Women, Business and the Law 2018 is the fi fth in a series of biennial reports measuring gender diff erences in legal treatment. Since this research started, the realization of the importance of women’s entrepreneurship and employment has increased signifi cantly, as has our understanding of the relationship between legal gender equality and women’s economic outcomes.

To understand where laws facilitate or hinder gender equality and women’s economic participation, Women, Business and the Law 2018 is providing scores for the first time for each of its seven indicators: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, going to court, building credit and protecting women from violence. The indicator scores are a number between 0 and 100, with 100 being the best. The scores are obtained by calculating the unweighted average of the scored questions within that indicator, and scaling the result to 100.

This report covers data for 189 economies including 16 that were not covered in the previous report: Cabo Verde; the Central African Republic; the Comoros; Cyprus; Eritrea; The Gambia; Guinea-Bissau; Kiribati; Libya; the Marshall Islands; the Federated States of Micronesia; Palau; Samoa; San Marino; the Solomon Islands; and Vanuatu.

This volume, the third in the series, focuses on the disproportionate contribution to overall growth by a relatively small share of firms that quickly scale their employment and output and generate positive spillovers along the value chain (high-growth firms). Policy makers across the world are keen to identify and support such firms in an effort to boost development. However, episodes of high growth are typically short-lived, and the empirical support for the ability to successfully target these firms is, at best, lukewarm. The analysis in this volume sheds new light on key features and drivers of high-growth firms in developing countries and leads to rethinking of public policy priorities to support firm growth.

Economic growth, public debt, and the government’s fiscal balance are strongly intertwined. In Barbados, low growth and recurring fiscal deficits have led to rapid accumulation of debt, which at over 155 percent of GDP in 2017 and the first half of 2018, has been the highest in the Latin American and Caribbean region. In response, the Government of Barbados is carrying out a set of ambitious reforms, including a fiscal consolidation program and debt restructuring. Yet, given the important role of economic growth on the required fiscal adjustment and on the debt-to-GDP ratio, it will be key to ensure that the design and scope of the adjustment support a balanced approach, reducing debt without undermining growth. This paper reviews and explains the recent debt trajectory in Barbados. It then discusses the potential effects of real GDP growth on the debtto-GDP ratio and the required fiscal adjustment going forward. In so doing, it highlights the importance of a balanced approach between fiscal adjustment and growth stimulus for a sustainable debt path.

This paper examines the relationship between public financial management (PFM), the financing of health interventions, and health outcomes. Specifically, the paper econometrically tests whether the effect of PFM on under-five (U5) mortality depends on the relevance of public sector health financing. Employing OLS on a sample of 215 observations indicates that a one-unit increase in PFM quality is associated with a reduction in the U5 mortality rate with about 14 deaths per 1,000 live births. For countries that channel at least 75 percent of health expenditures through the government system, this rate increases to 17 deaths per 1,000 child births. Results are robust to using an alternative dependent variable, adding year fixed effects, a sensitivity test where the health financing threshold is varied, a falsification test that verifies whether findings are driven by unobserved governance aspects, a sample restriction, and the inclusion of different controls. Furthermore, the paper provides a comparative analysis for Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), a region that remains mostly overlooked in the literature. The findings for LAC are broadly consistent with the global sample, though less pronounced and without a differential effect for countries across the financing threshold. Overall, the evidence indicates that the pursuit of universal health coverage and the progress toward related SDGs will be costlier if enabling systems are not in place.

In 2014 a survey of 11 indigenous villages and 337 households was conducted to understand the economic conditions and document perceptions and opinions of leaders and households on various matters of import. This report presents the results of the survey. The main findings are that Indigenous villages face serious underdevelopment challenges due to deficient infrastructure, limited human capital, high dependency ratios, and lack of access to capital for investment.

The report contains the final findings of the comprehensive review mandated by the General Assembly in its resolution 69/288. It addresses the scope of recommendations 1, 5 and 6 contained in the report entitled “Recommendations to the General Assembly of the United Nations for the determination of parameters for a comprehensive review of United Nations system support for small island developing States” (JIU/REP/2015/2) related to:
- System-wide coherence in United Nations system work in support of small island developing States (SIDS) to implement the Small Island Developing States Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway, taking into account its linkages with other global mandates;
- Institutional set-up and coordination for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the SAMOA Pathway;
- Institutional and managerial mechanisms of coordination between the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS).
The findings of the report build on the information collected during the field missions in the following small island developing States: Barbados, Fiji, Mauritius, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago. The team also visited Panama, a regional hub of United Nations system organizations, as well as Geneva-based organizations and United Nations Headquarters in New York.

This year’s report focuses on regional trade, the most common form of trade for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It finds that deep regional trade agreements help deliver inclusive growth. These agreements attract value chain
activity and narrow the competitiveness gap between large and small firms. When investment is part of such agreements, the impact is stronger. 
The report provides targeted advice for policymakers, businesses, and trade and investment support institutions. It combines data analysis, case studies, academic insights and opinions by thought leaders. Policymakers, investors, exporters and importers receive key information on how to identify new partners and market opportunities. The publication contains 50 country profiles, featuring detailed SME competitiveness assessments and information on each country’s export potential within and outside their geographical region. Success stories of value chain integration are provided for Ghana, Hungary, Indonesia, Kenya and Morocco.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the World Bank’s twin goals—or any other development goal for that matter—hinges on sustained economic growth in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). This growth
in turn depends on macroeconomic stability. The semi-annual Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report assesses the global outlook for growth and stability in these countries.

The January 2019 edition, Darkening Skies, highlights how precarious the current economic juncture is. In a nutshell, growth has weakened, trade tensions remain high, several developing economies have experienced financial stress, and risks to the outlook have increased. As the report points out, EMDEs face some of the greatest risks. If a trade war between the United States and China contributes to a global slowdown, the spillover effects on EMDEs could be profound. Similarly, a sharp increase in global interest rates would severely affect highly indebted EMDEs, as Turkey and Argentina painfully discovered last summer.

This edition of the GEP continues that tradition with a comprehensive study of the informal economy, something which could in the short-run be a shock absorber, but in the long-run is associated with low productivity. The analysis
suggests that the informal sector’s role in absorbing labor during downturns is limited. However, the potential long-term gains from increasing productivity in the informal sector are substantial. This edition also presents evidence
that debt in low-income countries is on the rise, an issue that is being discussed extensively in policy circles.

The main message of this year’s World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development is that these patterns of progress and persistence in gender equality matter, both for development outcomes and policy making. They matter because gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. But greater gender equality is also smart economics, enhancing productivity and improving other development outcomes, including prospects for the next generation and for the quality of societal policies and institutions. Economic development is not enough to shrink all gender disparities—corrective policies that focus on persisting gender gaps are essential.
This Report points to four priority areas for policy going forward. First, reducing gender gaps in human capital—specifi cally those that address female mortality and education. Second, closing gender gaps in access to economic  opportunities, earnings, and productivity. Third, shrinking gender differences in voice and agency within society. Fourth, limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations. These are all areas where higher incomes by themselves do little to reduce gender gaps, but focused policies can have a real impact.

This book shines a spotlight on the value of voice and agency, the patterns of constraints that limit their realization, and the associated costs, not only to individual women but also to their families, communities, and societies. It highlights promising policies and interventions, and it identiFies priority areas where further research and more and better data and evidence are needed. Underlining that agency has both intrinsic and instrumental, concrete value, we put advancing women’s voice and agency squarely on the international development agenda.
Removing constraints and unleashing women’s full productive potential can yield enormous dividends that help make whole societies more resilient and more prosperous. For example:
■ Delays in marriage are associated with greater educational achievement and lower fertility. And lower fertility can increase women’s life expectancy and has benefits for children’s health and education.
■ When more women are elected to office, policy making increasingly reflects the priorities of families and women.
■ Property ownership can enhance women’s agency by increasing their social status, amplifying their voice, and incr easing their bargaining power within the household.

Recognizing agency constraints in development project design can also improve effectiveness. Use of reproductive health services by adolescents, for example, is better where projects address mobility constraints and train providers to address possible issues of stigma. This fact underlines the broader significance of understanding how agency constraints operate and how policies and public action can lift those constraints and enhance agency.

