The global economic crisis that began in 2008 threatened to erase years of progress in developing countries. In response, the World Bank Group increased lending to unprecedented levels. The World Bank posted a large increase in middle income countries (MICs), and a much smaller one in low income...

Over the past year, the response to the global financial crisis has continued to dominate development and the work of international institutions, including the World Bank Group. Challenges of poverty and fragile states, environment, and climate change remain daunting. But the manner in which...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) introduced the Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP) in 2005 is to 'support the extension of trade finance to underserved clients globally.' The program has since expanded rapidly, and its authorized exposure ceiling was increased in three stages from...

Since the mid-1990s, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has designed a number of strategies for supporting micro, small, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs). The IFC strategy in place since 2001 focuses on: (i) providing financial support to MSMEs through financial intermediaries; and...

Since 2003, Peru has emerged as an open, rapidly growing economy. Over the review period of 2003-09, successive governments adopted policy platforms aimed at maintaining macroeconomic stability, furthering the private sector supply response, broadening participation in growth, improving social...

In the changing global environment of development cooperation, trust funds have emerged as a significant pillar of the global aid architecture, used to address limitations in bilateral aid and fill perceived gaps in the operations of existing multilateral institutions. They currently account for...

The global extreme poverty rate has fallen by half since 1990, but progress within the developing world has been uneven. Extreme poverty remains widespread in most low-income countries while many middle-income countries also continue to have substantial levels with many people there who have...

This country program evaluation (CPE) evaluates World Bank Group (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), or the Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) operations in Brazil from FY2004 through FY2011. It seeks to...

This evaluation assesses the effectiveness of the World Bank Group in helping its member countries improve their investment climates, within the context of the World Bank Group's overall mission of poverty reduction and sustainable development.

This is a Regional Program Review (RPR) of the World Bank's support for the MBC. The review is framed around an assessment of five Global Environment Facility (GEF)-financed World Bank implemented projects in Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama that had the common objective of...