Argentina's path to economic prosperity is through efficient, sustainable and economically thriving cities. Not only are cities a spatial concentration of people, but also they generate agglomeration economies by concentrating ideas, talent, and knowledge. Argentina is one of the most urbanized countries in Latin America, with 90 percent of Argentine people currently living in cities. Argentina's cities are geographically and economically diverse, and its largest urban area - Metropolitan Buenos Aires - is one of Latin America's urban giants. Argentine cities need to address three main...

Economic development relies critically on infrastructure development. Yet, without careful planning, the services provided by hydropower facilities and dams are at risk. Ensuring the long-term resilience of these critical infrastructure facilities requires early and consistent attention to the processes of reservoir sedimentation, which reduce the storage capacity of reservoirs and damages hydromechanical equipment, posing a threat to the sustainability of hydropower, water supply, and irrigation services. Written by two of the world's leading experts on sediment management, Extending the...

The health workforce must be able to cope with shifts in the pattern of causes of death and disease that are being seen worldwide--particularly with the rise in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This requires health personnel to have a set of skills and competencies that can adapt to meet the population's growing and changing health needs. This report examines the status of the nurse workforce in the Eastern Caribbean, assessing how best to strengthen its capacity to respond to the growing burden of NCDs. The report is based on four Eastern Caribbean case studies conducted in Dominica,...

South Asia is in the midst of a demographic transition. For the next three decades, the growth of the region s working age population will far outpace the growth of dependents. Close to one million individuals will enter the workforce every month. This large, economically active population can increase the region s capacity to save and make crucial investments in physical capital, job training, and technological advancement. But for South Asia to realize these dividends, it must ensure that its working-age population is productively employed. As one of the most prominent labor-intensive...

The natural endowment of the Democrat Republic of Congo, in the form of land, minerals, and forests, is unparalleled. The right mix of policies has the potential to unleash incentives that could transform the economy. However, transport infrastructure in the DRC is amongst the sparsest and most dilapidated in the world, and this lack of infrastructure is likely a significant constraint to growth. This work considerably advances the information that is available to infrastructure planners, and provides methodologies that could be used to make more informed decisions to identify trade-offs...

Cote d'Ivoire seeks a development strategy to reach middle-income status--a challenge that would require annual growth rates averaging 10 percent over the next 13 years. Global experience of both developed and emerging economies shows that GDP per capita rises with increased urbanization. However, Cote d'Ivoire's economy is underperforming relative to its level of urbanization. The country's urbanization has been negatively correlated with income per capita since the late 1970s, and poverty has been increasing. Rather than consider development of cities individually, successful urbanization...

Excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol products can be an effective instrument for promoting public health through the curbing of smoking and excessive drinking, while raising significant financing for development priorities. Designed and implement well, excise taxes represent a win-win for public health and finances. While the public policy rationale for excise reforms is strong in both developed and developing countries, realizing reforms in practice often faces significant opposition by the industry and vested interests. Low level, complex and poorly designed excise tax regimes persist....

Inadequate electricity services pose a major impediment to reducing extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Simply put, Africa does not have enough power. Despite the abundant low-carbon and low-cost energy resources available to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region s entire installed electricity capacity, at a little over 80 GW, is equivalent to that of the Republic of Korea. Looking ahead, Sub-Saharan Africa will need to ramp-up its power generation capacity substantially. The investment needed to meet this goal largely exceeds African countries already stretched...

The Nigeria Urbanization Review serves the critical and timely purpose of understanding the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in Nigeria. The country's rapid urban population growth and expansion is examined in relation to the account of its recent urban economic growth in order to seek for ways to finance urban development, particularly the provision of urban public goods and services. The objective of this analytical program is to provide diagnostic tools to inform policy dialogue and investment priorities on urbanization. This report serves the critical and timely purpose of...

The Shanghai basic education system has garnered significant attention since its extraordinary performance in the 2009 and 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global assessment of 15-year-olds' educational abilities. Among the 65 participating economies in 2012, Shanghai-China ranked first on all three major domains of PISA, i.e. mathematics, reading, and science. Shanghai also stands out for having the world's highest percentage of "resilient students," students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who emerge as top performers. Shanghai's PISA story has...