The good news is that promising directions for enhancing agency are emerging. Moreover, the global momentum to tackle this agenda is growing. This trend is perhaps most vivid in the case of ending gender-based violence, a major focus of this book. The number of countries recognizing domestic violence as a crime has risen from close to zero to 76 in just 37 years. In countries with legislation against domestic violence, women’s acceptance of wife beating is lower. This finding suggests the value of enacting legislation that criminalizes violence. At the same time, laws are clearly not a panacea, and awareness of the law and effective implementation and enforcement are critical.

Over recent decades the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has seen a dramatic and virtually uninterrupted rise in female labor force participation (LFP). Women in LAC have increased their participation faster than in any other region of the world, adding nearly 80 million women to the labor force. This evolution occurred in the context of more general progress in women’s status. Female enrollment rates in primary through tertiary education have increased to the point of closing or even reversing the gender gap that traditionally favored boys. Family structures have changed markedly, and fertility rates have started to decline. And social norms have shifted toward gender equality.
This report argues that all of those changes are interrelated and need to be studied as such. Traditional explanations for low LFP, and for the patterns of employment once women join the workforce, have focused on discrimination or
low human capital accumulation. In these views, the policies for generating more opportunities for women focus on labor market institutions or on the quantity and quality of human capital investments. However, the recent literature in developed countries has stressed the role and interaction of microsocial factors in determining economic opportunities available to women and, by extension, the evolution of female economic participation (such as LFP, sectoral choices, and family formation).1 These microsocial factors include human capital; 2 (education and health), social norms and preferences, and family formation and household structure 

This report views the evolution of female participation through this microlens, drawing on the emerging literature on family formation (marriage and fertility) and household structure, including intrahousehold bargaining.3 While not negating or dismissing the ongoing agenda of ensuring equal opportunity in the workplace, this approach shifts the focus to household dynamics and decisions about schooling, the allocation of work within the household, and the kinds of jobs each household member should seek.4 It thus provides a powerful framework for interpreting the evolution of gender-related patterns. The framework highlights the importance of understanding how household decisions
are made, since different models of the household yield divergent implications for interactions between spouses, for the distribution of resources and its associated welfare, and for the relevant policy margins.

This book argues that more and better childcare is an important way to increase FLFP. The main hypothesis is that the success of childcare policies depends on use and that use depends on how programs design quality and convenience features. First-rate educational programs will be useless if children are not enrolled or do not attend; program expansions will be wasted if mothers cannot enroll their children because they are unable to reach the center, if the program is too expensive, or if their work schedules are not compatible with the childcare center’s hours.

This book addresses these gaps. Part I shows why increasing FLFP is important and childcare is the right policy for achieving it. Chapter 1 provides evidence that increased FLFP contributes to growth, poverty reduction, and fiscal
sustainability. Lower labor force participation in paid work, particularly among the poorest women, implies both productivity losses and higher probabilities of intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality. Female labor income
accounted for an estimated 28 percent of the sharp decline in inequality experienced in the region between 2000 and 2010; had female labor income not changed during this decade, extreme poverty would have been 30 percent higher in 2010 (World Bank 2012).

Part II describes FLFP and the use and provision of childcare services in LAC. Chapter 3 overviews current labor market outcomes, describing women’s labor force participation, unemployment, informality, earnings, and occupational segregation. 

Part III examines how policy makers can improve services and increase the number of formal, center-based care arrangements for young children. 

This manual provides a guide to working with ADePT Gender with a particular emphasis on helping the wide community of users to interpret the large volume of statistical information generated by the software. Contrary to other ADePT modules, it does not detail the mechanisms behind gender differences in outcomes, as these are extensively covered in the WDR 2012 and in its companion reports. Table 1.1 lists the main references available to the ADePT Gender users on the drivers of gender inequality and offers a short description of how they relate to the WDR framework.

The origins of the book go back to the early days of the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), which was set up in the World Bank around 1980. As its name suggests, the original idea was to promote household surveys that would enable the better measurement of poverty and of living standards around the world, something that was difficult to do with the data then available. As time went on, and people came and went, the LSMS surveys evolved into multi-purpose tools that would permit not only measurement, but also analysis, permitting a better understanding of how people’s lives work, what makes them tick, and why they are as well off or as poorly off as they are. Hence “the analysis” of household surveys, not just the measurement of income, or consumption, or wellbeing. In the original conception, there were to be a series of volumes on different specific topics, with this volume being more general, though with examples of topics that could be covered using the approach.

This study pulls together the underlying shifts in paradigm and measurement and terms them the “second wave” of productivity analysis. This new wave has been facilitated by three critical evolutions. First, the access to detailed and
high-quality firm-level data has improved greatly in some economies. Second, partly aided by this availability, an academic literature has emerged that critically revisits many established approaches, in particular, the estimation of firm production functions, and from there, the identification and measurement of the drivers of productivity growth. Third, the quantification of human capital or “capabilities” relevant to productivity improvements, in terms of both managerial skills
and, more fundamentally, necessary psychological characteristics, has permitted a tentative opening of the black box of the role of entrepreneurship in productivity gains.
This volume employs manufacturing production firm-level data for a variety of developing economies—including Chile; China; Colombia; Ethiopia; India; Indonesia; Malaysia; Mexico; Taiwan, China; Thailand; and Romania—to forward
this analytical agenda and ground it in the developing-country reality. The extensive empirical work and conceptual synthesis presented in this volume offers new guidance for productivity analysis and dictates a corresponding shift in how to
approach productivity policy in several areas.  

This report offers two sets of recommendations to national governments. The first is for more effective policy frameworks to govern food safety; the second is for better implementation. The first set of recommendations emphasizes the
adoption of both systemic and inclusive concepts of food safety management, shifting the focus from hazards to risks, addressing risks from farm to fork, changing from a reactive to a proactive orientation on food safety, and adopting
a consistent approach to prioritized decision making. To improve implementation, this report offers guidance for reforming food safety regulatory practices, investing more smartly in essential public goods, institutionalizing a structured
approach to food safety risk management, and leveraging consumer concerns over food safety.
This report makes tailored recommendations for different stakeholders, and general priorities are highlighted for countries at different stages of the food safety life cycle. The recommendations for different stakeholders are summarized in box ES.1 and are discussed more fully in the report. Table ES.1 highlights priorities for countries at different stages of the food safety life cycle. These emphasize core principles and reflect the study team’s perspective on what is most important and feasible for countries at different levels of economic development and food system modernization. More specific priorities and action plans will need to be determined and created by stakeholders at country or regional levels.

This report is about how the data revolution is changing the behavior of governments, individuals, and firms. Specifically, the report examines how these changes affect the nature of development—economic, social, and cultural. How can
governments extract value from data to improve service delivery in the same way that private companies have learned to do for profit? Is it feasible for individuals to take ownership of their own data and to use it to improve livelihoods and quality of life? Can developing-country firms compete with the internet majors on their own turf and even be more innovative in their use of data to serve local customers better? 

This book is directed at policymakers as well as academics. For the first group, there might be interesting lessons to be learned (or at the very least, interesting ideas to explore) about the core capabilities needed for the design and effective implementation of PDPs. For the second group, the hope is to open interesting new areas of research. The conclusions and conjectures on how Latin American and Caribbean countries might best develop public capabilities for PDPs, based on a series of case studies, are preliminary. Further research using a mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques, as well as more rigorous development of the conceptual framework outlined both in this book and in the IDB Working Papers that this project generated, is needed to provide a stronger basis for policymaking in the future.

Despite tremendous strides in recent years toward economic stabilization, debt reduction, and structural reform, financial sector development and access in Jamaica lag behind peers. Development-related indicators have remained  stubbornly static over the past several decades, including with respect to poverty rates, income equality, economic informality, and the vibrancy of the private sector. In this context, a combination of economic and policy-related factors, as
well as geographic, social, and demographic issues have all influenced the development of Jamaica’s financial sector. Recent improvements in institutional capacity, policy discipline, and structural measures suggest that there is considerable scope to accelerate financial sector development and to broaden access and inclusion. This paper aims to review a number of metrics and indicators related to financial market development, highlight some country-specific
challenges facing financial deepening and inclusion, and put forward recommendations regarding areas for reform. The government’s first ever national financial inclusion strategy launched in 2016 is also discussed.

