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Over the past two decades, Peru has achieved remarkable economic success. Average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has exceeded 5 percent since 2001. Poverty has been consistently reduced, and sustained improvements have been observed in social and human development. The poverty incidence rate fell from 58 to 23 percent between 2004 and 2014, and households' incomes at the bottom 40 percent grew 50 percent faster than the national average. The structural transformation of Peru's economy striking fast and widely shared growth transformed Peru into an upper-middle income and diversified economy. This report analyzes recent trends of the fiscal decentralization process in Peru and presents a set of reform options designed to harvest the envisaged efficiency and equity gains in service delivery that the fiscal decentralization was expected to bring. The analysis and policy options are presented in a conceptually logical order: (i) departing from institutional arrangements in the vertical structure of subnational governments passing to (ii) the need of a clearer definition of spending responsibilities among levels of government that needs to be followed by (iii) a commensurate redefinition of revenue assignments and (iv) enhancing equalization role of the transfer system.

The Country Opinion Survey in Namibia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Namibia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Namibia on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Namibia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Namibia; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Namibia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Namibia.

Montenegro and the World Bank Group (WBG) have jointly prepared a robust program of cooperation for the next four years. In the past 18 months, the World Bank Group has prepared the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for Montenegro, a comprehensive analytic report outlining challenges and opportunities that the country is facing on the road to sustained growth and prosperity, and the Country Partnership Framework (CPF), a document that sets out the goals and priorities for World Bank Group program in Montenegro for the next four years. Both the SCD and the CPF were informed by extensive and broad consultations with the government, local communities, private sector, civil society and international development partners active in Montenegro. In particular, the CPF, World Bank Group strategy in Montenegro that came into force in June 2016, has been developed on the basis of the diagnostic and of the government's own strategic priorities. Bank's strategy is focused on two priority areas: Enhancing Macroeconomic and Financial Resilience, and Enabling Inclusive Access to Economic Opportunities and Jobs. The following policy notes summarize the key challenges, policy options and ways in which WBG could provide effective support. These are fully consistent with the recommendations of the Systematic Country Diagnostic and goals of the Country Partnership Framework, and aim to present a concise and clear set of proposals for each priority area. The Notes form a consistent document but each one of them can be used as a stand-alone piece for discussion with the relevant sector stakeholders. There are three thematic Notes outlining key priority areas – macro-fiscal and financial resilience, private sector and jobs, and environmental sustainability. Each of these is accompanied by a series of sector notes that provide additional detail.

This guide was prepared by the Early Learning Partnership (ELP) team at the World Bank as a resource for policy makers and development professionals interested in improving access to high-quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) services. It brings together a selection of approaches to ECD that have been implemented with promising results in low- or middle-income countries (or both). The list of programs and approaches highlighted here is by no means exhaustive; rather, those cited have been selected based on (i) some evidence of their positive impact or documentation of their results and (ii) their relevance to common needs and questions posed by governments and World Bank staff working in ECD.

In 2011, the World Bank Group commenced a multi-year program designed to support countries in systematically examining and strengthening the performance of their education systems. Part of the World Bank's Education Sector Strategy,1 the evidence-based initiative called SABER (Systems Approach for Better Education Results) is building a toolkit of diagnostics for examining education systems and their component policy domains against global standards, best practices, and in comparison with the policies and practices of countries around the world. By leveraging this global knowledge, the SABER tools fill a gap in the availability of data and evidence on what matters most to improve the quality of education and achievement of better results. This report discusses the results of applying the SABER School Autonomy and Accountability (SAA) tool in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Argentina's improved sovereign credit rating has helped to spur the recent sub-sovereign and corporate bond issues. In early April 2016, Standard & Poor's upgraded Argentina's sovereign ratings for local and foreign currency debt to B from B-. This follows the ratings upgrade from Moody's which raised Argentina's sovereign rating for foreign currency denominated debt from C1 to B3 in 2016. This rating was re-affirmed by Moody's in March 2017. Since Argentina's re-entry into the international capital markets in early 2016, there has been USD 8.4 billion and USD 4.4 billion of bonds issued by sub-sovereign and corporate entities which is being used, in part, being used to support infrastructure projects. Although investor appetite has been relatively strong, it is difficult to ascertain the level of liquidity for sub-sovereign debt over the long-term. The potential level of involvement of foreign and local banks in the financing of infrastructure is still to be determined once Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) projects are tendered. Going forward, the issues that will impact the participation of lenders are: (i) the timing for completing and implementing the underlying regulatory framework for PPPs; (ii) the development of a project pipeline and subsequent tenders; (ii) macroeconomic conditions. The ability of the renewable energy projects under the RenovAR program to obtain bank financing will serve as useful benchmark for the rest of the PPP program. Although the enactment of the capital markets law is intended to reduce market inefficiencies, additional legislation, regulation and policies are needed to deepen and widen local capital markets. This law, which is still under legislative review, may not go far enough to develop the institutional investor base needed to provide long-term financing for infrastructure. Provisions could be added or new legislation could be developed which will: (a) encourage insurance companies to offer new types of products; (b) rebuild private pension systems by incentivizing the establishment of asset management companies; (c) providing preferential tax treatment for closed end mutual funds or value capture adjacent to real estate; (d) supporting the establishment of REITs; (e) reviewing the governance structure, mission, and investment strategy of the FGS; (f) support the development of long-term hedging instruments to manage currency risk through trusts or related mechanisms; and (g) promote the issuance of peso-linked bonds while developing a peso/dollar hedge market.

