In this context, Bhutan can become wealthier through accelerating both domestic and foreign investment, as well as signing investment treaties. These investments could provide not just capital but also bring necessary skills, knowledge and ideas, and help the country move beyond hydropower....

Trade can dramatically improve women's lives, creating new jobs, enhancing consumer choices, and increasing women's bargaining power in society. It can also lead to job losses and a concentration of work in low-skilled employment. Given the complexity and specificity of the relationship between...

In 2006-07, the Water and Sanitation Program-South Asia (WSP-SA) initiated a research toidentify barriers to service delivery for the urban poor. The research included a review ofvarious initiatives from across the globe that have resulted in improved service delivery for theurban poor and...

This note looks at the experience countries have had in introducing reforms that improved the business environment. Instead of examining what was done (that is, the content of reforms), the focus is placed on how reform programs came to be successful. The note aims to provide an overview of...

The initial hours and days after a humanitarian emergency are generally seen as the most important. Because they affect the rapid deployment of relief to people in need, international trade policies, and the way in which they are implemented, can make an enormous difference to the effectiveness...

The Palestinian economy is severely hampered by trade-related restrictions, high logistics costs, cumbersome procedures and institutional inefficiencies. Operating within an uneven customs union arrangement with Israel, the Palestinian economy has accumulated an enormous trade deficit and...

Jordan's economic performance remains tempered in 2017 while the fiscal adjustment is in progress; yet there are positive signs on the horizon. Real GDP growth for 2017 is expected to reach 2.1 percent, just a 0.1 percentage point (pp) increase from 2016. On the supply side, services continue to...