This book evaluates the relevance and effectiveness of Bank assistance to China since the early 1990s. The author finds that the Bank has made important contributions to economic reform, poverty reduction, infrastructure development, and environmental protection, but has fallen short of its...

The needs of World Bank Group (WBG) clients have been changing with the private sector increasingly becoming the engine of growth, and the governments attention shifting from public projects to dealing with the growing private sector: regulating it, establishing partnerships with, and/or...

Partnerships and trust funds are big business for the World Bank Group. It participates in around 126 global partnership programs and administers more than 1000 trust funds which have become a significant source of revenue for the Bank Group and its clients. Partnership and trust funds offer...

Every year, nearly 1.3 million people worldwide are killed in road crashes, which have become the leading cause of death among people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine. More than 90 percent of the world s road fatalities occur in developing countries, and half of the accident victims...

In 2005, the World Bank Group (WBG) formally introduced the results framework in the country assistant strategy (CASs) as a key tool for improving the quality of the WBG's strategy in borrowing member countries, maximizing the development effectiveness of WBG assistance, and demonstrating...

In an effort to bridge the evidence gap, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) prepared a systematic review that gathers and analyzes the available impact evaluation evidence in developing countries from 1990 to 2013 on whether early childhood interventions shape future outcomes. Its purpose is...

Integration of knowledge with lending is an enduring theme in World Bank strategies at the corporate and country levels. It rests on the widely shared proposition that Bank lending instruments could be more relevant and produce better results if they incorporate key analytical, country level...

Middle-income countries (MICs)-the largest group of World Bank Group clients-are critical drivers of the world economy, but they remain vulnerable to global shocks. Addressing the development challenges facing MICs can generate positive externalities and transferable knowledge to lower income...

Insufficient intake or absorption of nutrients results in undernutrition in children and negatively affects their health, physical growth, and cognitive development. These and other nutrition outcomes are affected by immediate determinants that include caregiving practices, dietary intake or...

Growth is good for the poor, but the impact of growth on poverty reduction depends on both the pace and the pattern of growth. A pattern of growth that enhances the ability of poor women and men to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from growth should not come at the expense of a slower...