The Yugo, a communist-era car from the former Yugoslavia, was widely ridiculed for shedding its parts on roads across Europe and the United States. Zastava, which made Yugo, fared even worse than its product. After the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, the factory was reduced to producing only 18,000 cars in 2002. Then Fiat entered the picture in 2008, investing more than a billion euro to make Zastava one of its most modern factories anywhere in the world. Now it is producing more than 100,000 cars a year and exporting to the European Union and the United States. Bosch and more than forty other international companies have set up operations in Serbia to supply parts to this factory and to other car producers in Europe; domestic investors also started entering the sector. Exports of the Serbian automotive industry has increased almost tenfold since the 1990s and are likely to expand further with recovery of European and global growth. Serbia's emergence as a successful exporter of competitive cars and parts is a symbol of a new era for the six countries of the Western Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. As late reformers, they can benefit from rising wages in the rapidly reforming transition countries of the European Union and from greater cost consciousness among firms adapting to lower global growth. The six (of which all but Albania were born from the break-up of Yugoslavia) largely missed out on earlier opportunities to thrive in the post-Cold War era. Today, with peace and enhanced collaboration, coupled with future prospects of European Union membership, the Western Balkan countries have another opportunity to build prosperity. This report addresses the following question: How can these countries raise economic growth rates and ensure sustained improvement in welfare for their citizens? Finding the right answer will help the countries' aspiration for income convergence with the EU, where on average people enjoy incomes that are three times higher.

This document presents the systematic country diagnostic (SCD) for Niger. It identifies the constraints and opportunities for achieving the twin goals of ending poverty and improving shared prosperity by 2030 in a sustainable manner while acknowledging: (a) the need for selectivity, and (b) the need to identify constraints that can feasibly be addressed. The objectives of the World Bank are closely associated with those of the Government of Niger, which aims in its renaissance program, to achieve rapid poverty reduction by 2035. To put Niger on a sustainable path of poverty reduction, a change in trajectory is needed urgently. Though poverty reduced over the past decade, much of it can be attributed to favorable external conditions which no longer exist.

Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes Accounting and Auditing ('ROSC A&A') assess financial reporting and auditing standards, institutions and practices in participating countries. These reports form part of a joint initiative implemented by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to review the quality of implementation of internationally recognized standards and principles in 12 key areas ('the ROSC program') with a view to promoting financial and economic stability. This report provides an assessment of financial reporting and auditing requirements and practices within the corporate sector2 in the Philippines and sets forth areas for consideration for improving the institutional environment for A&A. The ROSC A&A used international benchmarks of good practice governing financial reporting and auditing in the assessment, including International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Standards on Auditing (ISA). This report updates an earlier assessment which was published in 2006 and was undertaken following a formal request from the Government of the Philippines.

Big data solutions have the potential to accelerate the work of our teams by deriving timely, accurate, and actionable insights from alternative data sources in order to close data gaps and inform policymaking. For example, pilot projects underway in the Trade and Competitiveness practice are exploring the use of data science techniques to harness publicly available government and commercial data to aid competition authorities in detecting cartels and other anti-competitive practices. We are also mining Internet data to measure innovative economic activity in cities, so agencies can make better informed policy decisions and, we are collecting regulatory data to classify and assess the impacts of non-tariff measures on economies and their competitiveness. This paper, prepared in collaboration with Deloitte and with other global practices within the Bank Group, highlights data-driven pilot projects underway in the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice and shares compelling cases of how big data is changing the way we look at the challenges countries are facing and how we can best support them.

