This issue of the Handshake, IFCs
quarterly journal on public-private partnerships, contains
the following topics of interest: weighing the options: burn
or bury?; waste and climate: supporting governments;
community engagement: integrating Indias informal sector; an
interview with the director of the documentary Trashed; and
bonus: podcast with 2013 CNN hero on community cleanups.

This issue includes the following
headings: road: Brazils competitive drive; rail: speeding
toward tomorrow; logistics: MIT expert on why logistics
clusters matter; and interview: UPSs sustainable strategies.

Utaran began work on the Sustainable Access to Land Equality (SALE) project to ensure transparency and accountability in land governance in December 2012, in partnership with CARE Internaional UK and Manusher Jonno Foundaion (MJF). The project engaged communiies in three pilot upazilas - Amtali Upazila of Barguna District, Mohanpur of Rajshahi, and Sadar of Jamalpur-to raise the awareness of vulnerable landowners about land administraion, and to effect transparent processes for selecing landless people and for khasland setlement.

This is the second edition of the 2003
paper entitled "Facilitation of transport and trade in
Sub-Saharan Africa : a review of international legal
instruments - Treaties, conventions, protocols, decisions,
directives." Three major reasons motivated this update
and an expansion of its scope. First, African countries are
increasingly cooperating, especially in the area of
corridors, to achieve full connectivity, mobility and

Using plot-level data, the authors
estimate a bi-variate probit model to explain land clearing,
and the siting of protected areas in North Thailand in 1986.
Their model suggests that protected areas (national parks,
together with wildlife sanctuaries) did not reduce the
likelihood of forest clearing, but wildlife sanctuaries may
have reduced the probability of deforestation. Road
building, by reducing the impedance-weighted distance to

Over the last few years, the Indian
economy has been in a phase of unparalleled growth of about
8-10 percent per year, making it one of the fastest growing
economies in the world. Sustaining this rate of growth will
need huge investments in physical infrastructure such as
roads, water, power, and urban sectors. Preliminary
estimates suggest that investment in infrastructure would
need to increase from the current 4.6 percent of gross

Performance Based Contracts (PBC's)
are not new to the transport sector, with many variants in
use in different countries for close to two decades.
International lending institutions, such as the World Bank,
have played a significant role in pushing PBCs into
developing nations as part of loan assistance packages.
However, there has been a tendency for a
'one-size-fits-all' approach to the

Knowledge exchange, or peer-to-peer
learning, is a powerful way to share, replicate, and scale
up what works in development. Development practitioners want
to learn from the practical experience of others who have
gone through, or are going through, similar challenges. They
want to be connected to each other and have ready access to
practical knowledge and solutions. When done right,
knowledge exchange can build the capacity, confidence, and

The conflicting relationship between
peace and justice is frequently debated in the field of
transitional justice. The obligation to prosecute serious
crimes can contradict the measures necessary to reestablish
peace among society. The predicament gives rise to a
similar, though less obvious, challenge in many developing
countries, where the formal justice system can be at odds
with conflict management initiatives. Often, due to their

A landscape perspective is generally recognized as essential for conservation biology. The main underlying reason is that species respond to features of the landscape at various spatial scales, for example habitat area, connectivity, and matrix habitats. However, there is also an “historical” component of a landscape perspective, which has not received similar attention. The underlying reasons for historical effects are that humans have influenced landscapes during several millennia and that species and communities may respond slowly to land use change.

This note aims at providing feedback on
Brazil's successful experience in using performance
based contracts in the rehabilitation and maintenance of the
road networks. Since its introduction in the early
2000's, the use of this contract management model has
progressively spread to reach, as of today, one third of the
federal network and more than 10 percent of the states'
networks, and expectations are for higher figures in the

Fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS) have become an important focus of World Bank Group assistance in recent years as recognition of the linkages between fragility, conflict, violence, and poverty has grown. Addressing issues of recurring conflict and political violence and helping build legitimate and accountable state institutions are central to the Bank Group's poverty reduction mission. This evaluation assesses the relevance and effectiveness of World Bank Group country strategies and assistance programs to FCS.