This paper (RE-295) evaluates the Bank's program with Ecuador from 1990 to 2002. Throughout the 1990-2002 period, Ecuador continued facing these same development challenges as in the previous one: (i) how to move the economy away from its dependency on primary production, (ii) how to improve...

The period reviewed by the current Country Program Evaluation (RE-328) covers from 2001 to 2006. It spans the Bank's latest programming cycle, which includes the end of the Carlos Flores administration, as well as the Ricardo Maduro administration. The current review's approach is to take the...

The following paper (RE-297) is a review of the Bank's experience in Bolivia from 1990 to 2002. It is produced at a time when the country is faced with a critical fiscal scenario, and in the aftermath of substantial social tensions that have led to the resignation of former President Gonzalo...

The 2000-2008 Country Program Evaluation (CPE) for Trinidad and Tobago (RE-353) was conducted by the Office of Evaluation and Oversight to inform the Board's discussion with IDB Management regarding future strategy for each country. It involved three weeks of missions to both Trinidad and...

This Country Program Evaluation (RE-262) covers the period 1990-2000. During the decade, Peru was the focal point for development assistance from both multilateral and bilateral institutions. This paper includes a description of the country context and development challenges, a diagnosis and...

We investigate the relevance of beta (β, absolute and conditional) and sigma (σ) convergence in the economies of the Common Monetary Area of Southern Africa and in the provinces of the Republic of South Africa using panel data, allowing an understanding of growth and inequality in the region....

The country studies and their background papers included in this book were prepared for the Latin America and the Caribbean section of the "Global Research Project: Explaining Growth" of the Global Development Network (GDN), a research effort conducted in association with the Latin American and...

Since 1994, a great deal has been accomplished. We argue that poverty reduction was temporarily sidelined in the 2000s. A series of shocks, especially the fuel and food price crisis of 2008, combined with poor productivity growth in agriculture and a weather shock, undermined progress in...

After many years of relatively slow growth, Tanzania's national accounts data report accelerated aggregate growth since around 2000. Our analysis shows that there has been somewhat slower growth in private consumption and in sectors such as agriculture in which most of the poor work and live....

Ghana is relatively rare among Sub-Saharan African countries in having had sustained positive growth every year since the mid-1980s. This paper analyses the nature of the growth and then presents an analysis of the evolution of both consumption poverty and non-monetary poverty outcomes over this...