Urban and rural local development projects share common goals with tourism insofar as they aim to improve the quality of life, the attractiveness of locales and to increase economic opportunities and incomes for residents. In Santa Rosa de Copan a World Bank financed project has reinforced links...

Limited innovation in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries impairs the region's potential to grow and improve its living standards. Ever since the seminal research of Solow (1957), economists have known that technological change, and not only factor accumulation, is critical to growth....

The main objective of CReCER is to create greater awareness of the importance of sound financial reporting and auditing for the development of a well functioning market economy and of an efficient public sector, which in turn are the cornerstone for equitable and sustainable economic...

The Latin American and Caribbean region has made significant progress in some basic indicators of gender equality (access to education and health services and female labor force participation) and lags behind in others. However, a second generation of emerging issues suggests that, although...

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has one of the highest levels of crime and violence in the world. While the average world homicide rate is 11 homicides per 100,000 residents, the rate in the LAC region is 36 per 100,000 (WHO, 2003). Crime and violence are now recognized as serious...

The trend toward new tourism niches in Latin America and the Caribbean (hereafter, LAC) has brought benefits, but also costs to the region's indigenous peoples. As the World Bank social and environmental portfolios in LAC reveal, work with indigenous groups has frequently favored tourism as a...

The trend toward new tourism niches in Latin America and the Caribbean (hereafter, LAC) has brought benefits, but also costs to the region's indigenous peoples. As the World Bank social and environmental portfolios in LAC reveal, work with indigenous groups has frequently favored tourism as a...

As the global economy rapidly changes and new technologies are introduced, more highly skilled workers are required. In the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), firms struggle to fill skilled positions due to a lack of qualified candidates, while the number of unemployed low skilled...

Housing is one of the most important sectors of the economy -- in developing countries as in richer ones -- with large positive externalities in terms of economic growth, public health and societal stability. It is the primary form of asset accumulation for the poor -- often representing more...

Climate change is a very serious environmental challenge that affects prospects for sustainable development. Since the Industrial Revolution, the mean surface temperature of Earth has increased an average of one degree Celsius per century mainly due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases (CHGs)...