The basic framework for the background study on building export competitiveness in Laos is based on the National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES), which appropriately stresses the need to: (i) improve the business climate by creating a predictable and transparent policy environment; (ii) streamline administrative procedures and regulations that are an obstacle to domestic and foreign private investment; and (iii) strengthen market institutions, including most notably those related to dispute resolution and contract enforcement.

This note provides an overview of the current property taxation system in the Punjab Province based on the premise that the property tax: 1) is essentially a fiscal tool; 2) is not an instrument of social redistribution; 3) system should be kept simple; and 4) is a technical instrument with strong financial, institutional, and political connotations. This note summarizes the key attributes of the present property taxation system of the Punjab Province and proposes some solutions for improving the property tax system.

Using recent advances in modeling
climate-related risks and adjusting state of the art
catastrophic risk modeling techniques to drought, the study
conducts an innovative long-term assessment of drought risks
in Andhra Pradesh, India, and suggests strategies to reduce
their impact, under several economic, drought management and
climate change scenarios. The analysis deepens an
understanding of climate risk adaptation strategies,

Tanzania's Pilot Rural Investment
Climate Assessment (RICA) measures the economic environment
of non-farm entrepreneurs. The pilot assessment has three
key objectives: it aims to better understand the rural
non-farm economy in Tanzania, shed light on rural enterprise
dynamics and business constraints, and reflect on areas
where government policies are readily directed to help
promote rural non-farm enterprise activity. The RICA is

This report presents an update on the
economic challenges facing Ethiopia with a focus on the
shared goal of accelerating equitable growth. The starting
point is the Government's own Plan for Accelerated and
Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), which is in
the process of finalization, and is designed to cover the
period 2005-2010. This report proposes that the growth
strategy should more explicitly adopt a

This document presents the main findings
of the Guyana Investment Climate Survey (ICS) conducted
between November 2004 and March 2005. The ICA report
provides an evaluation of different aspects of the
environment of doing business in Guyana. It covers
governance-related obstacles, labor and technology issues,
the financial sector, and infrastructure. The ICA is based
on the results of the World Bank Guyana Investment Climate

This report is part of the Armenia
Programmatic Poverty Assessment work. It is jointly produced
by the National Statistics Service (NSS) of the Republic of
Armenia and the World Bank. Armenia has achieved impressive
economic growth and poverty reduction since the late 1990s.
The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown at
an astounding annual rate of over 11 percent since 2002. The
main objectives of Armenia poverty are: (i) to inform policy

The overall objective of the
Comprehensive Assessment of the Agricultural Sector (CAAS)
is to provide an evidence base to enable appropriate
strategic policy responses by the Government of Liberia
(GoL) and its development partners in order to maximize the
contribution of the agriculture sector to the
Government's overarching policy objectives. Given the
strong relationship between growth in agricultural

The objective of this assignment was to develop a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system for watershed management in the Loess Plateau area. The M&E system for the China Watershed Management Project (CWMP) has been developed on the base of the M&E system that has been implemented during the previous two phases of the World Bank Loess Plateau Project. The final report presents the main outcomes of this process. The major findings of the M&E systems review are summarized in the following chapter two.

In considering the contribution that Rural Local Institutions (RLIs) can make to Sustainable Livelihoods (SLs), authors bring together two important concerns that emerged among development practitioners in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively. RLIs are important for addressing and mitigating factors of insecurity and instability, dealing in particular with various aspects of vulnerability. RLIs can also support participation (voice), conflict mitigation (peace), and external linkage (market expansion).

The primary goal of this Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS) is to provide a plan for reactivating Angola's productive sectors that reduces the country's reliance on imports while enabling the restoration of export capacity in the medium to long term. Executing such a plan will involve investing in the rehabilitation of infrastructure destroyed by war and making and adjusting policies that affect the institutional underpinnings of a market economy, as well as incentives for exporting and importing.

This study by the World Bank indicates that forests offer vast potential for poverty reduction and rural economic growth in India while also supporting critical national conservation goals. An estimated 275 million people in rural areas depend on forests for at least part of their livelihoods. Forest dwellers, which include a high proportion of tribals, are among the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society. The government of India has adopted Joint Forest Management as a principal approach for community-based forestry.