Several economies in the Caribbean region, especially from the lower income group, are highly dependent on remittances. Between 1991 and 2006, the combined flows of total remittances reaching the Caribbean have seen almost a 17% average annual growth rate, surpassing USD 6billion in 2005 and...

A Development Emergency: the title of this year's Global Monitoring Report, the sixth in an annual series, could not be more apt. The global economic crisis, the most severe since the Great Depression, is rapidly turning into a human and development crisis. No region is immune. The poor...

The main objective of this report is to help policymakers in the Caribbean design an agenda of policy actions to accelerate trade integration and growth, and to reduce poverty. Each part of the report focuses on a key question and provides an in-depth analysis of the issues raised, laying the...

This book aims to raise awareness of how the International Benchmarking Network of Water and Sanitation Utilities (IBNET)can help utilities identify ways to improve urban water and wastewater services. It provides an introduction to benchmarking and to the objectives, scope and focus of IBNET...

Inequality in South Asia appears to be moderate when looking at standard indicators such as the Gini index, which are based on consumption expenditures per capita. But other pieces of evidence reveal enormous gaps, from extravagant wealth at one end to lack of access to the most basic services...

Global Economic Prospects 2010: Crisis, Finance and Growth presents the World Bank's latest short-term forecasts. In addition, the report presents evidence that the financial boom played a critical role in the growth boom experienced by developing countries between 2003 and 2007, but that...

Social accountability refers to the wide range of citizen actions to hold the state to account, as well as actions on the part of government, media, and other actors that promote or facilitate these efforts. Social accountability strategies and tools help empower ordinary citizens to exercise...

Banking the Poor explores level and determinants of financial access in 54 countries, mostly in Africa. It collects information from two sources: central banks and leading commercial banks in each surveyed country. It explores associations between countries' banking policies and practices and...

Haiti is a resilient society whose rural communities in particular have developed coping mechanisms in response to a long history of underdevelopment and political instability. The country's religious, cultural, and artistic life is highly diverse and vibrant. Like other fragile states, however,...