A systematic diagnosis of a revenue administration is a prerequisite to developing a successful strategy for its reform. However, given the complexity of tax and customs administration, this is not a simple task. A host of external and internal factors need to be analyzed to uncover the roots of organizational and institutional dysfunction. Also, the diagnosis needs to be done in a participatory manner to build consensus around the causes for inadequate performance and their remedies. This framework enables a step-by-step analysis of the environment, history, resources, strategy,...

'Managing food safety risks is becoming a prerequisite for participation in international trade, and taking advantage of trade opportunities is an important element in the World Bank's strategy to reduce poverty.' - Mr. Robert L. Thompson, Director, Rural Development, World Bank Food safety requires investment in a comprehensive system covering the provision of information, training and infrastructure development. Without this investment, the developing countries will not reap the necessary benefits. 'Food Safety Issues in the Developing World' examines three main issues: what food security...

As urban populations continue to grow, solid waste management becomes critical. Searching for ways to dispose of it poses a serious problem for municipal managers. Locating a site on the outskirts of the city creates concerns about how to ensure that daily operations are environmentally sound. Mass burn incineration systems like those found in developed countries attract municipal managers, but the capital and operating requirements for such plants surpass those needed for landfills. To assist local officials with developing cost effective strategies for dealing with solid waste management,...

'Restructuring has produced a definite favorable impact on labor relations and workers behavior in the reorganized farms. Managers of reorganized farm enterprises give a much more positive assessment of the behavioral patterns of their workers than managers of non-reorganized farms.' Agriculture remains the main source of employment and livelihood for the large rural population of many transition countries, especially among the former Soviet republics. Accordingly the World Bank continuously monitors the progress of land reform and farm restructuring in the region because of the potential...

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource for most of the world's citizens. The current trends indicate that the overall situation is likely to deteriorate further, at least for the next decade, unless the water profession eschews 'business as usual' practices, which can only allow incremental changes to occur. Groundwater is the least understood and least appreciated, yet the most important, natural resource available to mankind. Groundwater represents about 97% of the existing fresh water resources, excluding the resources locked in polar ice. More than one and a half billion people...

'Excessive concentration of land ownership, as is feared by many transition governments, has not been a feature of land markets where they have been allowed to function relatively freely and where land has been allocated in kind to households and individuals.' The World Bank has long been active in the Europe and Central Asia region in monitoring and evaluating land reform developments and supporting the development of land markets. Bank efforts to date have made a significant impact in our client countries, and studies produced by the Bank have been used as impartial references on this...

Hungary and Kazakhstan have privatized a large portion of their electric power and natural gas industries, but have followed different strategies. In contrast, the other former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe have privatized almost none. Has the privatization in these two countries been a success? What lessons can other countries learn from their experience? These countries began their reforms from different starting points. The Hungarian power and gas sectors had a long history of being relatively well managed. In contrast, Kazakhstan inherited pieces of the old systems...

Forests play a vital role in maintaining Nepal's impressive biodiversity, which has global significance: With only 0.1 percent of the world's total area, Nepal contains 2 percent of the planet's flowering plants, 8 percent of its birds, and 4 percent of its mammals. As Nepal develops its forest resources, it needs to minimize the biotic pressures affecting the structure and dynamics of forest plant communities and wildlife populations and thereby reverse the current destructive pressures on the country's biodiversity. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the ways in which...

Water is increasingly recognized as a scarce resource that must be managed more efficiently than in the past. In addition to physical scarcity, the cost of accessing these resources is climbing. This publication explores institutional frameworks in three case studies of long-standing and successful water markets. These cases demonstrate the common features and essential elements of water markets. They also show how to design markets that consider the local institutional, social, and political conditions and how to integrate those markets into existing water resource management arrangements....

'Many countries are undertaking legal and judicial reforms as part of their overall development programs; there is increasing recognition that economic and social progress requires consolidation of democracy as well as respect for the rule of law and human rights; without these development is not sustainable.' Many developing countries find that their judiciaries are inconsistent in conflict resolution and carry a large backlog of cases, thus stifling private-sector growth, eroding individual and property rights, and perhaps even violating human rights. Delays affect both the fairness and the...