The past two decades have witnessed a fundamental transformation in the structure of government across East Asia. Prior to 1990 most East Asian countries were highly centralized; today, decentralization is ubiquitous throughout the region. From China to Thailand, sub-national governments are now responsible for the delivery of critical services and account for a significant proportion of total public expenditure. In just two decades, local and regional authorities have emerged as the organizational fulcrum on which much of the weight of development now falls. 'East Asia Decentralizes' is the...
The past two decades have witnessed a fundamental transformation in the structure of government across East Asia. Prior to 1990 most East Asian countr...
The majority of the world's poor depend directly or indirectly on agriculture. Despite the strong linkages between broad-based agricultural growth and poverty reduction, international support to agriculture sharply declined from the late 1980s. The need to raise agriculture's prominence in the development agenda has never been greater. This book seeks to articulate the World Bank's Rural Strategy on agriculture to the wider development community. It provides decision makers with the rationale for supporting agriculture by presenting the lessons learned on the policies, institutions, and...
The majority of the world's poor depend directly or indirectly on agriculture. Despite the strong linkages between broad-based agricultural growth and...
Investing to promote agricultural growth and poverty reduction is a central pillar of the World Bank's current rural strategy, 'Reaching the Rural Poor' (2003). This 'Sourcebook' addresses how to implement the rural strategy, by sharing information on investment options and identifying innovative approaches that will aid the design of future lending programs for agriculture. It provides generic good practices and many examples that demonstrate investment in agriculture can provide rewarding and sustainable returns to development efforts. It is divided into eleven self-contained modules. Each...
Investing to promote agricultural growth and poverty reduction is a central pillar of the World Bank's current rural strategy, 'Reaching the Rural Poo...
'Approaches to Private Participation in Water Services' is an informative toolkit that provides options for the design of policies to facilitate the delivery of good quality water and sanitation services to the poor. It highlights the need for tariffs, investment, stakeholder consultation, and regulatory policies to address the affordability and sustainability of those services. Targeted to an audience that includes government advisors as well as consultants, lawyers, and donors, the toolkit builds on previous global experience in private participation in water and sanitation supply....
'Approaches to Private Participation in Water Services' is an informative toolkit that provides options for the design of policies to facilitate the d...
Accountability of government to citizens--the idea that the public sector must answer to the people for its performance--is the foundation for good governance. Under good governance, public expenditures are allocated to maximize welfare, revenues are collected efficiently, and the public at large has access to a number of public services including water and sanitation, infrastructure, education and health. Unfortunately in many developing countries, the people suffer the results of dysfunctional governance systems that fail to provide even minimal levels of vital public services. This happens...
Accountability of government to citizens--the idea that the public sector must answer to the people for its performance--is the foundation for good go...
Much of East Asia continues to grow rapidly, driven to a considerable extent by China. Urbanization is proceeding at pace. Demand for infrastructure services is increasing massively, particularly in cities. Much of the demand comes from the newly urbanized poor. Infrastructure has to meet their needs, but has also to continue to provide the underpinnings for the region's growth. The complexity of responding to these demands is greater than ever, and the cost of getting things wrong very high. Poorly conceived infrastructure investments today would have a huge environmental, economic, and...
Much of East Asia continues to grow rapidly, driven to a considerable extent by China. Urbanization is proceeding at pace. Demand for infrastructure s...
In a global development community where gains and successes are always hard-won, providing youngsters with a dynamic education that takes them from primary through secondary to tertiary education and beyond and that helps spur economic growth is surely one of the best investments a country can make, especially when it applies equally to girls and boys. The challenges facing developing countries and transition economies are twofold: to increase access to secondary schooling for all young people and, at the same time, to improve the quality and relevance of secondary education. These challenges...
In a global development community where gains and successes are always hard-won, providing youngsters with a dynamic education that takes them from pr...
Based on careful analysis of burden of disease and the costs ofinterventions, this second edition of 'Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition' highlights achievable priorities; measures progresstoward providing efficient, equitable care; promotes cost-effectiveinterventions to targeted populations; and encourages integrated effortsto optimize health. Nearly 500 experts - scientists, epidemiologists, health economists, academicians, and public health practitioners - from around the worldcontributed to the data sources and methodologies, and identifiedchallenges and...
Based on careful analysis of burden of disease and the costs ofinterventions, this second edition of 'Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countri...
With the end of civil war in 1991, Ethiopia's government launched a New Education and Training Policy in 1994 which, by the early 2000s, had already produced remarkable results. The gross enrollment ratio rose from 20 to 62 percent in primary education between 1993-94 and 2001-02; and in secondary and higher education it climbed, respectively, from 8 to 12 percent and from 0.5 to 1.7 percent. Yet the government can hardly afford to rest on its laurels. Primary education is still not universal, and already there are concerns about plummeting educational quality and the growing pressures to...
With the end of civil war in 1991, Ethiopia's government launched a New Education and Training Policy in 1994 which, by the early 2000s, had already p...
This year's 'Word Development Report', the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person's chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report's main...
This year's 'Word Development Report', the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two ba...