The Barbados economy has been challenged over the last decade by elevated fiscal deficits and a rapid build-up in debt. While the country has made efforts to address this challenge through revenue and expenditure measures, budget targets have often been missed. This study indicates that budget underperformance has contributed to the debt accumulation in Barbados. When comparing actual to budgeted targets set out in the budget, the study indicates that there has
been an underestimation of expenditure and lower-than-expected revenue in several years. Particularly, systematic underestimation of transfers without adequate compensation in revenues has increased debt, underscoring the need for institutional and fiscal reforms. At the same time, the under-execution of capital expenditure highlights the need for better allocation to this growthpromoting spending, which has suffered from limited fiscal space.

This report builds on the desire to construct a more complete picture of what it means to live in a world free of poverty and in which all prosper. A key point of the report is that we must broaden our view of poverty. After an update on global extreme poverty in chapter 1, the remaining chapters of this report can be viewed as expanding our understanding of poverty. Chapter 2 provides an update on shared prosperity as measured by growth in consumption or income of the
bottom 40 percent of the population in each country for the period around 2010–15. One important reason the concept of monitoring shared prosperity was introduced was to expand our view of how to think about poverty reduction and growth. Monitoring extreme poverty at the global level is inattentive to how progress is distributed across the world. The shared prosperity indicator was built to ensure the monitoring of progress in all countries. Ending poverty and sharing
in prosperity cannot happen in a satisfactory way if the need for equitable and sustainable economic development is ignored in certain regions or countries.

Pieced together, the chapters of this report provide a more comprehensive picture of poverty that reinforces much of the positive story revealed by the tremendous progress in reducing extreme poverty over the last quarter century. But they also uncover some previously hidden details about the nature and extent of poverty throughout the world. Monetary poverty with respect to the IPL will continue to be the focus of the World Bank’s work. Alarming findings from the forecasts reported in the first chapter are that extreme poverty appears to be entrenched in a handful of countries and that the pace of poverty reduction will soon decelerate significantly. The goal of ending extreme poverty as measured
by the IPL itself will require a redoubling of efforts and a greater focus on those countries where poverty is the worst. But, to truly bring an end to poverty, we now also need to think more broadly and recognize the greater complexity inherent in the concept of poverty around the world.

This handbook is written for the operational managers in agribusiness companies responsible for integrating smallholder farmers into value chains as suppliers, clients, or customers. These managers include the following:
• Product and sales managers for input manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers
• Field managers for financial institutions and their small business clients
• Training service providers working with smallholders
• Supply chain and sustainability managers for off-takers
• Sustainability managers for processors and food companies
• Company managers responsible for engagement via public-private partnerships.
Although written principally to outline training and assistance needs and opportunities for the private sector—whether in high-income, frontier,or low- and middle-income markets—the handbook may also be
useful to the staffs of governmental or nongovernmental agricultural development programs working with smallholders, as well as to academic and research institutions.

This report argues that fiscal instruments are among the most effective means to fight climate change while raising human welfare. Environmental taxes are taxes whose base “is a physical unit (or a proxy of it) that has a proven specific
negative impact on the environment” (OECD 2018a). Taxes can include those on energy, transportation, pollution, and resources. These taxes leverage price signals to discourage the burning of fossil fuels and other environmentally damaging activities while promoting innovation and investment in cleaner, more efficient sources of energy. In addition, the revenue generated by environmental taxes can be used to reduce other, preexisting taxes or to finance spending on health, education, social protection, and public infrastructure to increase the economy’s resilience to climate change.

This report responds to a growing demand from client countries for insights into how fiscal policy can advance development objectives in areas outside of the World Bank’s traditional scope. The report is designed to build the capacity of
client countries and World Bank staff to use fiscal instruments to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It does so by filling knowledge gaps on the economic, well-being, distributional, and competitiveness implications of ETR in developing
countries, alongside the use of fiscal policy to manage increasing economic risks of climate change. Crucially, the report provides actionable advice on how to design and implement fiscal policies for both development and climate action.
The report is organized into four chapters. The first chapter, “Benefits beyond Climate: Environmental Tax Reform,” argues that well-designed environmental taxation is especially valuable in developing countries, where it can reduce emissions, increase domestic revenues, and generate positive welfare effects. The second chapter, “Staying Competitive: Productivity Effects of Environmental Taxes,” discusses the potential impacts of environmental taxation on competitiveness in emerging economies. It analyzes new empirical evidence from Indonesia and Mexico regarding the relationship between productivity and changes in energy prices, which are used as a proxy for changes in environmental taxation. The third and fourth chapters, “Increasing Resilience: Fiscal Policy for Climate Adaptation” and “Managing the Fiscal Risks Associated with Natural Disasters,” discuss the role of fiscal policy in strengthening resilience to climate change. 

The paper discussing the barriers hampering development of e-commerce in Africa - gives an overview of the e-commerce potential throughout Africa; explores common barriers grouped into four broad areas - financial, infrastructure, socio-political and digital divide, each of which is discussed in a separate chapter;  seeks to identify the reasons for these barriers, using insights provided by e-commerce entrepreneurs in several African countries; presents examples of local successes such as Nigeria, alongside examples which illustrate the challenges to replicating such successes elsewhere on the continent; suggests avenues for reducing the obstacles and facilitating international e-commerce on the continent; includes endnotes and sources (pp. 45-47). 

The joint report of the International Trade Centre and the World Tourism Organization brings together complementary expertise of two organizations on critical issues at the intersection of the international policy context, government action, and private actors in the tourism sector. It discusses the role of tourism in contributing to sustainable development and illustrates where and how trade, investment or visa policies matter for the tourism sector through two different angles – the point of view of the journey of an international tourist and the point of view of a firm supplying services or goods within a tourism value chain. The report further provides a comprehensive description of the interlinkages the tourism
sector has with other sectors in an economy; suggests that fulfilling tourism's potential requires strong and coordinated action around Tourism Export Strategies that take fully into account the different frameworks governing the flows of travellers, services, goods and foreign direct investment; includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36).

Power Point presentation highlighting the sector, transient, external and timng isues for the ICT sector.

This special edition of the Creative Economy Report argues that creativity and culture are processes or attributes that are intimately bound up in the imagining and generation of new ideas, products or ways of interpreting the world. All these have monetary and non-monetary benefits that can be recognized as instrumental to human development. Transformational change is thus understood within a broader framework of human development and is recognized as a process that enhances the effective freedom of the people to pursue whatever they have reason to value.

In this context, the Report acknowledges that the creative and cultural industries depart in several ways from generic economic and industrial models in the way that they operate and are organized. Their outputs are symbolically and
ideologically charged in ways that most other products are not and raise specific social and political questions that other industries do not. They tend to be environmentally friendly and concentrated in large metropolitan areas, frequently employ highly skilled workers, and rely deeply on informal cultural systems, processes and institutions. These industries also generate benefits that are not measurable by market prices alone, but rather affirm the distinctive cultural identity of the places where they are developed and where they cluster, thereby improving conditions of life and enhancing local image and prestige. 

The key question is how to capture the vibrancy and scale of creative economies beyond economic indicators. To meet this challenge, the analytic framework for this Report advances the understanding of “creativity” and “culture” as both drivers and enablers of development.

The Creative Economy Report 2010 —Creative economy: A feasible development option is thesecond policy-oriented report to present the United Nations perspective on this innovative topic. The creative economy has become a topical issue of the international economic and development agenda during this decade, calling for informed policy responses in both developed and developing countries.  Adequately nurtured, creativity fuels culture, infuses a human-centred development and constitutes the key ingredient for job creation, innovation and trade while contributing to social inclusion, cultural diversity and environmental sustainability.
This report builds upon the findings and recommendations put forward by the first Creative Economy Report 2008 — The challenge of assessing the creative economy: Towards informed policymaking, but goes a step further by deepening
the analysis and bringing new insights on the impact of recent developments on the creative economy. Evidence from this report confirms an important lesson from the economic crisis, namely that the market, contrary to conventional
wisdom, does not have a near-miraculous capacity to address socio-economic imbalances. Thus, policies and actions to foster development should be rooted in a balanced role for policy interventions and the market. In this context, the debate around the development dimension of the creative economy gained momentum in search of a new development model better adapted to the new realities of the contemporary society. The Creative Economy Report 2010 attempts to
respond to this call by identifying trends, strengths and weaknesses as well as challenges and opportunities to be addressed, bearing in mind that it is important to reconcile national strategies with global international processes .

