Iraq was plunged into two simultaneous crises in the second half of 2014, one driven by a sharp decline in oil prices, the other, by Islamic State militants. Since June 2014, crude oil prices per barrel have fallen from around 112 USD to 97 USD in September and 62 USD by December. Given Iraq's...

In recent years, international organizations like OECD and the World Bank have concluded that standard principles of Public Finance Management (PFM) are equally applicable to all areas of the national budget, including the security sector. To date however, very few reviews of PFM systems have...

In late 2013, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) requested that the World Bank and UNSOM jointly conduct a public expenditure review of the security and justice sectors (SJPER). An SJPER is a tool to assist policy and operational decision-making, analyze...

"Security is increasingly viewed as a key condition for economic growth and development. The authors argue that the work and impact of all development partners would be enhanced if the multiple linkages between public finance, security, and development were explicitly taken into account. At the...

In Madagascar, donors have traditionally counted for almost half of the government's budget and have been, by far, the main source of funding in social sectors. Since the beginning of the crisis, official aid toward education, health, and social protection surged, reaching almost US

"Kenya has long had a reputation of being politically risky, manifested in corruption, uncertainty about policies, and the importance of political connections in doing business. Kenya began its economic liberalization in 1993. Reform picked up speed after a tightening of aid by donors on...

The question of how best to compensate veterans in the aftermath of war is one that is relevant to many developing countries. Civil wars and independence struggles often affect the poorest regions of the world, and leave an enormous financial burden, including benefits to former fighters and...

Two of the seven major development challenges of the Royal Government of Bhutan identified for the Donors Development Forum, held in Thimpu in November 2000, were private sector development and employment generation. Given the fact that the public sector is unlikely to expand further in the...