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Law and Regulation

Here are five countries with the highest and least proportion of women in parliaments

Ravi Kumar's picture
Maria Neida. Brazil
Maria Neida. Jatoba Black Community Association. Brazil. Video Stil. © Romel Simon/World Bank

“When one woman is a leader, it changes her. When more women are leaders, it changes politics and policies,” says Michelle Bachelet, the president of Republic of Chile. It’s true.

Over the last few decades, the world has seen an increase in number of women leaders. It’s key to our progress. When there are more women leaders, everyone benefits not just women.

​If we want a better world, we need to elect more women leaders.

Development from the ground up? Mining community development agreements in Sierra Leone

Jared Schott's picture



Relationships with affected communities can make or break mining activities. From a business perspective, local disputes can lead to more than US$20 million per week in losses for large-scale mines. To say nothing of the broader costs – in terms of lives lost and development stymied – when local discontent develops into violent conflict. 

In response, a growing number of mining companies and governments have rolled out “Community Development Agreements” (CDAs), an umbrella term covering formal arrangements for local development between a company and designated communities. CDAs can run the gamut of the community-company relationship, including among other areas, socio-environmental impacts, benefit sharing, employment, monitoring and grievance redress.

CDAs have spread quickly in national law and policy. Since the mid-1980s thirty two countries have adopted community development provisions in mining codes, with nine countries currently in the process. The CDA model, it seems, is an emergent “best practice” and initiatives ranging from the Ruggie Principles to the International Council on Mining and Metals have reiterated their value.

Beyond Courts: Using a justice lens to address conflict, fragility and violence

Hassane Cisse's picture
Gaza. Displaced Persons. World Bank
Gaza. Displaced persons. Photo: © Natalia Cieslik / World Bank

From civil wars in Mali and Iraq to urban crime in Central America, perceptions of injustice are central to fueling violence and fragility. While we in the development community increasingly recognize that legitimate and effective justice institutions are crucial to inclusive growth in these contexts, we have often struggled to support them. The World Bank is at the forefront of developing new ways of understanding justice challenges as well as practical means to address them. 

A panel on “New Approaches to Justice in FCV,” part of the 2015 Fragility Forum, highlighted new ways of understanding and responding to justice challenges.

The growing popularity of justice impact evaluations in developing countries

Nicholas Menzies's picture
Source: billsonPHOTO 


I was lucky to recently attend a workshop on justice and governance impact evaluations in the wonderful city of Istanbul. The spark of the workshop discussions lived up to the liveliness of the location.

Some time ago I blogged about the pros and cons of impact evaluations for justice projects in developing countries.  Since then, interest in impact evaluations in the justice sector has grown at the World Bank and within the larger development community. 

Justice proposed for sustainable development goals

Heike Gramckow's picture
​Source UN, 2014. The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet

This year will see a major milestone with the adoption of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the UN’s member states. Expanding on the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set in 2000, the currently envisioned 17 SDGs are aiming to address broader, transformative economic, environmental and social changes. For the first time, however, the centrality of justice in achieving sustainable development has been recognized in the Open Working Group’s proposed Goal 16:
 
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
 
The mention of justice, governance and peaceful societies in the SDGs is seen as an important step, but one that will pose many challenges. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has put his support behind the inclusion of justice as a central pillar for achieving sustainable development.

New Directions in Governance

Mario Marcel's picture

In my first mission as senior director, I am participating in an event in London this week hosted by the Governance Partnership Facility (GPF). This multi donor trust fund includes the World Bank Group, along with donors that include the UK, Netherlands, Norway and Australia. This year’s program includes perspectives from civil society and academic institutions which will further enrich our understanding of what’s important to our client countries.

Despite relatively modest resources over the past five years the GPF has played a major role in helping to build the Bank’s Governance and Anti-Corruption strategy.  The model of the trust fund is structured around four different “windows” in which competitive grant proposals are submitted by World Bank task team leaders across the different Practice Groups; these are then carefully vetted and submitted to a Steering Committee for approval.

Professionalizing public procurement in Vietnam

Kien Trung Tran's picture
World Bank-financed school in Vietnam's Can Tho province. Photo: World Bank

Vietnam spends an estimated US$25 billion in goods and services each year. Recognizing that an efficient public procurement system is essential to delivering quality public services in a timely manner, the Government has set a mandate to professionalize the public procurement function.

Are impact evaluations useful for justice reforms in developing countries?

Nicholas Menzies's picture

I have been somewhat skeptical about the application of impact evaluations to justice reform activities but I’m coming around to their utility for a limited – yet important – set of questions. The basic method behind impact evaluations – establishing a counterfactual in order to attribute net impact – is fairly new to justice so I thought I’d set out some ideas that might be worth considering in developing this nascent field.

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