This paper summarizes the evidence on
the evolution of transport PPPs over the last 15 years or
so. In the process, it provides a primer on the associated
policy issues, including of the central role of project
finance in the implementation of PPP policies and the
debates on risk allocation in the design of PPPs. The paper
also offers a discussion of the increasingly well recognized
residual roles for the public sector in transport, with an

The carbon market is the most visible result of early regulatory efforts to mitigate climate change. Regulation constraining carbon emissions has spawned an emerging carbon market that was valued at US$64 billion (Euro 47 billion) in 2007. Its biggest success so far has been to send market signals for the price of mitigating carbon emissions. This, in turn, has stimulated innovation and carbon abatement worldwide, as motivated individuals, communities, companies and governments have cooperated to reduce emissions.

Liberia is a rich country, badly
managed. This is a favorite comment of President Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf and an accurate one. The bad management is
well-known, though perhaps not its duration and depth.
Created in 1847, the country is far older than almost all
others in sub- Saharan Africa. But for most of this time, it
was ruled by an elite descended from African-American
settlers who ignored or exploited the indigenous people. The

This report brings together lessons from previous studies, supplemented by new analysis. It frames the challenges facing the rural and agri-food sector in the Western Balkans to illustrate the directions for policies, now and in the future. Part one looks at the characteristics of the rural and agri-food sector today, its potential and its obstacles. Part two looks at the future of the agri-food sector and rural space.

At the request of the Government of
Egypt (GOE), the objective of this brief note is to provide
concise recommendations on next steps for the National
Housing Program (NHP). These recommendations and policy
analysis are an elaboration of the framework for housing
policy reform in urban areas in Egypt, a draft of which was
endorsed by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban
Development (MHUUD) and the Ministry of Investment (MOI) in

Lao PDR's economic outlook remains favorable, with continued strong growth. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth remained at above 7 percent in 2007. Output expanded in mining, newly emerging processing industries, agriculture, and new construction of hydropower projects, tourism and other services. Non-resource sectors contributed over 5 percent to this growth, and the resource sector around 2.5 percent.

The recent surge in food and fuel prices
has prompted countries with high dependence on food imports
to try and lock in future food supplies through direct
investment in agricultural production in other countries.
The price surges also led to a wave of proposals to invest
in biofuels investments in agricultural land. While such
investment can provide large benefits, it also carries
considerable risks both to investors and citizens in the

The World Bank’s assistance strategies
showed strong client orientation and were aligned with
Uganda’s poverty reduction strategy. The programs were
substantially effective in decentralization, public sector
reform, growth and economic transformation, education, and
water and sanitation. However, more could have been done to
help counter the perception of increasing corruption,
improve power supply, reduce transport costs, enhance

This is a summary report of the South
Asia Region and the East Asia Pacific regions training
workshop from April 28-30, 2008 on the importance of
disaster risk reduction and risk transfer including major
concepts, models, and various applications of disaster risk
reduction around the globe. This report represents an
analysis and summary of the main presentations made during
the course of the workshop. It provides a comprehensive

The World Bank Group's clean energy
for development investment framework action plan has
outlined some of the key activities it intends to undertake
in the area of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and
helping client countries adapt to changes in climate. One of
these activities focuses on an analysis of the role of
low-carbon energy technologies in climate change mitigation.
This report provides an initial analysis of this issue. The

This paper compares and contrasts the
performance of rural and urban manufacturing firms in
Ethiopia to assess the impact of market integration and the
investment climate on firm performance. Rural firms are
shown to operate in isolated markets, have poor access to
infrastructure and a substantial degree of market power,
whereas urban firms operate in better integrated and more
competitive markets, where they have much better access to

The proposed methodology begins with a
consistent downscaling of projected climatic changes from a
multiplicity of General Circulation to local levels. Subsets
of the suite of downscaled climatic factors are then to be
used to estimate the vector of impacts on key economic
sectors of each country, using sector-specific impact
assessment models. Based on this information, alternative
government adaptation projects will be specified and