In 2004, the government of Sierra Leone
opted for a rethink of its national governance arrangement
by embarking on the resuscitation of democratically elected
local government after 32 years experimenting with central
government appointed district and municipal governments. The
decision by the government and the people of Sierra Leone
was driven by a primary consideration to address the
country's seeming nonperformance in the areas of

Globalization has brought about a rapid
expansion of international trade and a dramatic change in
trade structure. The liberalization of trade in goods and
services, containerization, new integrated transport
networks, advances in information communication technology
and modern business logistics have created unprecedented
business opportunities for the trade and transport
industries, as firms increasingly rely on global supply

Jordan is a small, middle-income, open
economy, with a limited natural resources base and active
trade flows. As the integration of Jordan in the World
Economy progresses, enhancing Jordan's environmental
management can not only improve the wellbeing of Jordanians,
but also enable the country to better compete in
increasingly environmentally conscious markets. To date
there has not yet been a comprehensive assessment of

Women are a powerful force for
sustainable economic growth. A growing body of microeconomic
empirical evidence and emerging macroeconomic analysis shows
that gender inequality limits economic growth in developing
economies. Research also shows that considerable potential
for economic growth could be realized if countries support
women's full economic participation. Increases in
women's income tend to correlate with greater

The current global financial and
economic crises are likely to put enormous pressure on
governments to respond with immediate measures and to
undertake far-reaching reforms in the medium term, requiring
a substantial increase in donor support. To protect the poor
and enhance benefits to them, key policy reforms will need
to be underpinned by systematic analysis of their expected
poverty and social impacts. The World Bank's experience

Mauritania has undergone massive
economic and political changes. Mauritania is a West African
country located on the western edge of the Sahara desert,
with a population of approximately 3 million people that is
mostly concentrated in the urban areas. Since independence
in the 1960s, Mauritania's economy has been dependent
on natural resources, iron ore first then combined with
fisheries, and presently oil and other minerals. Natural

The newly delineated Peshawar City
District (PCD) has undergone significant transformations in
the past ten years. Originally encompassing the adjoining
districts of Charsadda and Nowshera, the district gradually
shrunk in size after both sub-divisions acquired a district
status of their own in the mid-nineties. However, as the
provincial capital, Peshawar continues to enjoy a special
status within North West Frontier Province (NWFP). It houses

This Agriculture Public Expenditure
Review (AgPER) comprehensively reviews public expenditures
on agriculture in Uganda and analyzes their efficiency and
effectiveness. Its genesis lies in Agriculture Sector
Working Group (A-SWG) discussions, especially during the
budget process, which raised concerns about the seemingly
low budget allocations to the sector and the failure to
align limited resources with recognized priorities in the

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

Uganda needs to focus on improving the
effectiveness of its roads investment strategy for rural
Uganda and improving the manner in it procures and
implements roads contracts at the national level. In recent
years the Government of Uganda has shifted the priorities in
its national development strategy as there was accumulating
evidence that infrastructure deficiencies had become a
binding constraint to economic growth and poverty reduction.

The issue of regional differences in
development has moved to the center of the development
debate in Sri Lanka, partly after the release of regional
poverty data. For the past many years, there have been
significant and increasing differences between the Western
province and the rest of the country in terms of per capita
income levels, growth rates of per capita income, poverty
rates, and the structure of provincial economies. The

The objectives of this Country
Environmental Analysis (CEA) were to assess the
environmental quality in the Philippines with a focus on how
this affects human welfare and sustainability, measure and
analyze the biophysical significance and monetary cost of
environmental degradation and derive priority areas of
action, assess the Philippines government's capacity to
manage the environmental challenges identified, and identify