two newer ones are; (i) that inequality may matter for the
country's economic development, and (ii) that public
policy can and should do something about it. The old
perception, which is well borne out b y the facts, is that
Brazil occupies a position o f very high inequality in the

The authors' analysis of manufacturing plants sampled from India's major industrial centers shows large productivity gaps across cities. The gaps partly reflect differences in agglomeration economies and in market access. However, they are also explained to a greater extent by differences in the degree of labor regulation and in the severity of power shortages.

This paper helps build a clear picture of the role of women in China's agriculture and, if agricultural feminization has been occurring, its impact on labor use, productivity, and welfare. Using two data sets that track changes in labor use over time, the authors examine the evolution of off farm and on farm employment trends and analyze the role of men and women in the emergence of China's labor markets. They explore who is working on China's farms, and the effects of these decisions on labor use, productivity and welfare.

This paper reviews the performance of
railway concessions in Latin America over the period
extending from the initial Argentina concessions in
1991-1993 through 2004. The bulk of the concessioning
processes described herein were supported by the World Bank.
Now over a decade since rail concessioning in Latin America
began, the overall assessment of its results is positive,
particularly for freight railways. Railway traffic volumes

Most existing estimates of the
macroeconomic costs of AIDS, as measured by the reduction in
the growth rate of gross domestic product, are modest. For
Africa-the continent where the epidemic has hit the
hardest-they range between 0.3 and 1.5 percent annually. The
reason is that these estimates are based on an underlying
assumption that the main effect of increased mortality is to
relieve pressure on existing land and physical capital so

This paper looks at the evidence on the
magnitude and impacts of forest illegal acts, examines the
vulnerabilities of the forest sector, and proposes a
strategy for combating forest crime. Forest crime
prominently includes illegal logging but acts against the
law also affect other sector operations such as forest
products transport, industrial processing, and trade. Almost
universally, criminal exploitation of forest products and

In carrying out the program for investment climate reform, Orissa State has to keep three things uppermost: It s critical to strike the right balance between private and social interests so that both are mutually reinforced and growth is equitable and inclusive. 2) Both the implementation capacity of government and the political economy of reforms will require appropriate prioritization of reforms with a clear identification of short-, medium-, and long-term actions.

Existing empirical studies on the relation between inequality and growth have been criticized for their focus on income inequality and their use of cross-country data sets. Schipper and Hoogeveen use two sets of small area welfare estimates-often referred to as poverty maps-to estimate a model of rural per capita expenditure growth for Uganda between 1992 and 1999. They estimate the growth effects of expenditure and education inequality while controlling for other factors, such as initial levels of expenditure and human capital, family characteristics, and unobserved spatial heterogeneity.