Kosovo is Europe's youngest country in terms of history and demographics. Both characteristics are defining the country's overarching development challenges. The country's geographical position along major trade routes made its territory a pawn in the hands of powerful neighbors, from the Romans and the Ottoman Empire to Yugoslavia. The considerable amount of self-governance granted to Kosovo under the Yugoslav Constitution of 1974, as a province of Serbia, but not as a constituent republic of the federation, proved politically unsustainable, as temporary gains in self-rule were reversed by Belgrade during the Milosevic era. The period after 1989 was characterized by increased repression and violence, culminating in war and population expulsion in 1998–99. During the immediate post conflict period, United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1244 placed Kosovo under UN interim administration. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence. The transition period of supervised independence ended four and a half years later. International recognition has remained partial and has precluded Kosovo from joining the UN as a full member.4 In the wake of these developments, public institutions had to be established from scratch and earn the population's acceptance and credibility as their own. The remainder of this document is organized as follows. Section two presents the country context, including political and economic conditions, and discusses factors behind recent trends in growth, shared prosperity, and poverty. It concludes with a proposed conceptual framework. Sections three–six describe key drivers and the principal constraints to growth, shared prosperity, and poverty reduction. Section seven examines the priority areas for action.

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are among the largest commercial users of insolvency systems. MSMEs are a significant part of the global economy – and just as there are large numbers of MSMEs, there are large numbers of MSME insolvencies. However, there are a very few specialized legal regimes for MSME insolvency; most jurisdictions treat MSME insolvencies the same as for other corporate entities, or conversely, natural persons, despite MSMEs' unique attributes. This report considers the specific challenges of insolvent MSMEs (including the difficulties of defining MSMEs and distinguishing them from large corporate entities); reviews and analyzes how legislation in different jurisdictions deals with the challenges of MSME insolvency; and considers if existing international standards are sufficient to address MSME insolvency.

Growth remained strong at 6.9 percent in 2016, after 7.0 percent in 2015. Cambodia's economic activity continues to expand at a robust pace. Construction remained one of the main drivers of growth. Garment exports eased slightly as the country's external competitiveness was eroded by US dollar appreciation, rising labor costs and increasing competition from other regional low-wage countries. Better weather conditions last year resulted in increased agricultural production, although agricultural commodity prices remain depressed. Real growth is projected to remain strong, expanding at 6.9 percent in 2017 and 2018, partly underpinned by government spending. Downside risks to this outlook include the fallout from further rises in US interest rates, a slower-than-expected economic recovery in Europe, and uncertainties over global trade. Poverty reduction is expected to continue over the next few years, driven mainly by the garment, construction and services sectors, together with increases in remittances.

This report provides the foundation for a new approach to service delivery in violence-affected contexts that is sensitive to the actual forms of violence, politics, and bargaining encountered in many conflict-affected states. The findings unearth issues about how development organizations should approach service delivery in contested settings. As many countries today are riven by conflict and internal division, some familiar rules of the game may be inadequate to deal with the mounting humanitarian and development challenges posed by complex conflict situations, particularly where affected people need access to social services. This raises dilemmas about the ethical and political judgments and trade-offs that development actors frequently have to make. A key challenge is whether development actors can adapt their procedures and ways of working to the fluidity, uncertainties, and risk taking that the new, conflict-riven landscape demands while preserving financial accountability, doing no harm, and ensuring aid effectiveness. Based on research in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal, the report probes how social service delivery is affected by violent conflict and what are the critical factors that make or break successful delivery.

Somalia currently faces large-scale food insecurity, arising from the drought and poor rainfall conditions prevailing across much of the country. Following four consecutive seasons of poor rainfall and low river water levels in large swaths of the country, a severe food crisis has hit in 2017. The drought has led to near total crop failures and reduced rural employment opportunities, widespread shortage of water and pasture, and consequent increases in livestock deaths, which have in turn stretched the country's coping mechanisms to the brink. Food access diminished rapidly among poor households as staple food prices rose sharply and livestock prices dropped significantly as people engaged in forced sales to cope with the effects of the drought. According to a preliminary Rapid Drought Needs Assessment (RDNA) by World Bank staff, which is based on a triangulation of secondary data1 through remote-sensing techniques, the drought has led to: livestock-related losses of between US$1.3 billion and US$1.7 billion for the period of the drought; crop production losses of up to US$60 million during the period of the drought; and depletion of nominally functional water resources, over 50 percent of which are located within highly drought stressed areas. The new Somali leadership has highlighted drought relief as a top priority. The peaceful and smooth transfer of power has allowed the government to focus quickly on drought and the difficult fiscal situation, highlighting the combined humanitarian and development challenges facing the country. The Humanitarian Response Plan presented at the London Conference in May 2017 increased the appeal to US$1.5 billion to reach 5.5 million people with urgent lifesaving humanitarian assistance. Still, per the UN (2017), the humanitarian situation remained grim for millions as of mid-2017 with a significant risk of famine in many parts of the country.