The main objective of this document is to map key policy issues that need to be addressed to successfully implement energy sector reform at the national, and regional levels, and, provides an overview of global, European, and Mediterranean trends, aiming at facilitating the dissemination of best...

Access to information, and communications technologies has become crucial to a sustainable agenda of economic development, and poverty reduction, and yet access remains concentrated in a few regions and population groups, with the contours of this new "digital divide" closely following, and...

A perplexing question has become increasingly important: Does investment promotion really work? The authors hereby made a major step in providing a convincing answer to this question. Because many countries were not yet trying to promote investment, the authors could conduct a very simple test:...

Since the past decade, several Sub-Saharan African governments, through technical assistance provided by the World Bank and other donors, have undertaken to reform their telecommunications sectors, by implementing market liberalization policies, privatizing the incumbent public operator, and...

The report discusses the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency's (MIGA) activities for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001. Highlights discussed in this report include: 1) country membership; 2) guarantee operations; 3) MIGA's financial statements; and, 4) technical assistance services,...

This annual report reviews the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) operations activity during FY03, a period that emphasized coordination, and mutually reinforcing efforts among World Bank Group units, particularly in pursuing private sector development in client countries. The report...

This publication intends to improve the chances of success of Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) in two ways: 1. To show policymakers how strategic communication can help them achieve some of their objectives in formulating and executing effective Poverty Reduction Strategies. 2. To give...

The knowledge initiative aims to expand knowledge sharing as a way of doing business-not a separate line of business. It also proposes, appropriately, a comprehensive strategy to bring about both internal and external changes. This evaluation examines the relevance of that strategy and the...

Despite the existence of about one billion illiterates in the world, adult literacy programs make up 1-5 percent of government or donor budgets, and they remain severely underfunded in comparison to primary education. Though dropout and course completion rates improved in the 1990s, the outcomes...