Le commerce est essentiel a la croissance economique et la reduction de la pauvrete. En Afrique subsaharienne, ou les trois quarts de la population vit en milieu rural, promouvoir une croissance soutenue generatrice de revenus et d'emplois est d'une importance capitale pour les strategies de reduction de la pauvrete. Or, de nombreuses economies Africaines continuent a dependre lourdement de la production et des exportations de produits agricoles traditionnels (cafe, cacao, coton), dont les prix reels n ont cesse de diminuer au cours des trois dernieres decennies. Ceci a entraine une...

Describes how the timely use of two-way communication in large water infrastructure projects leads to improved project design and is key to identify and address problems that could result in project delays and incremental costs.

This study reviews the recent developments in capital markets and institutional investors in Russia, and examines the policy challenges ahead for the development of the sector. The analysis covers key impediments for further development and policy challenges for securities markets, in particular legal and regulatory framework, market infrastructure, government bonds, sub-sovereign bonds, corporate bonds, and equities. The analysis also covers key impediments for furhter development and policy challenges for mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies.

In the past fifteen years, most countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have shifted from predominantly collective to more individualized agriculture. These years also have witnessed the largest fall in agricultural production, yields, and rural employment on record, while the deterioration and dissolution of collective and state farms have been accompanied by a significant drop in rural public services. 'Land Reform and Farm Restructuring in Transition Countries' provides a structured and comparative review of important aspects of land reform and...

'Recruiting, Retaining and Retraining Secondary School Teachers and Principals in Sub-Saharan Africa' is based on country studies in Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda and an extensive literature review. In many parts of Africa, the demand for secondary teachers substantially exceeds the supply due to factors such as secondary teacher attrition, bottlenecks in the teacher preparation system, and perceived unattractive conditions of service. Few countries have strong policies, strategies, and programs for recruiting able secondary leavers to secondary teaching. The paper...

'The Link between Health, Social Issues and Secondary Education' is based on country studies in six Sub-Saharan African countries--Eritrea, Mali, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, and a literature review. It looks at the role of secondary education and training in promoting health, civics and life skills among the African youth. Specifically, this study focuses on examining which schooling programs are effective in equipping young people with life skills, which programs reduce drop-out and increase participation and how schools can become agents in tackling health and social...

'Developing Science, Mathematics and ICT in Secondary Education' is based on country studies from ten Sub-Saharan African countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and a literature review. It reveals a number of huge challenges in science, mathematics and ICT (SMICT) education in sub-Saharan Africa: poorly-resourced schools; large classes; a curriculum hardly relevant to the daily lives of students; a lack of qualified teachers; and inadequate teacher education programs. Through examining country case studies, this paper...

'Higher Education Financing in the New EU Member States' summarizes the experiences to date of the new EU countries (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia the EU8) in the reform of higher education systems in a period of growing demand; changing patters of access; rapid expansion and increased participation rates; and an apparent dilution of average quality. The study discusses the growing experience with a variety of financing mechanisms in EU8 countries, drawing on detailed country case studies, and seeks to develop some useful lessons from...

This report assesses the status and practice of higher education quality assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on degree-granting tertiary institutions. A main finding is that structured national-level quality assurance processes in African higher education are a very recent phenomenon and that most countries face major capacity constrains. Only about a third of them have established structured national quality assurance mechanism, often only as recently as during the last ten years. Activities differ in their scope and rigor, ranging from simple licensing of institutions by the minister...

This World Bank Working Paper discusses equity and efficiency issues in secondary education transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its main purpose is to identify and analyze national, regional, and local measures that may lead to the development of more efficient and seamless transitions between post-primary education pathways. In most African countries student transition from primary to junior secondary is still accompanied by significant repetition and dropout. Transitions within the secondary cycle also cause significant losses and should use more effective assessment and selection...