The nearly 750 million people who live in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are among the world's poorest. To foster the economic growth required to create jobs, raise living standards, and hasten development, SSA nations need to attract more foreign capital, which, by enhancing imported technology and...

Sub-Saharan Africa's long-term growth performance will need to improve significantly for the region to visibly reduce poverty and raise the standard of living to an acceptable level. Appropriate actions will also be needed to ensure that an adequate share of the growing income is devoted to...

Lesotho has built a small but significant manufacturing sector, representing about 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). During the past decade, the sector has increased 14-fold, an exceptional achievement by African standards. This growth was due largely to an export boom of ready-made...

The effect of foreign ownership in Africa is based on an analysis of survey data of firms in Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Kenya compiled by the Regional program on Enterprise Development (RPED). This study attempts to show the relationship between foreign ownership and firm-level value added in...

An accurate estimate of public expenditure flows must start from the distribution and recording systems which would permit accurate tracking. While the strategies to improve these systems in Ghana are beyond the scope of this study, it presents here the problems encountered while trying to track...

A Global Environment Facility (GEF) special study on stakeholder participation and social issues, including science and technology, was conducted for 30 GEF-financed biodiversity conservation and sustainable use projects which have been completed or are near completion. The findings indicate...

As highlighted in the seminal UN study on the "Impact of armed conflict on children," an increased involvement of recent decades, stands as one of the most egregious child rights violations. Yet, a new study "Child soldiers: preventing, demobilizing, and reintegrating," demonstrates that...

A relative latecomer to telecommunications reform, Mauritania, a low-income country of 2.5 million inhabitants on the Western edge of the Sahara, embarked on tan ambitious telecommunication reform in 1998. At that time, this largely desert nation had one of the lowest penetrations of telephony...

The reform, a key component of a larger economic recovery and adjustment operation, and of the agricultural sector strategy, focused on the liberalization of coffee and cocoa prices, their primary marketing and export, all previously regulated by a marketing board. The main objectives of the...

To gather information on special population groups pregnant women, military men, truck drivers, sex workers through testing for common STDs and making inquiries regarding sexual practices and attitudes using a rapid assessment methodology. The studies: (i) are the first ever reliable source of...