This book offers an analysis of the gap between the benefits of pharmaceuticals and the reality that for millions of poor people in India, these medicines are often inaccessible, unaffordable or improperly used. It details several strategic options that have the potential to strengthen India's ability to ensure the availability, affordability, and the proper use of essential medicines on a sustained basis.

This volume presents two recent analyses, prompted by the recent East Asian crisis, of government responses to financial crises. It evaluates the tradeoffs involved in public policies for systemic financial and corporate sector restructuring. This book also draws on cross-country evidence to help determine whether specific crisis containment and resolution policies effect the fiscal costs of resolving a crisis. A comprehensive database, of 113 systemic banking crises that have occurred in 93 countries since the 1970s, is included. Also incorporated in this database is information on 50...

Governments have increasingly come to recognize the economic potential and fiscal advantages of privatization. Privatization, under the right conditions, can also yield environmental benefits and contribute to sustainable development. This report contains a number of case studies which highlight the lessons learned about the environmental implications of privatization. It stresses that privatization offers an opportunity for making strategic decisions with longer-term impacts. This report also emphasizes that integrating environmental and social considerations into the privatization process...

Concerns about global warming and the availability of clean renewable sources of energy are increasing. However, as private companies take over state power utilities, the demand for profit has stifled those concerns. Currently the private sector is building over 40 megawatts of fossil-fuel thermal plants for each new megawatt of hydropower. This report examines the reasons for building fewer hydropower plants and looks at ways to eliminate some of the drawbacks. It studies ten privately financed hydro schemes, which represent all but the smaller projects likely to be considered for private...

Since 1985, national economies have become increasingly integrated into a global network. At the same time, both population and production in developing countries are becoming concentrated in urban regions. This, in turn, has generated demands for more local autonomy, shifting more decision making to sub-national levels. Globalization is expected to continue leading to greater openness and international mobility of capital and people. There are few reasons to believe that these trends will abate if anything, they are likely to intensify the focus on cities and sharpen competition among these...

'Aware of the increased demand for energy, the Chinese government is striving to develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure that continued economic growth is sustained by sufficient energy supplies. Energy and environmental security are driving forces of national energy policy.' In an effort to meet the continuing demand of the power sector and ensure stability of fuel supply sources, the State Power Corporation asked for World Bank assistance to assess the viability of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a fuel source for coastal provinces. In response to their request, the Bank...

What can be done to rapidly and effectively contain systemic risks, restore the solvency and profitability of financial institutions, minimize the impact of financial sector distress on the economy and limit the fiscal costs of a crisis? What set of policies contribute to a rapid and successful resolution of a banking crisis and under what conditions? Can a model of bank restructuring that proved to be successful in one country be easily implemented in others? The resolution of a banking crisis is not an event, but a long and complex process. This paper analyzes and compares the causes of the...

The impetus for change in African legal reform is coming primarily from African women themselves, as they respond to their personal and practical experiences with the law. Top-down imposition of norms has not worked; if legal reform is to lead to sustainable equity for women, the voices of these women must be heard. Given that previous efforts to ensure greater equity in personal laws have not been fully successful in eastern African countries, any new legal initiatives must not repeat the mistakes of the past. Law must not again remain merely on the books as a legitimizing tool that...