Public-private partnerships (PPPs) can sometimes be perceived as a means for delivering infrastructure for free. A more nuanced but still inexact view is that they are a mechanism to overcome fiscal constraints. Some argue, perhaps rightly, that often governments enter PPP contracts without...

Appropriate and effective regulatory frameworks remain crucial for ensuring that investments in infrastructure are done strategically and efficiently. Benchmarking infrastructure development 2020 assesses the regulatory quality for preparation, procurement, and management of large infrastructure...

The report presents both the opportunities of and the bottlenecks for furthering the digital agenda. It emphasizes that the first step is to get the basics right. This includes enabling access to and adoption of high-quality affordable broadband, initiating a paradigm shift in building digital...

This report examines the role of infrastructure in explaining why the region lags so far behind the rest of the country. More importantly, it looks at how improved infrastructure may help the region catch up. Infrastructure is examined here through its impact on social as well as economic...

A large number of studies in recent years have attempted to analyze and quantify the myriad of restrictions holding back economic development in the West Bank and Gaza, but the full picture remains blurred. The main value proposition of this study is to assess and quantify the overall prospects...

This study seeks to understand the structure and workings of the labyrinth to propose a concrete escape. It attempts to answer the following questions. (1) Why is it that Chad could not translate the discovery of oil into structural development, economic diversification and sustainable growth?...

The World Bank prepared three background studies as inputs for the development of the Cambodia Logistics Master Plan led by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) in 2017-2018. These studies benefit from a close coordination and collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)...

This report stems from the work initiated in the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) forUzbekistan in May 2016, which identified the quality of job creation as a central, cross-cuttingtheme. The SCD emphasized that "over the medium term, creating high-productivity, high-paying jobs for...

The Mashreq countries must fully leverage digital infrastructure as well as their relative strengths in transforming their economies. The report lays out the strategic importance of digital infrastructure for countries in the region, takes stock of its status, and provides recommendations....