Haiti has developed a very large trade deficit in merchandise with the DR over the last 15 years, estimated at $1.419 billion1 in 2014. This reportlooks at opportunities for rebalancing this deficit through either import substitution or export development. Haiti has the potential to produce many of the goods that it currently imports from the DR, therefore creating jobs and wealth in Haiti. Similarly, the DR imported goods valued at over $17 billion in 2014, providing a huge market for Haiti to tap into.

This hand-book is designed to put the right information into the hands of our tourism industry to make sure we take full advantage of the EPA. Written in as straightforward and accessible a style as possible, this hand-book summarises the provisions in the Agreement which will affect tourism. It provides a country-by country breakdown of the Caribbean’s EPA commitments to reduce tariffs on European goods and to allow European firms to provide services in our region, and it gives a full analysis of the development funding which is available and how to access it.  This handbook is not intended to be read cover-to-cover but rather to provide a quick reference guide for busy tourism professionals who need to understand how the EPA will affect particular aspects of their business and to inform them where they can go to for funding support, technical assistance or advice.

This publication is based on Project TE/RAS/09/003 A survey covering quality management system development, certification, accreditation and economic benefits. In recent years, however, some concerns have been expressed in the Asian developing economies and elsewhere about whether accredited certification to ISO 9001 has been achieving the desired outcomes, and whether excessive attention to obtaining certification has shifted the focus away from the effectiveness of the quality management systems of the organizations involved. These concerns have also been shared by the ISO, the IAF and others. This publication represents an attempt to address these concerns in the context of business-to-business transactions in the manufacturing and construction sectors. It is the outcome of a project initiated by UNIDO, funded by Norad and supported with technical inputs by ISO and the IAF.

This study takes a very pragmatic approach in the examination of the PPP landscape in the Caribbean.  This includes a detailed assessment of the legal and regulatory frameworks that currently exists in the Bank’s BMCs that can potentially facilitate or impede the use of PPPs. Within this context, it suggests a reform agenda that would enable the use of PPPs to support growth. This includes identification of the requisite support structures and organisational changes that promote improved PPP outcomes. Importantly, by highlighting several case studies drawn from inside and outside the Region, in both social and economic sectors, the work seeks to assists Caribbean policymakers
in understanding the model of structured project financing. Finally, the study offers possible entry points through which CDB can reinforce BMC’s capacity building needs.

Doing Business advocates for both regulatory quality and efficiency. It is important to have effective rules in place that are easy to follow and understand. To realize economic gains, reduce corruption and encourage SMEs to flourish, unnecessary red tape should be eliminated. However, specific safeguards must be put in place to ensure high-quality business regulatory processes; efficiency alone is not enough for regulation to function well. What use is it when one can transfer property in just a few days and at a low cost, but the property registry contains unreliable information with incomplete geographic coverage? Doing Business exposes cases with evident discrepancies between regulatory quality and efficiency, signaling to regulators what needs to be reformed.
Doing Business 2019 measures the processes for business incorporation, getting a building permit, obtaining an electricity connection, transferring property, getting access to credit, protecting  minority investors, paying taxes, engaging in international trade, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.  Doing Business collects and publishes data on labor market regulation with a focus on the flexibility of employment regulation as well as several aspects of job quality. However, this regulatory area does not constitute part of the ease of doing business ranking (figure 1.1). For more details on the Doing Business indicators, see the data notes at http://www.doingbusiness.org.

The Future Perspectives advocated in this Report attempt to reposition and transform the ACP Group of States into a dynamic and effective inter-governmental organization fully responsive to the global challenges of an unsettled and multi-polar 21st century.
The narrative of the Report provides the role, restated vision, mission and core values of the ACP Group, conscious of the need to articulate in concrete terms, the basis and rationale of interventions within a coherent All-ACP strategic policy framework.
Although not exhaustive, this account is grounded in the historical experience of 39 years of trade negotiations, development financing and political engagements within and between ACP States and those of the ACP and the EU. These engagements have resulted in an accumulation of social capital, expertise and organizational systems within the ACP Secretariat that provide a comparative advantage for knowledge generation, development policy analysis, capacity building and intra-ACP trade and investment.

One of the main building blocks of EU external relations, the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP), is set to expire in 2020. Due to EU institutional evolution and changes in the global balance of powers, a renewal 'as is' of the agreement is not an option. There is a need to streamline ACP-EU relations, with new EU strategies in the regions concerned, and to adapt to the ACP countries' new ambitions. The issue of financing is also on the table.
Stakeholders have started discussions, focusing on the overlaps with other frameworks and the assets that should be kept or reformed. The main challenge for the EU is to keep its leverage in the region while remaining faithful to the values the EU Treaties promote. The EU's new relationship with the ACP countries will have to be consistent with recent strategic changes in its foreign policy, such as the EU global strategy.
Formal negotiations between the parties need to start in August 2018 at the latest. Further to a joint evaluation, the European Commission and the High Representative have put forward their preferred option: an umbrella agreement with tailored regional partnerships. To date, other stakeholders have not yet taken formal positions, but some discernible patterns are emerging.

One of Europe’s most remarkable external achievements is a comprehensive and legally binding international cooperation agreement that unites more than half of the world’s nation states. Signed in Benin in 2000, the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA, commonly referred to as the ‘Cotonou Agreement’ or just ‘Cotonou’) intends to intensify the long-standing cooperation in politics, trade and development between the European Union (EU) and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). This collaboration has led to the creation and evolution of unique institutions that facilitate ACP–EU cooperation among public officials, members of Parliament,
and many other partnership actors.
The changing global context, along with institutional, political and socioeconomic developments in the EU and the ACP, raise questions about whether this approach to cooperation has sufficiently delivered on its objectives, and which evolutions – or revolutions – may be necessary for these regions’ future cooperation. In recent years, various studies have examined this topic, mostly focusing on the Brussels-based ACP and EU representatives who manage and shape the cooperation.  This paper seeks to complement existing evidence with the findings of a detailed review of the literature and the perceptions of past, present and future ACP–EU cooperation gathered from a wide range of stakeholders in ten ACP countries. With the CPA’s current cooperation framework scheduled to expire in 2020 it seems both warranted and timely to capture such perceptions for use in discussions about the future.
The analysis presented here is based on information collected in a structured survey of literature and semi-structured interviews with ACP officials in Brussels, as well as with a large variety of stakeholders in ten ACP countries – Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Nigeria, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and Zambia.

This brief is an update of a study which was initially released in 2011 by the International Trade Centre (ITC). The studied time frame covered the period of the economic crisis in 2008/2009 but not the recovery thereafter. With trade data available now until 2011, we have been able to add new export performance facts that show how the Commonwealth has emerged from the period of economic turmoil. In addition, data on trade agreements and tariffs have been updated for 2012.
The brief takes stock of the present export performance of the members, recognising their differences in terms of levels of development and the prevailing business climate. Commonwealth countries have also evidenced major differences in their economic and export performances in the context of the global financial crisis and during the subsequent recovery.
The brief analyses the wide range of trade agreements which Commonwealth members have engaged in. Based on an assessment of the market access conditions which prevail, the brief seeks to identify opportunities to engage in intra-Commonwealth agreements to enhance cooperation and trade amongst members.
Enhancing trade within the Commonwealth through improving market access would connect countries and citizens and therewith would provide a major impetus for the organisation. The Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec) could be the key institution to prepare any possible agreement for facilitating market access. The Secretariat would also be tasked to ensure that any signed agreement conforms to other international obligations and commitments of the individual countries of the Commonwealth.

