This paper seeks to find an empirical explanation of Vietnam's outstanding performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012. Only a few developing countries participate in the assessment. Those who do, with the unique exception of Vietnam, are typically clustered...

It is widely acknowledged that top-down support is essential for bottom-up participatory projects to be effectively implemented at scale. However, which level of government, national or sub-national, should be given the responsibility to implement such projects is an open question, with wide...

This paper looks at the structural marginalization of eth-nic, religious, and sexual minorities in six pilot economies (Bulgaria, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Tanzania, and Vietnam) and proposes a new methodology for collecting cross-country comparable data on antidiscrimination legal...

This paper reviews the experiences of intergovernmental fiscal systems (IGFS) to look for possible lessons for how Official Development Assistance (ODA) is delivered. Specifically, it compares IGFS and ODA in two specific respects. The first is the proportion of public resources that central...

This comparative study seeks to contribute to the ongoing dialogue and development of policy frameworks specifically in Azerbaijan and Central Asia. Given the IFC's current transformation work in this area, the countries that have been included in this study are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,...

Social enterprises are emerging as a new area of public policy: several countries seek to stimulate private sector contribution to development outcomes, and social enterprises could be important players in that agenda. However, those seeking a middle ground between for-profit and non-profit...