The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has made a strong commitment to strengthening public service delivery through three interrelated public sector reform initiatives: Public Financial Management Reform Program (PFMRP), National Program for Public Administration Reform (NPAR), and...

Myanmar's decentralization of governance, financing and service delivery is taking place against aparticularly challenging backdrop. Myanmar is a country with considerable geographic and socialdiversity and a history of isolation, conflict and underdevelopment. Decades of civil conflict and...

The aim of this note is to present and analyze subnational fiscal trends in Russia in the context of overall slowing economic growth and falling oil prices over the last few years. In particular, in 2015, GDP fell by 3.7 percent. Despite efforts to cut expenditures, the federal deficit increased...

The World Bank's Nepal Fiscal Federalism Update (NFFU) aims to report annually on the progress of fiscal federalism in Nepal and identify implementation gaps. This second update reviews the progress on fiscal federalism since the publication of the first report and provides an update on economic...

This report presents a review of the intergovernmental fiscal transfer reforms program (IGFTRP) and its performance since 2015, as part of a broader Public Expenditure Review (PER) that aimed to explore avenues for improving efficiency effectiveness in cross cutting areas of service delivery....

The World Bank Nepal Fiscal Federalism Update aims to report annually on the progress of fiscal federalism in Nepal and identify implementation gaps. This first such update reviews the progress on fiscal federalism since the publication of the Federalism Capacity Needs Assessment (FCNA) in 2019

This paper aims to contribute to the Government's plans by highlighting key policy options for reforming the tax system to address environmental concerns. It does this through firstly assessing the existing tax system to understand the incentives and measures in place in relation to...

Evidence from across the world shows that raising taxes sharply on tobacco products, and then adjusting for inflation and increased affordability due to growing incomes, is the single most cost-effective measure to reduce tobacco consumption. A scaled-up and stronger tobacco control effort is...

North Macedonia continues to improve its environmental performance and the efficacy of its environmental regulation. As part of this effort, the World Bank is working with the government of North Macedonia on environmental tax reform. The government is interested in utilizing the tax system to...

Having implemented a substantial fiscal response to COVID-19, Thailand's government now faces the medium-term challenge of reducing elevated deficit and debt levels, and the structural challenge of meeting rising spending needs, including those associated with an aging population, while...