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The 2010 World Bank Entrepreneurship Snapshots (WBGES) provide a unique indicator of business creation around the world and facilitate the investigation of the factors that foster dynamic private sector growth. Now in its fourth year, the WBGES measure entrepreneurial activity in 115 developing and industrial countries over the six year period 2004-2009. Importantly, the data offer a distinctive and timely snapshot of the impact of the 2008-2009 financial crisis on entrepreneurial activity. There is wide variation in new business creation across countries: On average, about four new firms regi

The East Asia and Pacific Update is the World Bank's comprehensive semiannual review of developing economies in the region. This November 2009 issue discusses East Asia's role as the driving force behind the global economic rebound. The region's economy has rebounded from the financial crisis and global recesesion that began in late 2008, but has it reached recovery stage? Why has the East Asia and Pacific region fared better than other developing regions? Can the region continue to grow as fast as it did before the crisis if demand from the developed world remains weak? Take China out of the

Africa Development Indicators 2008/09 (ADI) provides the most detailed collection of data on Africa available in one volume. It puts together data from different sources, making it an essential tool for policy makers, researchers, and other people interested in Africa. This year's ADI addresses the issue of youth employment. The report shows that success in addressing youth employment in will not be achieved and sustained through fragmented and isolated interventions. Instead it finds that an arching guideline for addressing the youth employment challenge is the need for an integrated strategy

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and Data Notes -- Main Messages -- Overview: Changing the Climate for Development -- The case for action -- A climate-smart world is within reach if we act now, act together, and act differently -- Making it happen: New pressures, new instruments, and new resources -- 1 Understanding the Links between Climate Change and Development -- Unmitigated climate change is incompatible with sustainable development -- Evaluating the tradeoffs -- The costs of delaying the global mitigation effort -- Seizing the moment: Immediate stimulus and long-term transformations -- Focus A: The Science of Climate Change -- Part One -- 2 Reducing Human Vulnerability: Helping People Help Themselves -- Adaptive management: Living with change -- Managing physical risks: Avoiding the avoidable -- Managing financial risks: Flexible instruments for contingencies -- Managing social risks: Empower communities to protect themselves -- Looking ahead to 2050: Which world? -- Focus B: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate -- 3 Managing Land and Water to Feed Nine Billion People and Protect Natural Systems -- Put in place the fundamentals for natural resource management -- Produce more from water and protect it better -- Producing more in agriculture while protecting the environment -- Produce more and protect better in fisheries and aquaculture -- Building flexible international agreements -- Reliable information is fundamental for good natural resource management -- Pricing carbon, food, and energy could be the springboard -- 4 Energizing Development without Compromising the Climate -- Balancing competing objectives -- Where the world needs to go: Transformation to a sustainable energy future -- Realizing the savings from energy efficiency -- Scaling up existing low-carbon technologies.

Looking for accurate, up-to-date data on development issues? 'World Development Indicators' is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. This indispensable statistical reference allows you to consult over 900 indicators for some 150 economies and 14 country groups in more than 80 tables. It provides a current overview of the most recent data available as well as important regional data and income group analysis in six thematic sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. World Development Indicators 2009 presents the most current and accurate development data on both a national level and aggregated globally. It allows you to monitor the progress made toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals endorsed by the United Nations and its member countries, the World Bank, and a host of partner organizations. These goals, which focus on development and the elimination of poverty, serve as the agenda for international development efforts.

The future prosperity of most people of the Middle-East and North Africa-and the social cohesion of their countries-rests in great part on the ability of governments to enable the private sector to respond to this job creation challenge. This is what this report is about. It is about enabling the new generations of entrepreneurs that have emerged over the past years all across the region to play a bigger role in the growth of their countries. It is also about encouraging more investors to believe in the prospects of the region and trusting that business-friendly policy reforms will benefit them and not only a minority of privileged entrepreneurs. From privilege to competition: unlocking private-led growth in the Middle-East and North Africa complements previous regional flagship reports published by the World Bank. In particular, the 2004 flagship report on trade and investment in the MENA region and the 2008 report on education touched upon other fundamental ingredients of economic competitiveness and private sector development. By focusing on market institutions, the quality of implementation of economic policies and the credibility of reforms from the private sector perspective, this report offers a new angle to the growth and employment challenge of the MENA region.

