This report highlights recent economic
updates in Bangladesh as of April 2015. Economic growth in
Bangladesh was gaining momentum in the first half of FY15.
Capacity utilization improved and investments were showing
some signs of recovery. This growth was also job-friendly.
The 12-monthly-moving average inflation decelerated from 7.6
percent in February 2014 to 6.8 percent in February 2015.
The resilience of the Bangladesh economy continues to be

The Rwanda Economic Update reports on and synthesizes recent economic developments and places them in a medium-term and global context. It analyzes the implications of these developments and policies for the outlook for Rwanda s economy. Rwanda s economic growth recovered in the first three quarters of 2014. The economy grew 7.1 percent. Faster GDP growth reflected higher growth of the services sector, at 9.1 percent, up from 5.4 percent in 2013, when the economy suffered from the lagged impact of the 2012 aid shortfall.

This working paper concerns the growth
of investment climate in the Philippines. There are several
resounding ideas in areas both positive and negative. The
growth potential in the Philippines is considerable. The
country has significant natural resources; a large pool of
managerial and entrepreneurial talent; and widespread
proficiency in English. The Government's Medium Term
Development Plan (MTDP), 2005-2010 sets ambitious growth and

The paper discusses chieftaincy and colonialism in Lesotho, institutional roles of chieftaincy, the role of chieftaincy in the era of modern democracy/DGD, the relations between the democratic local authorities and chieftaincy in Lesotho and the role of chieftaincy and its constraints in the decentralized system of Lesotho. The paper directly contributes knowledge in public management sciences and administrative policy systems.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to theunderstanding and discussion of how the costs andbenefits of natural resource development are sharedacross society. This paper presents how IFC, as both aninvestor and a development organization, determineswhether benefits and costs are shared reasonably, and how this assessment influences IFC’s decision to invest ina particular natural resource project. the goal of the paper is to promotea broad, constructive dialogue across stakeholders—governments, investors, civil society, and others—around benefit sharing.

The City of Ulaanbaatar (UB) is
undergoing a historic transformation toward market-driven
urban development. This growth remains strongly influenced
by city policy decisions that affect the supply and location
of land for public and private uses. Private investment is
concentrated in well-serviced land located in the central
portion of the city and along major transportation
corridors, which represent a small part of the total built

In this issue: Facilitating labor
migration from the Philippines; Incentives and teacher
effort; Electoral accountability and local public spending
in Indonesia; Why don't poor countries do R&D?; How
effective are efforts to raise voluntary enrollment in
health insurance?; How insecure property rights affect
migration in China; the challenges of public service
delivery in the Pacific Islands.

Georgia: Seizing the Opportunity to
Prosper suggests a path towards sustainable and shared
growth. Georgia s story is associated with three stylized
facts: high growth with persistent unemployment currently at
nearly 15 percent after 10 years of annual growth that
averaged above 5.5 percent; a doing business rank of 8 out
of 189 countries achieved without recovery to 1990 levels of
per capita income suggesting a relatively difficult

This South African Agricultural Public Expenditure Review (AgPer) is one of a series of similar studies undertaken in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) of the African Union’s (AU) New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) which encourages governments and development partners (DPs) to target public expenditure on the agriculture sector as the most effective way of stimulating growth.

The cities that emerge from Indonesia s
rapid urbanization will be key determinants of the country s
overall economic development and competitiveness, as well as
their inclusiveness and environmental sustainability.
However, without strategically planned investments, policy
interventions, and institutional capacity, mismanaged
urbanization could become an obstacle to sustainable growth.
The city planning labs core module will be initially

The authors use evidence from a survey of about 1200 beneficiaries of South African land reform to assess the performance of the initial phase of the land reform program. They find that the program has not lived up to the quantitative goals set, but did successfully target the poor. It has led to a significant number of economically successful projects that already generate sustainable revenues.

If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital depend positively on knowledge, but a household cannot hire skilled labor to compensate for low skills, then even if it has access to credit, the household will achieve lower returns than an educated household. If, as is common, the income-poor are less educated because of failures in the credit market, and because they live in areas where there is less access to schooling, then the poor will also have lower returns on investments. The author tests this argument for the case of irrigation infrastructure in Vietnam.