This report is intended to support the
analysis and implementation of reforms aimed at a
strengthening of the intergovernmental system in Colombia.
In mid-2007 congress approved a legislative act as
constitutional amendment that increases the level of the
main transfer to sub-national governments, the General
System of Transfers (SGP). However an adjustment of the
regulations and institutional arrangements within the

The remote and sparsely populated
provinces of Papua and West Papua face a time of great
change. Monetary transfers from Jakarta have grown
extraordinarily in recent years, by more than 600 percent in
real terms and 1300 percent in nominal terms since 2000,
greatly increasing demand for goods and services. The high
price of imports in the interior is producing pressure to
improve roads in order to lower transport costs. Pressure is

This report summarizes the findings of
the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa
(CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the
feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and
growth in African agriculture through the identification of
products and production systems that can underpin rapid
development of a competitive commercial agriculture. The
CCAA study focused on the agricultural potential of

This Agriculture Public Expenditure
Review (AgPER) comprehensively reviews public expenditures
on agriculture in Uganda and analyzes their efficiency and
effectiveness. Its genesis lies in Agriculture Sector
Working Group (A-SWG) discussions, especially during the
budget process, which raised concerns about the seemingly
low budget allocations to the sector and the failure to
align limited resources with recognized priorities in the

Sudan is in the 10th year of its longest
and strongest growth episode since independence, benefiting
from the advent of oil in 1999. This report proposes a
growth strategy for Sudan that reduces its dependence on
oil, while building an economic foundation for a
diversified, inclusive and sustainable growth path.
Specifically, Sudan's near term strategy should focus
on: a) developing and maintaining the necessary enabling

Regional disparities present an ever
present development challenge in most countries, especially
those with large geographic areas under their jurisdiction.
A neglect of these inequities may create the potential for
disunity and, in extreme cases, for disintegration. In view
of this, most countries actively pursue policies with a view
to helping lagging regions catch up with faster growing
regions. These policies have at best a mixed record of

The government has embarked upon a
comprehensive and difficult medium term program for
reforming the public sector aimed at rebalancing the
relation between revenue and spending and enhancing the
efficiency and efficacy of service delivery. The Romanian
economy has been hit hard by the global economic downturn.
Latest estimates suggest that real Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) may have contracted by around 7 percent in 2009,

Municipalities in Mozambique were
established by law in 1997 and elected in 1998 for the first
time, only a few years after the peace agreement. Most
inherited archaic and dysfunctional remnants of colonial and
central government systems and infrastructure, and as such
limited progress was achieved in transforming them into
functioning local governments during the first mandate
(1998-2002). During the second mandate (2003-2008), however,

This study examines agricultural and
rural development (ARD) public expenditures in Mexico. The
study is based on federal public expenditures. The study is
structured in six parts as follows: the first part presents
the Mexican ARD context in terms of policy and performance.
The second part dissects the ARD public budget, classifying
expenditure programs in various ways so as to provide an
overview of the scope and composition of ARD spending. The

Municipalities in Mozambique were
established by law in 1997 and elected in 1998 for the first
time, only a few years after the peace agreement. Most
inherited archaic and dysfunctional remnants of colonial and
central government systems and infrastructure, and as such
limited progress was achieved in transforming them into
functioning local governments during the first mandate
(1998-2002). During the second mandate (2003-2008), however,

The purpose of this Independence
Evaluation Group (IEG) special study is to illuminate the
scale and scope of Bank support for municipal development
and to draw specific lessons from the achievements and
failures of a sample of individual projects. The study
focuses on three dimensions of municipal management:
planning, finance, and service provision that figure
repeatedly in Bank financed municipal development projects

In the urban planning literature, it is
frequently explicitly asserted or strongly implied that
ongoing urban sprawl and decentralization can lead to
development patterns that are unsustainable in the long run.
One manifestation of such an outcome is that if extensive
road investments occur, urban sprawl and decentralization
are advanced and locked-in, making subsequent investments in
public transit less effective in reducing vehicle kilometers