The health workforce is the foundation of care and affects quality and outcomes; human resources for health (HRH) constitutes the largest portion of the health care budget of most countries. Latin America and the Caribbean has been challenged by imbalances in workforce composition, distribution, and skill mix, as well as by variations in productivity and quality. The Health Workforce in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Analysis of Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay provides an update on HRH in these six countries. The discussion is structured around five key areas of...

Doing Business 2016 is the 13th publication in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 189 economies. This year the publication addresses regulations affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity including: Starting a business Dealing with construction permits Getting electricity Registering property Getting credit Protecting minority investors Paying taxes Trading across borders Enforcing contracts Resolving insolvency Doing Business 2016 updates all indicators as of June 1, 2015, ranks economies on their overall ease of doing business, and analyzes reforms to business...

The Global Monitoring Report 2015/2016: Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change details the progress toward the global development goals and examines the impact of demographic change on achieving these goals. Part I examines global development progress, the unfinished development agenda, and the policy opportunities ahead. The report assesses progress toward ending extreme poverty by 2030 and in promoting shared prosperity, and it outlines the measures necessary to scale up impact over the horizon of the Sustainable Development Goals. The report unveils the new poverty line of $1.90...

Digital technologies are spreading rapidly, but digital dividends--the broader benefits of faster growth, more jobs, and better services--are not. If more than 40 percent of adults in East Africa pay their utility bills using a mobile phone, why can t others around the world do the same? If 8 million entrepreneurs in China--one third of them women--can use an e-commerce platform to export goods to 120 countries, why can t entrepreneurs elsewhere achieve the same global reach? And if India can provide unique digital identification to 1 billion people in five years, and thereby reduce...

In a changing world, how can we be sure that women as well as men entrepreneurs and workers obtain the benefit from these changes? Ensuring that women have the same legal opportunities as men is one part of the picture. By measuring where the law treats men and women differently, Women, Business and the Law shines a light on how women's incentives or capacity to work are affected by the legal environment and provides a basis for improving regulation. The fourth edition in a series, Women, Business and the Law 2016: Getting to Equal examines laws and regulations affecting women's prospects as...

International Debt Statistics (IDS) 2016 (formerly Global Development Finance) provides statistical tables showing the external debt of 125 developing countries that report public and publicly guaranteed external debt to the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System (DRS). It also includes tables of key debt ratios for individual reporting countries and the composition of external debt stocks and flows for individual reporting countries and regional and income groups, along with some graphical presentations. IDS 2016 draws on a database maintained by the World Bank External Debt (WBXD) system....

Public procurement accounts for around one-fifth of global gross domestic product (GDP). Given its size the public procurement market can improve public sector performance, promote national competitiveness, drive domestic economic growth, and boost economic development. Launched at the request of the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group, Benchmarking Public Procurement presents actionable indicators to help countries identify and monitor policies and regulations that impact how private sector companies do business with the government in 77 economies. The Benchmarking Public Procurement 2016...

Provides a tool for policymakers to identify and analyse legal barriers for the business of agriculture and to quantify transaction costs of dealing with government regulations.

The Little Data Book 2016 is a pocket edition of World Development Indicators 2015. It is intended as a quick reference for users of the World Development Indicators database, book, and mobile app. The database covers more than 1,200 indicators and spans more than 50 years. The 214 country tables present the latest available data for World Bank member countries and other economies with populations of more than 30,000. The 14 summary tables cover regional and income group aggregates.

Thirty years of economic renovation reforms have catapulted Vietnam from the ranks of the world s poorest countries to one of its great development success stories. Critical ingredients have been visionary leaders, a sense of shared societal purpose, and a focus on the future. Starting in the late 1980s, these elements were successfully fused with the embrace of markets and the global economy. Economic growth since then has been rapid, stable, and inclusive, translating into strong welfare gains for the vast majority of the population. But three decades of success from reforms raises...