This report, developed by the World Bank's Global Indicators Group, provides a comprehensive analysis of building energy codes (BECs) across 88 countries, highlighting their critical role in driving energy efficiency and sustainable development. With buildings accounting for 37 percent of global...

This report examines the status of reading acquisition in Timor-Leste's primary schools. It is written for education stakeholders and policy makers in Timor-Leste, including government officials, politicians, educators, parents, Timor-Leste's donor partners and Non Governmental Organizations...

This Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) note reviews international experiences and lessons in promoting local government mergers and municipal associations. It seeks to inform efforts to advance institutional reforms in Croatia and address the problem of low local government...

"The authors jointly analyze the static, selection, and dynamic effects of domestic, foreign, and state ownership on bank performance. They argue that it is important to include indicators of all the relevant governance effects in the same model. "Nonrobustness" checks (which purposely exclude...

This issue of environment matters celebrates the 2010 international year of biodiversity and describes some of the challenges and opportunities in protecting biodiversity for the benefit of humankind. From the world's highest mountain ranges to the lowland plains, and from the great oceans and...

The World Bank analyzed the logistics of trade corridors from Gaza through Egypt as an alternative to sending exports via Israel. This paper extends this work and examines the viability of different trade routes from the West Bank. Another earlier paper describes the complex agglomeration of...

Civil service reconstruction is important in post-conflict countries because conflict erodes institutions and civil service capacity. And because successful reconstruction-in all sectors-requires domestic capacity to implement projects, a weak civil service undermines overall reconstruction...