This report explores private sector development in the Caribbean region. The report is largely based on the analysis in the Private Sector Assessment Reports (PSARs) on 14 Caribbean countries. The PSARs were commissioned by
Compete Caribbean, a private sector development, technical assistance program funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade Development (DFATD), and the United Kingdom’s
Department for International Development. Compete Caribbean projects in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) countries are implemented in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank. The Economist Intelligence Unit combined its own proprietary analysis and forecasting data with analysis from the PSARs to produce this comprehensive summary report. The PSARs explain the current situation of each of the Caribbean countries and present an overall assessment of private-sector development and recommendations for facilitating and accelerating private investment and growth. This report provides a summary of the key private-sector development issues noted in the PSARs, and approaches to overcoming these challenges.
The PSARs draw on both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data analyses were derived from interviews with key stakeholders from the domestic private and public sectors as well as from interviews with regional
and international agencies. Secondary data were utilized to describe the state of each country at both the micro and macro level. In addition to these specific elements of the research, the development of the PSARs was assisted by
consultations organized under the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF). The original PSARs were formatted and edited by The Economist Intelligence Unit at the request of the Compete Caribbean Program, but were not authored by The
Economist Intelligence Unit.

This paper discusses the ways in which legal, regulatory, and governance institutions affect business competitiveness in the Caribbean region through their effect on transaction costs, contracting, firm organization, and formality versus informality.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the competitiveness landscape of the five most developed CARICOM countries, namely Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. It builds on the findings of the most recent Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), featured in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2009–2010 (Sala-i-Martin et al., 2009). The remaining CARICOM members are not covered in this analysis as they were not included in the report. Through the lens of the GCI, areas that should be prioritized in the design of national competitiveness strategies will be highlighted.
This paper begins with a brief outline of the GCI methodological framework. We then describe the regional context by looking at the evolution of the CARICOM economies since their inclusion in the GCI in 2007–08. We also review their respective current performances in the GCI and its pillars, and compare them to some relevant countries and regions. The last part of the paper provides an in-depth appraisal of the competitiveness of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, and identifies areas requiring improvement for each of the five countries.

The financial sectors of most economies in the Caribbean remain underdeveloped and “thin” because they do not intermediate effectively between savers and investors. Furthermore, factors such as lack of collateral, poor credit information, and legal systems that favor large businesses and those with property particularly impede access to financing in the countries of the region. These factors make it difficult or impossible for many investors and entrepreneurs in the Caribbean to obtain financing for their businesses. While donors have been active in providing funds for investment, their interventions have been ad hoc. Furthermore, donor financing is not sustainable in the long term, and in some cases risk distorting financial systems, thereby hindering rather than encouraging financial market growth.
Currently, the fallout from the global financial crisis is casting further shadows on the economies and financial systems of Caribbean countries. While few economies in the region will experience bank failures, the high dependence on remittances, tourism and, in some cases, natural resources increases the fragility of an already vulnerable group of countries.
The purpose of this chapter is to examine issues that are central to financial market development in the Caribbean region. This report identifies factors that are required for financial markets to function effectively and describes policy options that could be implemented in the Caribbean to make financing more widely available.

The purpose of this paper is to apply new methodologies to analyze the history of and future opportunities for structural transformation in the Caribbean. We first look at the composition of exports from the Caribbean, and show that the region is specialized in relatively unsophisticated, "poor-country" export products, and this is not simply a consequence of their small size or specialization in tourism and financial services.

We then review the concept of the “product space” and determine where the Caribbean countries are specialized within this space. The results show that generally these countries export peripheral products that are intensive in capabilities with few alternative uses. In addition, we consider what effects regional integration would have on this opportunity set and show that future opportunities for structural transformation are much higher for the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) as a perfectly integrated zone—higher than for any of its members on their own.

The final section discusses the policy implications of these results. We show that for almost all countries in the Caribbean there is a need to move to new export activities. Some countries in the region have a set of nearby activities they could exploit, including in the services sector, which suggests a parsimonious approach to promoting new activities is appropriate. This approach involves the government better orienting itself to learn what emerging sectors need in the way of publically provided inputs. But for many countries in the region, there are few nearby activities, suggesting a more proactive search process is necessary. In the appendix we apply the product space data to this search for nearby and more distant export activities for Belize and Jamaica. However, such data is merely a starting point for what must be a continuous process of high-bandwidth dialogue with the private sector to learn what is needed for new activities to emerge. We provide general design guidelines for such a dialogue, both for nearby and more distant activities, and we outline some specific initiatives as examples. 

The discussion on the future of ACP-EU cooperation picked up pace in 2015, with both the EU and the ACP engaging in a soul-searching exercise and preparing their future positions. This complex policy process deserves a broad and evidence-based debate. The stakes involved in the review process are high:
• The Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) links the EU and its 28 member states with a tri-continental group of 79 states. It is often hailed as a ‘unique’ agreement, taking into account its legally binding nature, holistic approach to development, comprehensive scope (covering the three pillars of aid, trade and political cooperation) and joint management arrangements. It offers a single framework for the operations of the European Investment Bank in the ACP (including through the Investment Facility).
• It guides the (intergovernmental) European Development Fund (EDF) providing predictable resources and accounting for a larger share of EU development aid than any other external instrument.
• It co-exists with a growing number of alternative (competing) policy and institutional frameworks (such as the Joint Africa-Europe Strategy) posing major challenges of policy coordination and coherence for the various partners involved.
In the review process the parties to the CPA – led by governments but including parliamentarians, civil society, private sector operators and local authorities – will need to address a set of existential questions that have arisen from the past fifteen years of CPA implementation and from important changes in the international context.

Euro sclerosis” was a term coined in the 1970s to describe stagnant integration, high unemployment, and slow job creation in Europe relative to the United States. Since then, the term has been used more generally to refer to overall economic stagnation. The term and that which it encompasses can be applied as well to a certain extent to the Caribbean countries. However, because these economies are small, the comparator to measure
“Caribbean sclerosis” would be some of the rest of small economies (ROSE) of the world. This group consists of about 50 countries each with a population of less than 3 million.
This report addresses several critical questions regarding these nations. Does size matter for economic growth and volatility? To what degree has Caribbean economic growth been inferior to that of ROSE? What could account for the Caribbean growth gap and what economic policies might decision-makers adopt to promote higher and sustainable growth? The answers to these questions will support the overarching hypothesis that the Caribbean suffers sclerosis.
The almost-exclusive focus on economic growth in this report does not imply that it should be the sole criterion to judge economic performance. Nevertheless, economic growth is the central concern of Caribbean policymakers, who recognise that it is critical to improve broad economic development, and hence to improve the welfare of Caribbean citizens.
The central focus here is on six countries in the region, which will be referred to as the C6:The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. However, the analysis will sometimes include, most often in the aggregate, the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The six members of the OECS used in this report are Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Economic performance is judged both over time and with respect to ROSE. However, the Caribbean countries can be categorised as dependent on either tourism or commodities, so wherever
possible we compare commodity (tourism) Caribbean countries with commodity (tourism) countries among ROSE.

The chefs profiled in this book are championing the effort of making local cuisine part of the tourism experience, building demand for local foods and training the next generation of local chefs. Working closely with farmers, they are transforming value chains to meet the high standards required by the hotel industry and in doing so are raising the incomes and improving the livelihoods of farmers.

The primary aim of this study was to document eleven successful cases of trade linkages in the Caribbean between agribusinesses and buyers in the tourism sector that can be up-scaled and/or replicated. The case studies were drawn from five selected Caribbean countries, namely: 1. Grenada; 2. Haiti; 3. Jamaica; 4. Saint Lucia; 5. Suriname.  It is expected that the documentation of these successful Caribbean experiences will serve to enrich the exchange of knowledge between the Caribbean and the Pacific regions as well as with other countries in Africa, and ultimately contribute positively to economic growth and sustainable rural livelihoods through the promotion of trade between the agri-food and tourism sectors in both regions.

This report presents a summary of research about small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) engagement in public procurement. Strategies to increase women-owned enterprises‘ understanding about, and access to, government contract opportunities are also considered. This research digest is expected to inform discussion among WEConnect Canada, community partners and governments about the constraints and opportunities of public procurement for SMEs, and in particular women-owned enterprises.

To inform stakeholders, this digest entails a review of secondary research drawn from government, NGO, and academic databases. Requests for related studies were also forwarded to scholars, research institutes, SME training and consulting organizations, and trade associations. Ten exploratory and anonymous interviews with policy experts and suppliers were conducted. The report suggests that strategic SME procurement policy is an under-utilized mechanism to enhance supplier diversity and hence, Canadian competitiveness. Furthermore, Canada will not remain a world leader without results-oriented and gender-sensitive economic policy. This is because the drivers of competitiveness are reflected in the ability of nations to leverage human and managerial capital, embrace innovation, ensure that all businesses are tapped into public and international market opportunities, and to establish sound financial and economic policy frameworks. It is also recognized that the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is linked to Canadian prosperity and new job creation.