Following the serious economic crisis in 2001-02, Argentina mobilized an unprecedented effort to provide income support to the segment of the population most in need. Now, as growth has returned and social indicators recovered to precrisis levels, there is an opening to move from emergency support programs to a more comprehensive, long-term, and sustainable strategy for social protection. The challenge is to design and fully implement a social protection system that has adequate coverage and benefits and is integrated and fiscally and politically sustainable.The analysis contained in this book aimed to contribute to and inform the debate about the future of income support policies in Argentina, taking the views, values, and preferences of the stakeholders and the population as starting points. The research included two innovative efforts to collect and understand the landscape of ideas regarding options for social protection circulating in Argentina: first, an extensive set of consultations with policy makers and practitioners in social policy, mainly at the provincial level; and second, a national, representative opinion survey on the views and perceptions of the population regarding social policy and income support programs in particular.

Doing Business 2010 is the seventh in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies--from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe--and over time. Regulations affecting 10 stages of a business's life are measured: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. Data in Doing Business 2010 are current as of June 1, 2009. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.

Climate change is arguably the most profound challenge facing the international community in the 21st century. It is as much a challenge for poverty reduction, growth and development as it is a global environmental issue. It could undermine or reverse progress in reducing poverty and attaining the Millenium Development Goals, thereby unraveling many of the development gains of recent decades. It already threatens the livelihoods, health and well-being of millions of people worldwide, and of the poorest and most vulnerable groups in particular. And it has potentially far-reaching implications f

Latin America has often been regarded as a region with deep ethnic and class conflicts. The difficulty of assessing this from an economic perspective is two fold: There is little solid, unbiased, and systematic data to provide convincing empirical evidence, and there is a dearth of empirical methods to identify specific discriminatory-based behavior as opposed to related behavior that might only appear to be discriminatory.This book uses a variety of methodological tools -- regression analysis, market tests, field experiments, audit studies, and structural methods -- to explore the extent to w

Global warming and changes in climate will have severe and lasting impacts on national efforts to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable development. Some of the world's poorest countries and communities are the most vulnerable and are already suffering the consequences. Yet often these countries are rich in natural capital, ecosystems, and biodiversity that can contribute to solutions as they can to climate change. Biodiversity is the foundation and mainstay of agriculture, forests, and fisheries.Biological resources provide the raw materials for livelihoods, agriculture, medicines, trade

Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions-density, distance, and division-are essential for development and should be encouraged.The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the

The World Bank Research Program. Abstracts of Current Studies is a compendium of research projects initiated, ongoing, or completed in fiscal years 2005 through 2007 (from July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2007).1 Each abstract summarizes the research questions, analytical methods used, and findings and policy implications, and describes the research team and publications produced. The volume also includes a complete list of research outputs produced by World Bank staff during this period.This research program generates knowledge that is an essential intellectual foundation of the World Bank's cor

The Little Data Book on External Debt provides a quick reference for users interested in external debt stocks and flows, major economic aggregates, key debt ratios, and the currency composition of long-term debt for all countries reporting through the Debtor Reporting system. A pocket edition of the Global Development Finance 2008, Volume II: Summary and Country Tables, it contains statistical tables for 135 countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups.

Now in its seventh edition, this pocket-sized reference on key development data for over 200 countries provides profiles of each country with 54 development indicators about people, environment, economy, technology and infrastructure, trade, and finance. It is intended as a quick reference for users of World Development Indicators, WDI Online, and the Atlas of Global Development.