Living Standards Measurement Survey Working Paper No. 121. Explores the link between poverty and lack of infrastructure using the 1992-93 Viet Nam Living Standards Survey. The household data indicate that, in general, access to infrastructure is almost equally bad for the poor and the non-poor, although there are some regional and urban-rural differences. The paper gives particular attention to the potential benefits from an expansion of irrigation infrastructure.

Examines how African policy makers might develop better coordination between the public and private sectors to identify the constraints to faster structural transformation, and to design, implement, and monitor policies to remove them.

Two of the largest World Bank investment projects in Bangladesh are the general education project and the female secondary scholarship and assistance project. This paper evaluates the expected results of these educational projects using the household and school survey data recently collected in rural Bangladesh. Bangladesh spends only 2 percent of its GNP on education, compared to 3.2 percent in an average low-income country and 6 percent in an average high-income country. Low investment in education results in low literacy (only 35 percent), which in turn results in low productivity, low incomes, poor health, and, above all, high population growth. To counter these trends, Bangladesh has invested substantially in the education sector in recent years, with the help of the World Bank and other donor agencies. The objective of this investment has been to improve both the quality and quantity of education, especially among the female population. The general education and female secondary school assistance projects are, in particular, geared to promote better access to primary and secondary education, as well as higher school participation and educational attainment. Based on the rural household and school survey data on both supply and demand factors, this report concludes that school interventions such as more and better schools, better trained and educated teachers, more female teachers, and better water and sanitation facilities in schools promote literacy and improve school participation and school attainment rates. Independent of school-level interventions, complementary investments in village infrastructure (roads and electricity) also have beneficial effects on educational outcomes. The effects of all these interventions are more pronounced for girls than for boys. Contains 28 data tables and figures. (Author/TD)

This title was first published in 2003. Hammouda's text focuses on modernization experiences in the South which, in the 80s had reached their limits, with the adoption of structural adjustment programmes in most countries. Yet, such Washington Consensus inspired programmes met difficulties in initiating new growth dynamics in these countries and in improving their international insertion. Hence, a new era termed post-adjustment by the author has been ushered in, one which is characterized by a decline of structural adjustment programmes and through dynamic and plural research, is striving to introduce new theoretical practices and development strategies. This book is a contribution to such debate.

The societies of Central Asia are besieged from within and without. The political elites - virtually unchanged despite the transition to independent statehood - battle radical Islamic movements and other oppositional threats that are continuously fueled by economic instability, corruption, environmental deterioration, and the collapse of social services. This survey of political, economic, and social development in Central Asia offers geopolitical context, unparalleled coverage, and analytical depth to our understanding of a region that appears to be rapidly spiraling into crisis.

IFC Discussion Paper No. 30. Draws on a case study of a cement plant in Estonia to compare the private costs of curbing pollution with the social benefits that may accrue to the population. The study concludes that the social benefits exceed private costs by a margin that sufficiently justifies the environmental investment.

World Bank Technical Paper No. 382. This technical paper compares and contrasts the governance and regulation of new style power pools in Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These trading markets in electricity commodities and services are explored in various ways. The authors review the basic governance models, compare decisionmakers in the industry, examine market surveillance methods used, and explore the role of government and the regulator. The paper emphasizes the lessons that can be learned from international experiences.

Annotation World Bank Discussion Paper No. 375.Social funds have proved to be important instruments for reaching the poor using community-based strategies. Yet, while there have been innovations in the design of these funds, the projects are much less participatory and demand-oriented than is commonly believed. This paper examines the extent to which social fund subprojects are designed to support community participation, demand orientation, and investment in local organizational capacity to achieve sustainability at the community level.

This book explores the wave of decentralization that has swept through Latin America and the projected institutional changes within the governments in the region. Although it notes the ways in which decentralization implies a critique of past governing patterns, the emphasis is on such potential consequences of governmental change as the strengthening of democratic participation in government and the improvement of local public service. The book draws upon institutional experiments carried out at the state level to examine which decentralization strategies work best in Latin America. It is organized around three major requirements for the success of decentralization: * Establishing the national fiscal framework * Moving government closer to the people * Improving municipal service delivery. Tables illustrate the shift of revenues and expenditures from central authorities to intermediate levels of government.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, manipulation of the democratic process coupled with preexisting political and economic grievances led to years-long civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. During and after these conflicts, international peacekeeping efforts and humanitarian intervention became the dominant paths for restoring stability by rebuilding the state. Using these three countries as case studies, this manuscript sheds light on internationally driven state building in war-torn West African nations, the problematic nature of the postcolonial state, and the difficulties of securing its people's wellbeing. Connecting peace and conflict, democracy, and international development studies, Bah and Emmanuel argue that there is a clear nexus between the concepts and practices of peace building and statebuilding; that peace building and statebuilding are not domestic matters alone but also matters of global intervention; and that civil wars can be viewed as opportunities for state building through creative postwar partnerships and organization. This study goes beyond the familiar concepts of failed states, R2P, peacekeeping, and peace mediation and introduces and enhances the concepts of state decay, new humanitarianism, people-centered liberalism, and institutional design. In doing so, it provides critical lessons that local and international actors can draw on as they try to figure out practical solutions to the political, economic, and social problems that impede the development of peaceful and democratic multiethnic postcolonial states in Africa and beyond. Applying comparative-historical methods and theory to archival materials and expert interviews, International Statebuilding in West Africa seeks to shift the discourse on civil wars from their causes and implications to the opportunities they provide to rework failed states--and to shift the discourse on African states from their colonial and neocolonial legacies to their shared moral and security interests with the rest of the world.