This report aims to help unlock business opportunities that advance the health, rights, and wellbeing of women in global value chains. It highlights the benefits of investing in women along the value chain and provides a framework for action and practical guidance for companies to identify and strengthen value-chain investment opportunities that deliver positive returns to business, women, and society. This report is not an exhaustive analysis of the ways companies impact women’s empowerment, or the way women’s empowerment impacts businesses. Rather, it should serve as an inspirational guide to help both new and experienced companies develop effective approaches to women’s empowerment. While the report is designed for a diverse industry audience, some examples and recommendations may be more relevant to consumer products companies with a strong manufacturing supply chain than service companies.

This report builds on a number of studies that emphasize the importance of a holistic and integrated approach to women’s empowerment, including a recent report on building effective women’s economic empowerment strategies published by BSR and the International Center for Research on Women and commissioned by the Oak Foundation.1 It also draws on a review of the latest literature on corporate engagement in women’s empowerment and a series of interviews with companies to test the framework and gather insights on key gaps, opportunities, and solutions. It also incorporates feedback and perspectives from participants at the private sector pre-conference held prior to the global Women Deliver conference in May 2016. For more information, please contact Indiana Vieljeux (ivieljeux@bsr.org).

The Private Sector Assessment Report (PSAR) for Barbados provides a  comprehensive overview of the country’s private sector. IIt draws on both primary and secondary primary data sources. Primary analyses were derived from interviews with key stakeholders from the domestic and public sectors as well interviews with regional and international agencies. A listing of the main stakeholders is documented in the original country reports. Secondary data  were utilised to describe the state of country at both micro and macro levels. In addition to these specific elements of the research,  the development of the PSAR was assisted by consultations organized under the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF) banner.

The PSAR evaluates the primary components of the productive sector, the key challenges to private-sector development, potential emerging sectors and policy recomendations for priority areas.  It is envisioned that the document can be used as a launch pad for multi-sectoral and inclusive discusions on the key issues impacting private-sector developmnent and how they should be incorporated into the national agenda.

The Private Sector Assessment Report (PSAR) describes the current state of Dominica's private sector. It draws on both primary and secondary primary data sources. Primary date analyses were derived from interviews with key stakeholders from the domestic private and public sectors as well interviews with regional and international agencies. A listing of the main stakeholders is documented in the original country report. Secondary data  were utilised to describe the state of country at both the micro and macro levels. In addition to these specific elements of the research,  the development of the PSAR was assisted by consultations organized under the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF) during 2013.  The PSAR identifies the components of the productive sector, challenges to private-sector development and emerging sectors and presents an action plan for enhancing private-sector development.

The Private Sector Assessment Report (PSAR) for St. Vincent and the Grenadines presents an overall assessment of the private-sector development and policy recommendations for facilitating and accelerating private-sector investment and growth. It draws on both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data analyses were derived from interviews with key stakeholders from the domestic private and public sectors as well as interviews with regional and international agencies. A listing of the main stakeholders interviewed is documented in the original country reports. Secondary data were utilized to describe the state of the country at both the micro and macro levels. In addition to these specific elements of the research, the development of the PSAR was assisted by consultations organized under the Caribbean Growth Forum2 (CGF) banner. 

The PSAR evaluates the productive sector, together with the primary obstacles to business in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the wider Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) that have emerged from the business environment and recent shocks. The report also assesses the subregion's policy response, partcularly through the implementation of an eight-point stabilization programme targeting national needs and overarching challenges relating to the public finances, debt, socil safety, investment and the financial services sector.

The Private Sector Assessment Report (PSAR) for St. Kitts and Nevis provides a comprehensive overview of the country's private sector. It draws on both primary and secondary primary data sources. Primary date analyses were derived from interviews with key stakeholders from the domestic private and public sectors as well interviews with regional and international agencies. A listing of the main stakeholders is documented in the original country report. Secondary data  were utilised to describe the state of country at both the micro and macro levels. In addition to these specific elements of the research,  the development of the PSAR was assisted by consultations organized under the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF).  The PSAR evaluates the components of the productive sector, the key challenges, potential emerging industries and policy recommendations for priority areas. The PSAR also suggests improvements to the general political and governance issues, access to finance, the cost of electricity and labour market issues as being vital in terms of driving future growth. 

The Private Sector Assessment Report (PSAR) Provides a comprehensive overview of the private sector in Antigua and Barbuda. It draws on both primary and secondary primary data sources. Primary date analyses were derived from interviews with key stakeholders from the domestic private and public sectors as well interviews with regional and international agencies. A listing of the main stakeholders is documented in the original country report. Secondary data  were utilised to describe the state of country at both the micro and macro levels. In addition to these specific elements of the research,  the development of the PSAR was assisted by consultations organized under the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF).  The PSAR evaluates the primary components of the productive sector, the key challenges that it faces, potential emerging sectors and finally policy recommendations for priority areas.  The PSAR identifies improvements in the areas of general governance, access to finance, general costs, and transportation and trade as being vital in terms of driving future growth.

Part 2 of Commonwealth Trade Review sheds light on the trends, nature and potential of intra-Commonwealth trade. It provides an analysis of trade between Commonwealth members – both in goods and services and in terms of intra-Commonwealth foreign direct investment (FDI) and remittance flows. It also undertakes empirical assessments of determinants of trade and investment flows between global economies to find out whether there is any inherent  ‘Commonwealth effect’ providing impetus to increased trade propensity between Commonwealth members. It also provides some quantitative assessment of further trade prospects between Commonwealth members.

The European Union’s Economic Partnership Agree-ment (EPA) with fifteen Caribbean states came into effect in 2008. The deal was negotiated jointly by the members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago) and the Domini-can Republic, operating jointly as the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM).
The document’s objective, as already laid out in the Cotonou Agreement of June 2000, extends far beyond the usual scope of a free trade agreement. The Euro-pean Union’s economic partnership agreements with African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP states) are explicitly intended to serve the ultimate objective of sustainable development, promote integration within the partner region, and link trade policy with develop-ment instruments. In other words, the European Union and the ACP states are seeking to establish a new class of agreement that moves beyond purely economic goals to address the sustainability factors that the international community has agreed to prioritise: social equilibrium and respect for the environment.

The report revisits the theme of low Caribbean growth, viewed through a macroeconomic lens in our previous report (Is there a Caribbean Sclerosis?), but takes a microeconomic perspective by using firm-level data. The performance of the private sector is crucial for a country’s economic growth and employment generation. As such, the results of the analysis are not comforting. In terms of sales growth, employment growth, efficiency, and total factor productivity, the Caribbean underperforms the rest of the small economies of the world. The gap is larger for commodity-dependent economies (Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago) than for tourism-dependent economies (Barbados, Jamaica, and The Bahamas). Thus, the existing Caribbean business sector is not up to the challenge to increase the region’s economic growth and employment and hence, to increase public resources and improve the welfare of citizens in the region.

Why? The report uses multiple approaches to identify the constraints to the private sector, constraints include the role of firm characteristics and constraints, including international trade and foreign direct investment, financing, crime,  inadequate labour, electricity issues, lack of innovation, gender disparity, and government policies that are not good for business. The study estimates the contribution to the performance gap of the region’s existing endowments (i.e., the characteristics and constraints of the firms) as well as the returns to those characteristics and constraints. It finds that the returns contribute more to the gap than do characteristics and constraints themselves. 

This paper estimates the trade, revenue, and welfare effects of the proposed Caribbean Community (CARICOM)–Canada free trade agreement (FTA) on CARICOM countries using a partial equilibrium model. The welfare analysis also takes into account the Economic Partnership Agreement, which was signed in 2008 by the CARIFORUM (CARICOM and the Dominican Republic) countries and the European Union. The revealed comparative advantage index, trade complementarity index, and transition probability matrices are used to examine the dynamics of comparative advantage for CARICOM countries’ exports to Canada. The results obtained from the partial equilibrium model indicate adverse revenue and welfare effects for CARICOM member states. The results from various trade indices used do not provide evidence to suggest that an FTA between CARICOM countries and Canada can improve trade outcomes.

