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The reform of China's collectively owned forest land, began in 2008, is arguably the largest land-reform undertaking in modern times in terms of area and people affected. Under the reform, forest lands have been contracted to rural households, allowing them more independence in exercising their rights and interests in the forest lands, giving them more opportunities to improve family incomes, and creating incentives for them to cultivate, conserve, and manage forests. These lands are home to some 610 million people, many of them poor. With urbanization, vast numbers of Chinese men have migrated to cities to work, leaving women as the predominant labor force in rural areas. Indeed, some 70 percent of China's agriculture labor force is now female. The immense scope of this change calls for a systematic examination of how China's rural women gain access to and exploit forest land and associated resources and services. The reform was designed to unfold in two broad stages. In the first, collectively owned forest lands suitable for contracting were allocated on equal terms to each household in affected villages. The ongoing second stage represents a deepening of the reform. It deals with subsidies and ecological compensation, financial services (including use of forest tenure as collateral and transfers of forest land), forest insurance, technical services and training, farmers' associations and cooperatives, and market services. However, the monitoring had not covered the gender dimension of the reform, meaning that the gender data required to accurately reflect the full effects of the reform have been lacking. Building on the annual monitoring conducted by the FEDRC, the study reported here added gender-related investigation and analysis to obtain gender data about the current reform situation, its problems, and their causes. It also included structured interviews with rural women and group meetings with local government agencies, women's federations, and village committees.The ultimate objective of the study is to achieve better gender-responsiveness in China's collective forest tenure reform. Specifically, this includes: (i) equality in access to and control of forest lands, as well as access to associated resources and services; (ii) women's participation and equality in decision-making concerning the conservation and utilization of forest resources; and (iii) impacts of the first two aspects on the status and well-being of women. The World Bank has had over 30 years of successful cooperation with China in the forestry sector. Women's access to the services and resources that are the focus of the second stage of the reform will be a critical element of the World Bank's continuing reform dialogue with its Chinese partners.

Providing schools with direct funding to meet their operational needs is the cornerstone of the government's efforts to strengthen school-based management in the Philippines. Over the past five years, funds that the government has provided directly to schools to support their maintenance and other operating expenses have increased by 45 percent in real terms, demonstrating the government's commitment both to increasing operational funding and to providing schools with the funding that they need to implement their own improvement plans.

Evidence from around the world has shown that improving school infrastructure leads to better learning outcomes. For example, a 2011 review of the economics literature over the last 20 years showed that the availability of basic school infrastructure (such as classrooms, desks, and chairs) and facilities (such as electricity, libraries, and blackboards) is frequently associated with better student learning achievement. These findings have been backed up by a systematic review of recent impact evaluations, which showed that infrastructure investments have a positive impact on school enrollment rates, attendance rates, and learning achievement. Also, research in the Philippines has shown that reducing the number of students per classroom is associated with better student learning outcomes, particularly in rural schools. The purpose of this policy note is to provide a snapshot of the state of existing school infrastructure in the Philippines and to assess the government systems that build and repair school buildings and facilities. The findings come from a comprehensive survey of the public education system carried out for the Philippines Public Education Expenditure Tracking and Quantitative Service Delivery Study (PETS-QSDS) that tracked public education expenditure and assessed the quality of education services. In assessing government systems, it primarily focused on projects managed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which is responsible for the bulk of school infrastructure projects.

