Most people agree that a good investment climate is essential for growth and poverty reduction. Less clear is how to achieve it. Drawing from more than 25 case studies, this book shows that reform often requires paying as much attention to dealing with the politics and institutional dimensions as to designing policy substance. While there is no single recipe or 'manual' for reform, the authors highlight three broad lessons. The first is to recognize and seize opportunities for reform. Crisis and new governments are important catalysts, but so is the competition generated by trade integration...

This book examines how light manufacturing can offer a viable solution for Sub-Saharan Africa's need for structural transformation and productive job creation, given its potential competitiveness based on low wage costs and an abundance of natural resources that supply raw materials needed for industries. Based on five different analytical tools and data sources, the book examines in detail the binding constraints in each of the subsectors relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): apparel, leather goods, metal products, agribusiness, and wood products. Ethiopia is used as an example, with...

South Asia is undergoing a rapid economic transformation and has the potential to become the next major middle-income region of the world. More than a million young people are reaching working age every month, and the population of the region's mega agglomerations and sprawling cities is expanding at roughly the same pace. By 2030 more than a quarter of the world's working adults will live in South Asia. But the region has not been particularly successful in integrating within itself and with the global economy. The demographic transition and urbanization on the one hand, and poor...