This report seeks to redress the current paucity of information on growth-oriented women entrepreneurs in the Caribbean region by drawing on various data sources to estimate their numbers and sectoral focus. At the same time, it develops an understanding of the main issues facing women in their businesses and their future growth potential.  Three main concepts are used throughout the report: entrepreneurship, innovation, and growthorientation.  Entrepreneurship is used in its widest sense in relation to the support environment and the process of starting and running businesses. Innovation is considered the launching of new or improved products, services, processes, or business models to drive differentiation and/or efficiency for enhanced competitiveness. Growth orientation relates to individual drive, ambition, and potential to grow a business, while growth potential relates to the potential of the sector to grow.

This book provides users an understanding of key social protection concepts and measurement metrics and introduces them to the ADePT SP software, which is used to conduct social protection performance analysis. It presents the main concepts of social protection, including the typology of programs and their objectives. Because these objectives often include poverty and inequality, the concepts of poverty and inequality are also discussed in relation to social protection with the appropriate reference to the ADePT Poverty and Inequality software and book (Foster and others 2013). This manual describes methodologies for assessing social protection and discusses how measurement metrics, such as the poverty impact, require understanding the underlying mechanisms and often use multiple indicators.  Attention is therefore given to a holistic approach of analysis so that the relationship between indicators can be better understood, as well as ways to use this analysis to improve policies and programs to maximize outcomes.

This book investigates the contribution of cities to productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a topic about which surprisingly little is known. The rapid economic growth that prevailed in the region during the first decade of the new millennium has, since the collapse of global commodity prices, given way to low, uneven growth in recent years. In this context, boosting productivity is critical to reviving economic growth in the region. And the potential of that great engine of growth—cities—cannot be left untapped. The book has two parts. Part I documents overall urbanization patterns across the LAC region and their relationship to productivity outcomes at the national and subnational levels,
compared with the rest of the world. Part II conducts a deeper, more rigorous analysis of the underlying determinants of productivity differences across LAC cities focusing on three key factors: city form, skills, and access to markets through transportation networks.

This Policy Research Report (PRR), Moving for Prosperity: Global Migration and Labor Markets, is an attempt to address this tension between the academic research and the public discourse by focusing on the economic evidence. We suggest a labor market–oriented, economically motivated rationale to the political opposition to migration. Global migration patterns lead to high concentrations of immigrants in certain places, industries, and occupations. For example, the top 10 destination countries account for 60 percent of global immigration. Four states host half of all immigrants in the United States, and 10 counties host half of the immigrants in these four states. Immigrants are further concentrated
in a narrow set of industries and occupations in specific geographic regions. The same pattern repeats itself in almost every major destination country. It is these geographic and labor market concentrations of immigrants that lead to increased anxiety, insecurity, and potentially significant short-term disruptions among native-born workers. Furthermore, the positive effects and benefits in the destination labor markets tend to be more diffuse whereas the costs are more concentrated and easily attributable to immigration.

Understanding (and empathizing with) these legitimate economic concerns is critical to informed and effective policy making. The goal should be to ease the costs of short-term dislocations of native-born workers and distribute more widely the economic benefits generated by labor mobility. Proactive interventions to ease the pain and share the gain from immigration are essential to avoid draconian restrictions on immigration that will hurt everybody. Ignoring the massive economic gains of immigration would be akin to leaving billions of hundred dollar bills on the sidewalk.

This PRR aims to inform and stimulate debate, contribute to better policies, facilitate further research, and identify prominent knowledge and data gaps. It presents key facts and findings, research methods and data sources on economic migration and refugees, the determinants of their decisions, and their impact on labor markets in both source and destination countries. We have in mind an audience of policy makers, think tanks, academics, students, the wider public, and, of course, our colleagues in the World Bank. The labor market focus of the PRR is motivated not only by the fact that important development and poverty implications of migration— the World Bank’s operational and analytical focus—work through these labor market channels. This focus also reflects space and time constraints, and the absence of rigorous research in certain other areas, which simply do not allow an all-encompassing report that covers every dimension of migration. We believe many of the social, cultural, and political dimensions are highly important; and we are certain future analytical work within and outside the World Bank will address these shortcomings.

The study on Business Opportunities for DR Firms in CARICOM was commissioned by Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) in the framework of the Regional Private Sector Development Programme’s (RPSDP) implementation under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), entrusted to CEDA by the CARIFORUM Directorate and the European Union. This study is intended to match a similar study identifying Business Opportunities for CARICOM Firms in the Dominican Republic, completed in 2015. Among the main objectives of the RPSDP is the promotion of trade and export development among CARIFORUM States. In addition, under the Component “Promoting stronger trade and investment cooperation between CARICOM and the Dominican Republic”, CEDA will support activities which can boost stronger trade cooperation among CARICOM and DR firms. The scope of this study was to undertake a market intelligence desk analysis focused on goods and services trade flows with a view to identifying and mapping products and services business opportunities, as well as potential distributors and/or business partners and specific market-entry constraints limiting the increase of DR’s market share in CARICOM countries.

After a long period of stagnating prices, the global bauxite market is experiencing changes which are expected to drive prices higher. To a large extent, these changes are driven by increasing demand from Chinese manufacturing.  However, constraints on exports imposed by major bauxite producers, such as Indonesia and India have affected the supply side as well, and represent an opportunity for Caribbean bauxite exporters to increase their share of a growing market. This Policy Brief provides an overview of the aforementioned changes in market conditions and proposes a new approach to organizing bauxite mining for the Caribbean bauxite exporters.

While citizen security has become an ever-increasing concern for many Caribbean countries, the magnitude of the problem has not been matched with an equally robust response in terms of research. Cross-national studies on the prevalence, causes, and effects of violence in the region are few. Empirical studies showing which policies have worked to reduce crime in the Caribbean are even scarcer. This volume analyses new data collected in household and business victimization surveys. These surveys allow us to understand crime from a primary source—the victims themselves. As such, this study goes beyond much of the existing literature, which relies primarily on police data. It contributes new information to our understanding of crime patterns, victim profiles, determinants of particular types of crime, and directions for crime reduction in the region.

Unclogging the Arteries: The Impact of Transport Costs on Latin American and Caribbean Trade exemplifies this commitment and is the first in a series of reports that the Integration and Trade Sector of the Inter-American Development Bank is preparing on this important agenda. The report combines a robust technical analysis using large and detailed databases with a series of case studies that provide vivid accounts of the problems on the ground. This combination of approaches gives a comprehensive view of the significance of transport costs as a barrier to trade in the region. The report calls for a broader and more balanced integration agenda, which would focus not only on the traditional barriers to trade, but also on costs, such as those associated with transport-related infrastructure.

The Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) in conjunction with European Union (EU) and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) established a project to contribute to the improvement of livelihoods along the Root and Tuber Crop Commodity Chains in the Caribbean through appropriate marketing and production technologies.
The objectives of the project are:
i. To increase the demand for fresh and value-added products of the selected root and tuber crops in the local and regional markets.
ii. To strengthen existing production groups and the formation of clusters that will improve the activities along the commodity value chains.
iii. To improve the knowledge and skill of actors along the value chains through training in and dissemination of production, post- harvest, processing, and marketing techniques
iv. To produce and distribute high quality planting materials of cassava, sweet potato and yam through the establishment of appropriate propagation facilities
v. To demonstrate and, as necessary, validate technological innovations in root and tuber crop production and use

This market analysis is an output of objective (i) above and focuses on selected root and tuber crops, namely, cassava, sweet potato, yam and coco yam in the CARICOM Region as well as on their export to the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.

This Best Practice Manual is the result of extensive outreach and analysis conducted to identify the leading state and local-level best practices in renewable energy and energy efficiency programmes in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The brochure describes in the region 19 of these best practices, and includes examples of their effective implementation in countries or cities across the ACP region. These include policies, regulations, capacity-building initiatives and financing mechanisms to create favourable market conditions for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as for their replicability, relative ease of implementation, measured energy savings, ability to offset the need for conventional energy, cost effectiveness, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and to enhance gender equity and job creation.