Over the last decade, the Government of the Philippines has embarked on an ambitious education reform program to ensure that all Filipinos have the opportunity to obtain the skills that they need to play a full and productive role in society. The government has backed up these reforms, particularly over the last five years, with substantial increases in investment in the sector. As a result, access to basic education has increased, particularly for the poorest households, and the overall learning environment has improved. While these improvements have halted a long-term decline in education sector outcomes, significant challenges remain. In particular, the share of national income devoted to basic education has only recently returned to the levels of the early 2000s, and spending per student in the Philippines is still low compared to spending in other middle-income countries. These relatively low levels of spending per student are likely to have limited the scope of the improvements in education outcomes over the last decade. High school completion rates remain low compared with other countries in the region, and enrollment gaps among different socioeconomic groups persist. Stakeholders frequently express concerns about the quality of the education provided and about the level and breadth of skills that children possess when they leave school. The purpose of this note is to investigate whether the recent increases in the financing for basic education have improved education outcomes and to identify any factors that may be constraining the effectiveness of public spending. It concludes that further increases in public spending will be needed if the government's ambitious goals for the education sector for the next five years are to be achieved. However, increased investment will not be enough on its own. It will also be necessary to ensure that these resources are used effectively.

Many developing countries have devolved the responsibility for education services to local governments in an effort to improve educational quality and make public spending more efficient. Advocates of decentralization have argued that bringing decision-making closer to schools makes public policy more responsive to local needs, strengthens accountability, and fosters innovation. In some countries, decentralization has gone further in that schools have been given responsibility for developing their own improvement plans and a degree of autonomy over the use of their resources. The purpose of this policy note is to assess the financing of basic education services by local governments in the Philippines. Using data that the PETS-QSDS team has carefully collected from a nationally representative sample of elementary and high schools, it explores the magnitude of the funding that local governments are giving to schools and assesses the systems that govern the use of local government funds in the education sector. The policy note shows that local governments' contribution to overall public education funding is small and highly inequitable. It also shows that the systems used to allocate and manage these funds are weak and that greater transparency and accountability over these resources is urgently needed.

Ukraine experiences one of the most severe HIV epidemics in Europe. This policy brief is a result of a team effort involving the State Institution Ukrainian Center for Socially Dangerous Disease Control of the MOH of Ukraine, and international partners. The study was part of the regional initiatives on HIV allocative efficiency analysisi and funded and technically supported by the World Bank and UNAIDS. We greatly acknowledge the contributions of all the team members, stakeholders and other partners. There are major opportunities, but also major risks in relation to HIV investment decisions in Ukraine in the coming five years. While decreasing funding would lead to a marked increase in deaths, new infections and future health care costs, a smart approach to increasing HIV investment, could avert around half of the new infections and deaths up to 2030 compared to business as usual. The keys to success are (1) scaling up ART; (2) reforming procurement to reduce unit costs for drugs and diagnostics; (3) sustaining prevention programs for key populations and further enhancing coverage with strong geographical prioritization; (4) establishing domestic financing and management of community systems for prevention and adherence support; and (5) strengthen integration with other health, social and drug-use treatment programs. Bold and immediate investment in the mentioned key programs and measures to improve efficiency are needed to avoid large increases in future health care cost and, most importantly, prevent over 150,000 new infections and save over 110,000 lives by 2030.

This toolkit, commissioned by infoDev, a global partnership program within the World Bank, provides guidance on how to develop business analytics, measuring and learning from the performance and effects of mobile application labs (mLabs) and mobile social networking hubs (mHubs). It was made for managers of tech hubs. Dozens of tech hubs have emerged over the last few years across the globe. Managers of these innovation and entrepreneurship enablers grapple with problems that infoDev has experience with. This toolkit takes lessons that infoDev has gathered from its own tech hub pilots, mLabs and mHubs, and apply them to tech hubs in general. The toolkit is especially useful for current and future mLab and mHub managers. mLabs and mHubs are tech hubs established through grants administered by the infoDev Digital Entrepreneurship Program. infoDev is committed to supporting the analytical capacities of mLabs and mHubs. This toolkit is part of that agenda. It will help grantees to improve local implementation while setting a common framework on how to collaborate with infoDev on business analytics and performance measurements. The third target audience is mobile innovation specialists at other World Bank units and other development organizations, who design impact and measurement frameworks for tech hubs. Given the recent rise in numbers of tech hubs, international development organizations are exploring if and how they can be employed to achieve socio-economic development impact goals. In particular, tech hubs' flexibility and diverse potential effects have sparked interest but have also caused problems for specific and concrete analysis and projection of hubs' effects and impact. This toolkit addresses this complication. All elements of the toolkit that speak of infoDev's role in facilitating and coordinating with mLabs or mHubs on business analytics processes can be seen as use cases with potential for replication and adaptation by practitioners and decision makers of other development organizations, including relevant units of the World Bank.

