European Council approved the Europe 2020 strategy, an economic growth and wellbeing improvement plan for the European Union (EU) in the ensuing decade. The strategy includes five interrelated headline targets to be achieved by the year 2020, encompassing employment, innovation, education,...

The objective of this paper, besides offering insight in the regional and global development and stability issues, is to initiate a dialog with housing finance market stakeholders on the course of action appropriate for their jurisdictions. The policy options presented in the paper are practical...

This study aims to contribute to the debate about the appropriateness of health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for the countries of the Europe and Central Asia region. It is primarily addressed at policy advisors and senior analysts at the local, regional, and global level, who...

This toolkit aims to help World Bank task teams working on energy subsidy and tariff reforms to develop qualitative analysis tools. The tools that are described in this document can help task teams to better understand and address social and political challenges related to these reforms,...

Europe and Central Asia have suffered a setback in economic growth because of the recent global crisis, which revealed fundamental structural weaknesses previously hidden by the prosperity before the crisis. The major weaknesses are the large savings deficits, the lagging reforms in the social...

The climate is changing; and the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region is vulnerable to the consequences. Many of the region's countries are facing warmer temperatures, a changing hydrology and more extremes, droughts, floods, heat waves, windstorms, and forest fires. Already the frequency and...

Health financing systems in some Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries are undergoing some major reforms. In parallel with the transition from central planning to develop market-based economies, countries in Central Europe have moved within a relatively short period of time from having health...

The financial crisis threatens the welfare of about 160 million people in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region who are poor or are just above the poverty line. Using pre-crisis household data along with aggregate macroeconomic outturns to simulate the impact of the crisis on households,...

Public concerns in Europe and Central Asia over the recent sharp increase in asylum seekers and undocumented migrants seem to reflect a broader anxiety about reduced job security, caused by technological developments and internationalization of production and work. Policy reforms should help...

This report provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities in addressing road safety in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It presents information on the size, characteristics, and causes of the problem; presents evidence on the effectiveness of measures that countries...