The Public Investment Management (PIM) efficiency review is intended to support the Government of Zimbabwe, and in particular the Ministry of Finance, in its efforts to strengthen the efficiency of the public investment system, with the goal of improving the creation, operation and maintenance of public sector capital assets that support service delivery and economic growth. The problems of public investment management are not merely financial but systemic. Budget execution deficit remains a major bottleneck.

The analysis of the distributional
impact of policy reforms on the well-being or welfare of
different stakeholder groups, particularly on the poor and
vulnerable, has an important role in the elaboration and
implementation of poverty reduction strategies in developing
countries. In recent years this type of work has been
labeled as Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) and is
increasingly implemented to promote evidence-based policy

This book examines issues at the
forefront of the debate on land law reform, pays particular
attention to how reform options affect the poor and
disadvantaged, and recommends strategies for alleviating
poverty more effectively through land law reform. It reviews
the role of the World Bank in land law reform, examining
issues of process as well as substance. It also identifies
key challenges and directions, and stresses the need to

The overarching theme of the book is
development in a land of contrasts. There have been large
economic, social, and political changes. The mass of society
is far more expressive and politically involved today. In
1945, the country had 7.4 million voters, about 11 percent
of the population. Today it has 120 million voters, or 67
percent of the population. The economy has been modernized,
the capitalist ethos spread across regions, mass

This paper explores the building blocks of an institutional framework to govern borrowing by subnational entities to finance infrastructure investment. The framework should help in achieving sustainable financing of development needs and sound management of fiscal risks. Based on international experience, the authors suggest a minimum set of indicators for monitoring fiscal and debt developments. Recognizing the different nature and operations of the subnational entities, they propose specific indicators for special purpose vehicles and the government's general budget.

This book grew out of the Global Issues
seminars and is itself a testament to that two-way dialogue:
the suggestion to compile the speakers' lecture notes
into a book came from the students themselves. Both the
seminars and this book reflect the Bank's conviction
that the seemingly intractable problems of our globalizing
world-from entrenched poverty, to climate change, to new
infectious diseases such as AIDS and avian flu-can be

This study examines the mining
sector's potential to contribute to economic growth
with governance in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the
past, mining has been the main engine of the Congo economy.
But the revenues and other benefit streams generated by the
sector over the years have not been used in a wise or
sustainable fashion, largely due to key problems with sector
governance. During the past ten years of civil war and

In 2007, Montenegro was one of the
world's fastest growing non-oil economies. The country
reaped the benefits from its comprehensive, pre-independence
reform program. After the international recognition of
statehood had removed the lingering uncertainty over
Montenegro's political status, investors reassessed the
country's relative attractiveness as a site for
business, responding positively to (i) the implementation of

This report is organized around three
thematic chapters. Chapter one looks at the contribution of
the environment and tourism sector to the Namibian economy
as well as at some key achievements and challenges. Chapter
two describes the policy and legislative framework, and the
institutional analysis of the environment and tourism
sector. Chapter three examines the financing of the sector
and some key budget management issues. And finally in

Bangladesh has recorded impressive
economic and social gains since the 1990s. Recent growth has
been at levels close to six percent. The country has doubled
per capita growth and taken large strides toward reaching
many Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ahead of many
comparable countries. Attaining the MDGs calls for
accelerating economic growth to six-seven percent a year.
Accordingly, Bangladesh's Poverty Reduction Strategy

After many decades of stagnation, Kenyan
economy started to grow from the early-2000s. Much of this
growth has been attributed to total factor productivity
improvements in Kenyan economy arising out of many factors.
A large share of this growth originated in urban areas, in
the service and manufacturing sectors. These gains also
paralleled reduction in poverty and higher enrolment in
primary education. Yet, it has been argued that Kenyan

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