India is the largest groundwater user in
the world, with an estimated usage of around 230 cubic
kilometers per year, more than a quarter of the global
total. With more than 60 percent of irrigated agriculture
and 85 percent of drinking water supplies dependent on it,
groundwater is a vital resource for rural areas in India.
Reliance of urban and industrial waste supplies on
groundwater is also becoming increasingly significant in

The goal of the Congo, Democratic
Republic of (DRC's) trade policy is to create a
regulatory, fiscal and institutional environment in which
domestic and foreign trade can develop unhindered, opening
up the country's vast territory and integrating it into
regional and international trade channels. In this respect,
the analyses in this report highlight three priorities: (i)
to streamline and reduce port taxation; (ii) to conclude the

This paper examines international
experience with mobilizing funding for both capital and
recurrent costs for municipal infrastructure with a view to
identifying areas where India could improve its system of
financing infrastructure in cities. Based on international
data, the analysis shows that there is indeed a wide range
of models for funding municipal infrastructure across a
group even as relatively homogeneous as the European Union.

The past decade has witnessed a major
global shift in thinking about water, including the role
that water infrastructure plays in sustainable development.
This rethinking aims to better balance the social, economic,
and environmental performance aspects in the development and
management of large dams. Additionally, it reinforces
efforts to combat poverty by ensuring more equitable access
to water and energy services. There is also growing

The West African Mineral Sector
Strategic Assessment (WAMSSA) is a strategic environmental
and social assessment intended to identify policy,
institutional, and regulatory adjustments required to
integrate environmental and social considerations into
mineral sector development in Africa. The study focused on
three Mano River Union (MRU) countries, Guinea, Liberia, and
Sierra Leone, all categorized as mineral-rich countries

This report provides a complete and
comprehensive analysis of industrial wastewater management
in industrial estates and craft villages in Vietnam. The
analysis was conducted in three separate stages: 1) a
detailed inventory of industries and industrial activities
responsible for the pollution of the Nhue-Day river basin,
including industrial zones, industrial clusters, industrial
points, craft villages and large-scale stand alone

Togo is one of the smallest countries in
mainland Africa, with an area of 57,000 k

The study presents an analysis of the
situation of the Pygmies in Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), including their history and relations with the other,
mainly Bantu, populations. It provides a brief description
of their lifestyle, their socioeconomic status, and a
participatory diagnosis of the key factors that lead to
their current impoverishment and marginalization. The study
discusses the rationale for protecting Pygmy culture and

One of the major difficulties in doing
cost-benefit analysis of a development project is to
estimate the total economic value of project benefits, which
are usually multi-dimensional and include goods and services
that are not traded in the market. Challenges also arise in
aggregating the values of different benefits, which may not
be mutually exclusive. This paper uses a contingent
valuation approach to estimate the economic value of a

Private inspection of international
shipments has been used over the last half-century for a
variety of purposes. These include prevention of capital
flight and improvement of import duty collection, among
others. The existing literature has failed to find much
impact of these inspection programs on collected tariff
revenue or corruption at the border. This paper explores the
"facilitation" effect of private inspection

This paper focuses on evaluations with
findings that challenge important assumptions of the
development field. Its objective is to pinpoint the areas to
watch for in operations or policies that are decisive for
results. By drawing the attention of development
practitioners, policy makers, and evaluators to these
seemingly obvious but often neglected areas, it aims to
improve development effectiveness by better connecting

The amount of available water has been
constant for millennia, but over time the planet has added 6
billion people. Water is essential to human life and
enterprise, and the increasing strains on available water
resources threaten the mission of institutions dedicated to
economic development. The ultimate goal is to achieve a
sustainable balance between the resources available and the
societal requirement for water. In this evaluation the