This study updates the findings of a 1994 study on how the concepts of women in development and gender have evolved within the World Bank, and how Bank policies and lending reflect these concepts. Drawing from documentation including project documents, economic and sector work, and OED evaluations, this study analyzes the overall quality of lending in Fiscal 1994-95 for gender integration, compares it with that of complete projects, and reviews recent economic and sector work and country assistance strategies. The update calls for actions to ensure that gender concerns are addressed in ongoing work on social assessments, performance indicators, and guidance for implementation completion reports.

This book addresses the key questions about postcommunist Belarus, and comes to the optimistic conclusion that Belarus will survive into the twenty-first century, but as a Eurasian, rather than a European state.

Belarus relies on Russia for about 85% of its total energy needs, while Russia needs Belarus' oil and gas pipelines to export its supplies to Western Europe. How will energy exports from Russia and Belarus' transit capabilities impact Western Europe if this interdependent relationship ends, either through political changes in Belarus or if Russia ends its energy subsidies to Belarus? This report looks at transit, infrastructure and investment issues and analyzes both the state of the current infrastructure, as well as the possibilities this transit opens to Western investors, particularly as the Yamal Pipeline nears completion. In addition, it looks at the current conflict between Belarus and Russian investors for control of the country's gas transit system and oil refineries. This series of reports establishes for the first time the confluence of Russian foreign policy with the acquisition of foreign energy assets by Russian entities. Nine specific country profiles focus on the oil, gas, electricity and nuclear power industries. Each report written by an author of international standing, explains how Russian foreign energy downstream mergers and acquisitions are transpiring to consolidate the new Russian empire.

Belarus is one of the least studied European states to emerge from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In fact, few Western specialists paid much attention to its affairs during the Soviet era. Nevertheless, Belarus constitutes an important and sensitive border region between Russia and the western part of the continent. In Postcommunist Belarus, a stellar group of contributors examines the issues and the search for identity that Belarus has confronted in the period leading up to and following independence. The country is run in an authoritarian fashion by President Alexander Lukashenko and many observers, both inside and outside Belarus, would use the term "dictatorship" to describe his rule. Belarusian authorities prefer to emphasize the strong support of the people for the president and his cautious approach to economic reform. It seems unlikely that the country can hold out permanently against the wider pressures of democratization and economic reform that are transforming its neighbors. The country's situation offers political scientists many facets for comparison with established models. Belarus is grappling with challenges that are conceptual and psychological as much as they are political, economic, and social. Through new research, the contributors to Postcommunist Belarus offer an important, coherent, and comparative perspective on this little-known country.

Edited by two of the world's leading analysts of postcommunist politics, this 1997 book brings together distinguished specialists on the former communist countries of Russia and the Western Newly Independent States. Chapters on Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine, plus three chapters on Russia's regional politics, its political parties, and the overall process of democratization, provide an in-depth analysis of the uneven pattern of political change in these four countries. Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott contribute theoretical and comparative chapters on postcommunist political development across the region. This book will provide students and scholars with detailed analysis by leading authorities, plus research data on political and economic developments in each country.

Even though the economic union of Russia and Belarus is virtually complete, important material differences persist between the civil codes of the two countries. Of particular significance to foreign investors in Belarus are the provisions regulating intellectual property, inheritance, and private international law--provisions that set Belarus apart from other CIS jurisdictions and that make it especially attractive to businesses critically affected by these considerations. This fourth volume in the CIS Civil Code series presents the Belarus Civil Code that entered into force on 1 July 1999. William E. Butler's English translation is of the high quality that has come to be expected by counsel for international investors with a special interest in the CIS countries.

Belarus is known as the last dictatorship of Europe , yet its president enjoys public support. Its economy remains largely Soviet, yet exhibits high growth rates. Belarus styles itself as a European country yet clings to Russia as the only ally. The book explains these paradoxes by delving into history of Belarusian national institutions, including civil society, and the state.The book starts with an analysis of Belarusian national development from the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the short-lived Belarusian People s Republic of 1918. The discussion turns to the crucial interwar period, when all national institutions of modern Belarus had taken shape. Belarus s surprising ability to cope with post-Soviet economic and geopolitical changes is discussed in the final chapter.

Belarus remains the most inaccessible, unknown and misunderstood country in Europe. This new guide therefore offers a rare opportunity to study a country and its people as they really are, before the rest of the world catches on.

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