The agricultural and food production sector plays a key role in fighting poverty and food insecurity in Moldova, but is facing critical challenges to modernize and integrate into the international market. This paper focuses on smallholder farms, which make up 95 percent of all farms, and explores their potential for growth and the poverty links. Findings reveal that structural change is slow and smallholder farm growth in Moldova is an exception, not the rule. Only a small share of smallholder farms have the interest or capacity to commercialize but need targeted support policies to grow, intensify their farm activities, and integrate into the markets. For the remaining majority, enhancing their livelihoods calls for policies beyond the agricultural sector to help farm households diversify toward non-farm income.

This edition of the Kazakhstan Economic Update is part of a biannual series designed to monitor economic developments in Kazakhstan. It presents a concise analysis of macroeconomic and structural conditions from late 2015 through the first five months of 2016.

Cities in the developing world are rapidly expanding, boosting countries' economies, reducing poverty, and fueling global prosperity. But as more people, assets, and economic activity become concentrated in cities, and infrastructure struggles to keep up with rapid growth, the risk posed by natural disasters and climate change is rising. The urban poor – who are most exposed and least able to cope – will be hardest hit, with up to 77 million urban residents potentially falling back into poverty as a result of climate change alone. To help the urban poor unlock their full economic potential and protect hard-won development gains, the report discusses the need to invest in urban resilience. Over the next 15 years, at least 400 billion dollars will be needed each year to make city infrastructure low-emissions and more resilient to the wide range of shocks and stresses that cities may encounter. The flagship report -- co-authored by the World Bank Group and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery -- illustrates how building urban resilience is critical to reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity. And while, over the last five years, the World Bank Group has financed more than $9 billion in projects to help cities in 41 countries become more resilient, significant investment gaps remain. To overcome these gaps, the World Bank Group and other multilateral development institutions can play a critical role in enabling city and national governments leverage private

The Botswana Mining Investment and Governance Review (MInGov) collects and shares information on mining sector governance, its attractiveness to investors and how its activities affect national development. It reviews sector performance from the perspective of three main stakeholder groups – government, investors in the mining value chain and civil society – and identifies gaps between declared and actual government policy and practice. The reviews findings are: Performance across the minerals value chain is better in the latter stages related to investment, accumulation, and expenditure of mineral revenue. The mining policy and legal framework are largely sound. The environmental protection legislation is quite current and mostly based on 'good practice' except for access to Environmental Impact Assessments. Land use issues, including resettlement and compensation, require a more inclusive process and stronger legislated framework. A local content policy for the mining industry should be developed with mining sector participation to ensure that both the needs of government and industry are met. Institutions are for the most part staffed with trained, qualified people although sometimes there are not sufficient numbers of staff with the required experience. The top shared priority by all three stakeholder groups is Sector Management and Intragovernmental Coordination. MInGov's methodology focuses on the status of governance and investment conditions in the mining sector from the perspective of stakeholders, and as reportedin primary and secondary sources.

The Country Opinion Survey in Sao Tome and Principe assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Sao Tome and Principe 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 Sao Tome and Principe on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Sao Tome and Principe; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Sao Tome and Principe; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Sao Tome and Principe; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Sao Tome and Principe.

The Country Opinion Survey in Croatia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Croatia 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 Croatia on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Croatia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Croatia; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Croatia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Croatia.

The Country Opinion Survey in South Africa assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in South Africa 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 South Africa on 1) their views regarding the general environment in South Africa; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in South Africa; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in South Africa; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in South Africa.

The Country Opinion Survey in Tunisia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Tunisia 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 Tunisia on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Tunisia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Tunisia; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Tunisia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Tunisia.