Policymakers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have long tried to integrate their people spatially and economically. Wishing to bring communities together and narrow economic gaps, governments have made large capital investments in transport corridors and "new cities." Hoping to provide jobs in places with little economic activity, governments have designated new industrial zones supported by spatially targeted business incentives. Yet the results of these place-based initiatives in MENA are limited. The disparities between capital cities and lagging areas, and between richer and poorer quarters of cities, remain stark. Across much of the region, a fortunate few are connected to opportunity, while many more people are marginal to the formal economy--or live outside it, seemingly forgotten. Why have place-based spatial initiatives in MENA countries largely underdelivered not yielding more sustainable jobs and growth? While the challenges are many and vary across the region, this report explains that many of these place-based policies get one thing wrong: they attempt to treat inequity's spatial and physical symptoms, not its causes. This report presents the five roots of spatial inequity in institutional inefficiencies across MENA--urban regulatory frictions, credentialist education systems, centralized control over local public services, barriers to the spatial mobility of goods and people, and barriers to market entry and lop-sided business environments - within cities, within countries, and across national borders. It proposes five transitional steps toward enabling convergence informed by economic geography.

The fourth edition of IFC's Food Safety Handbook is a step-by-step guide to help food sector businesses large or small establish or improve food safety systems. Written in easy-to-follow English and supplemented with useful tools for food safety management system implementation.

This handbook addresses the challenges that agribusiness companies face when working with smallholder suppliers in their value chain.

This country assessment is part of a set of studies planned in order to provide a better understanding of how to improve the business environment in which the private sector operates in Congo and other African countries. The assessment was conducted in order to establish a baseline of information, to help with political decision-making and provide market information. The private health sector assessment in the Republic of Congo provides a diagnosis of the nature and the effectiveness of the interface between the public and private sectors, establishes a dialogue on policy with stakeholders, and makes recommendations for reform that would bolster public and private involvement. The methodology is based on a supply and demand approach to identify market, policy and institutional barriers, and options for reducing these barriers by changing policies and initiatives. The information pertaining to demand reveals how users perceive private providers and their potential. The information pertaining to supply gives a better understanding of the role that private providers play and the challenges they encounter. The institutional information shows how Congo s institutions have facilitated or hampered the private participation. The study methodology includes the following aspects: (i) presentation of the general context of the private health sector in Congo, (ii) multidimensional analysis of demand, (iii) multidimensional analysis of supply, and (iv) analysis of institutional context. Options for action presented in this report include (i) policy and governance initiatives, (ii) regulatory initiatives, (iii) incentive initiatives, and (iv) concrete measures for public-private partnerships (PPP) in the health sector."

Working with Smallholders seeks to enable the development of more sustainable, resilient and productive supply chains for agribusinesses and to illustrate the substantial development impact. Smallholder farmers are both an opportunity and a challenge for food and agribusiness companies. The predominance of smallholders in many frontier and emerging markets makes them an integral part of agribusiness supply chains. Many firms source from smallholders or are actively seeking to source from them. Calls for fairer, more inclusive supply chains will hasten this trend. Yet the development and strengthening of smallholder supply chains remains a key challenge for many International Finance Corporation agribusiness clients. Working with Smallholders compiles innovative solutions and cutting-edge ideas for these challenges. The handbook incorporates a diverse collection of hands-on case studies from across the world regions covering a wide variety of agribusiness sectors. It strikes a good balance between serious technical content and an accessible presentation style. In the three years since the previous edition, there have been numerous changes in approaches and methodologies. This second edition offers a larger compilation of lessons learned from project implementation and highlights leading trends and technologies relevant to the work with smallholders.

La presente evaluation du secteur sanitaire prive au Burkina Faso vise quatre objectifs : a) determiner le role que le secteur prive joue dans le systeme national de sante ; b) formuler un diagnostic sur la nature et l'efficacite de l'interface entre secteurs public et prive ainsi que sur les cadres juridique, reglementaire, technique et humain dans lequel evolue ce secteur ; c) formuler des recommandations au Gouvernement, renforcer le dialogue entre les parties prenantes impliquees dans les secteurs public et prive ; et d) informer les entrepreneurs de la finance, de l'assurance, de l'investissement et des operateurs, africains ou non, et susciter leur interet a participer au developpement du secteur prive de la sante au Burkina Faso. La methodologie de l'etude s'est appuyee sur des informations obtenues selon trois modalites : a) une analyse du corpus documentaire disponible ; b) des entretiens approfondis et des " focus groups " organises avec des prestataires impliques dans les quatre domaines d'analyse etudies ; c) une enquete realisee aupres d'un echantillon de 79 ESPS representatifs de la diversite des structures existantes et des contextes (geographiques notamment) dans lesquels ils interviennent, a l'aide d'un sondage stratifie a deux degres ; et d) l'animation de trois ateliers d'engagement avec les representants des secteurs public et prive destines a presenter la methodologie de l'evaluation, a discuter de ses principaux resultats, a identifier les principaux defis et a elaborer un plan d'action afin de mieux integrer le secteur prive dans le systeme de sante burkinabe et ameliorer ainsi les resultats en matiere de sante. Les principaux elements de diagnostic discutes dans cette etude concernent l'offre de soins, la formation, les medicaments et produits relatifs a la sante, l'assurance et le financement, et l'environnement. Finalement le plan d'action issu du travail participatif en groupes lors des ateliers et propose au Gouvernement est articule autour de trois axes : (i) le cadre strategique et le dialogue politique, (ii) l'environnement des affaires, (iii) le developpement d'initiatives concretes de partenariat public-prive.

China's economy has grown rapidly over the past decade. At the same time, it has undergone a fundamental change, from complete reliance on state-owned and collective enterprise to a mixed economy where private enterprise also plays a strong role. By 1998 the domestic private sector had grown to about 27 percent of gross domestic product, making it second to the state enterprise sector in economic importance. A constitutional amendment in 1999 formally recognized this shift, thereby laying the foundation for the private sector to emerge from the shadows and play a prominent role in China's future development. This study was undertaken in partnership with the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) and draws on fieldwork in China in the summer of 1999, along with discussions at a conference in Beijing in April 2000. It also draws on IFC's and the World Bank Group's global experience in promoting private sector development. It offers business owners, managers, and policymakers assistance in identifying an action agenda to help reduce present constraints and enhance the available opportunities.

Governments in both industrialized and developing countries provide a wide variety of programs to assist small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). Despite the success of SME strategies in a few countries, the majority of developing countries have found that the impact of their SME development programs on enterprise performance has been less than satisfactory. Underlying the search for best practice are some basic questions: - What is the justification for public intervention in the first place? - Should SMEs be singled out for assistance? - If there is a justification for government intervention, what form should that intervention take? This paper investigates the economic rationale for intervention in support of small- and medium-scale enterprises, on both theoretical and empirical grounds. It also suggests a framework for SME intervention to help the Bank Group's client countries design SME strategies, gauge the effectiveness of assistance programs, and achieve the objective of raising SME competitiveness. This volume will be of interest to government officials and development agencies involved in SME support policies and programs.