The rapid growth of private participation in infrastructure (PPI) in developing countries during the 1990s was followed by a subsequent decline in investments and the re-negotiation and cancellation of some prominent projects. This has lead to controversy as to the impact and the future of PPI. This report attempts to explain the factors behind the growth and decline of PPI, its impact and the policy lessons that have been learnt from this experience. It concentrates on the experience with the private provision of infrastructure over the last 15 years. 'Private Participation in Infrastructure...

Financial Sector Policy and the Poor presents new empirical evidence on how financial sector policy can help the poor. It is often thought that promotion of specialized microfinance institutions is the best or only way forward. However, a strong mainstream financial system is also pro-poor - perhaps even more so. While mainstream financial depth is measurably associated with lower poverty, for microfinance this is not yet so. The roles played by microfinance and mainstream finance in tackling poverty should be regarded as complementary and overlapping rather than as competing...

'Enterprise Size, Financing Patterns, and Credit Constraints in Brazil' investigates the importance of firm size with respect to accessing credit. The principal findings are that size strongly affects access to credit compared to firm performance, and other factors, such as management education, location or the industrial sector to which the firm belongs. Additional findings are that the impact of size on access to credit is greater for longer term loans and that public financial institutions are more likely to lend to large firms. Finally, financial access constraints may have a less...

This report provides key insights into the social exclusion processes that affect Roma and Egyptian communities in Albania two of the most vulnerable minority communities in Albania. It offers advice on the design of concrete actions to facilitate the inclusion of Roma and Egyptian communities into Albanian society, and also includes feedback from the Roma and Egyptian communities on the study findings and recommendations. 'Roma and Egyptians in Albania' includes supporting data collected via participatory methodologies conducted in eleven study sites to investigate the socio-economic,...

The Uganda Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Project was one of the World Bank's first projects to demonstrate the value-added of strategic communication. The strategic communication component developed for this project included the use of formative research about values and attitudes with respect to child rearing, in order to develop and test effective messages. The communication strategy was developed in a highly participatory manner and included nurturing a team of champions for the project among policymakers, district officials, community leaders, and grassroots organizations to...