The study analyzes each CARICOM country’s trade relationship with the Dominican Republic, finding business opportunities for certain products that are currently not imported from CARICOM countries into the Dominican Republic. The methodology used to compile this list of opportunities involved a comparison of current exports from each CARICOM country to the Dominican Republic and each CARICOM country’s total exports to the rest of the world in the last five years. This was later narrowed down by eliminating products which the DR would not typically import, and incorporating expert opinions and results from interviews.  The main finding of this study is that there is plenty of opportunities to broaden trade relationships between the Dominican Republic and the CARICOM countries, and will require a better and broader flow of information between the countries.

This study examined the potential for an increased flow of agro-processed goods and professional services between CARIFORUM states and Curaçao. Specifically, the study was required to examine the current trading activity and trends between CARIFORUM Countries and Curaçao; identify the business opportunities within the agro-processing sector and professional services for each market; make recommendations to improve the regulatory framework and to remove the impediments to trade between these countries and identify the extent to which CARIFORUM goods and services could access the EU market through Curaçao.

The report provides findings and recommendations that will benefit Caribbean Export and the CARIFORUM – FCOR - OCT Task Force on Trade and Investment in formulating strategies and policy responses that are targeted at deepening the level of trade and investment between CARIFORUM states and Curaçao.

This CBI market survey profiles the coffee, tea and cocoa market in the EU. The coffee, tea and cocoa markets in individual EU countries are discussed in separate market surveys. These market surveys, as well as EU export marketing guidelines for coffee, tea and cocoa can be downloaded from http://www.cbi.eu/marketinfo.

Guyana is a country with abundant mineral wealth. Extractive industries, along with agriculture, drive the economy. Mining poses several inherent challenges due to its negative impact on the environment, its relatively high level of capital intensity compared to other main productive activities, and the heavy enforcement demands on understaffed and underfunded regulatory institutions, especially when the vast majority of miners are highly dispersed artisanal, small, medium-scale (ASM) miners. This paper surveys recent developments and trends in the Guyanese gold mining sector, the most important of the five mining subsectors, and analyses the issues surrounding the transition to more environmentally sustainable mining practices. Perverse incentives exist between maximizing private profits, honoring government royalty payments, generating gainful employment, on the one hand, and overcoming the economic and cost constraints of complying with environmentally responsible and sustainable practices in the ASM sector, on the other. The paper makes recommendations on how to better align incentives, especially to bridge the financing and knowledge gaps, to permit optimal extraction of the resource, promote environmental sustainability, and improve public–private collaboration.

Despite their economic significance, MSMEs face challenges that hinder their growth and development. It is therefore critical and logical, that the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) place MSME development at the forefront of the country’s economic policy agenda. The MSME and Entrepreneurship Policy provides a coordinated, coherent and targeted framework and this review of the 2013 Policy reflects an updated policy framework designed to support the growth of MSMEs.

The study examined the degree to which Caribbean Entertainment products and services have grown among the islands and have extended into wider international markets.  For purposes of the present exercise, the Entertainment Sector is comprised of Caribbean festivals of ‘Mas’ or Trinidad Style carnivals, Reggae, Jazz and Creole Music Festivals, Music – Reggae, Dancehall, Calypso, Soca, Chutney, Parang, Creole, Zouk and Spouge - Film and other Audio-visual Production.  Five countries were specifically targeted in deriving primary data: Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. A topic guide was used in the conduct of interviews among key protagonists and institutions in these countries. A small number of entertainers and other key informants were interviewed.

The study was conducted within 9 selected CARIFORUM and 6 EU member states (UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland) over a period of 5 months in 2010. The study comprised extensive desk research, meetings with stakeholders, and included a validation work shop staged in Barbados in July 2010.  Outlines some of the main characteristics of the prevailing policies governing investment and trade in services within the EU, with particular focus on 6 EU member states, viz. the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland.  Summarizes their ease of doing business, their priorities for both inward and outward investment with respect to the services sectors and their respective frameworks for investment support, while noting existing and potential linkages with the CARIFORUM economies.

This document provides an overview of socio-ecomonic conditions in the Guyana. Looks at government's attitude and incentives, the business environment, investment climate, market access conditions, general marketing factors and cultural practices in the country. Also provides general information including population, geography, political system and transport infrastructure within the Guyana.

 Paper presented by Virginia Maria Roca Pezzotti at the 2nd Meeting of the Caribbean Design Network, December 10, 2009, Dominican Republic entitled "Development and Current Status of Dominican Crafts

Paper presented by Virginia Maria Roca Pezzotti at the 2nd Meeting of the Caribbean Design Network, December 10, 2009, Dominican Republic updating on the progress made in the Haiti National Design Network.

Paper presented by Jennifer Julien-Laudat at the 2nd Meeting of the Caribbean Design Network, December 10, 2009, Dominican Republic entitled "National Designers Brainstorming Meetings Report".

Paper presented by Patti Johnson at the 2nd Meeting of the Caribbean Design Network, December 10, 2009, Dominican Republic.

Paper presented by Lesley-Ann Noel at the 2nd Meeting of the Caribbean Design Network, December 10, 2009, Dominican Republic entitled "Trinidad and Tobago Design Network"

So trade policy has expanded, has become much more complex. Hence the focus in this assessment, not just on market opening, multilateral trade policy, etc, but also on questions of development, transparency and legitimacy, the impact on key sectors, and social / societal questions. This can reveal for how far trade policy drives our collective preferences, and also the point of interaction with the preferences of others. This paper therefore sets out six groups of topics where we have focused our efforts under the Prodi Commission:1 Multilateralism; 2 Opening of markets; 3: Development; 4: Transparency / legitimacy; 5: Key sectors; 6: Social / societal Questions.

This study highlights potential areas for mutual growth in the goods and services sectors and possible improvements to the regulatory framework. Ways in which CARIFORUM goods could gain access to the EU via the French Caribbean Outermost Regions (FCORs) are also analysed.

Each country/territory report provides details on:  Socioeconomic characteristics of each country/territory;  Proximity to main international destinations;  Critical information relating to doing business – regulatory environment, tax rates, procedure for starting a business, etc;  Commitments made under the EPA;  Commodity exports to the FCORs (from CARIFORUM) and to CARIFORUM (from the FCORs);  Opportunities in terms of goods and services that should be targeted for trade between CARIFORUM and the FCORs and Barriers to trade.

This survey profiles the EU market for “Gifts and decorative articles” (2008). The emphasis of this survey lies on those products which are of importance to suppliers based in developing countries. The product groups discussed in this survey include: Candles, Woodware, Wickerwork, Artificial flowers & fruits, Ceramics, Glassware, Metalware, Plasticware and Paperware.

The Strategy aims to achieve this by establishing export promotion as a key instrument of Belize’s competitiveness and international relations, but within the context of the country’s medium to long term strategic national development objectives and imperatives. This will allow for two things: (i) attraction of investments into dynamic high growth potential niche markets while building capacity in the sectors with export performance development potential; and (ii) Belize will be able to aggressively pursue development of export markets for its niches products and services and to better identify its key strategic partner countries in development and trade by leveraging trade and export promotion as instruments of national development, environmental sustainability, and pro-poor growth. This should lead to real poverty reduction, and Belize would, as a consequence of all of the above, be better positioned to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) objectives and obligations.

During the 1980s and 1990s, financial sectors were the Achilles’ heel of economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Since then, these sectors have grown and deepened, becoming more integrated and competitive, with new actors, markets, and instruments springing up and financial inclusion broadening. To crown these achievements, the region’s financial systems were left largely unscathed by the global financial crisis of 2008–09. Now that the successes of LAC’s macrofinancial stability are widely recognized and tested, it is high time for an in-depth stocktaking of what remains to be done.  Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Road Ahead provides both a stocktaking and a forward-looking assessment of the region’s financial development. Rather than going into detail about sector-specific issues, the report focuses on the main architectural issues, overall perspectives, and interconnections. The report’s value added thus hinges on its holistic view of the development process, its broad coverage of the financial services industry beyond banking, its emphasis on benchmarking, its systemic perspective, and its explicit effort to incorporate the  lessons from the recent global financial crisis. Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Road Ahead builds on and complements several overview studies on financial development in both LAC countries and the developing world that were published in the past decade. It will be of interest to policy makers and financial analysts interested in improving the financial sector in the LAC region.

This document provides an overview of socio-ecomonic conditions in Colombia. Looks at government's attitude and incentives, the business environment, investment climate, market access conditions, general marketing factors and cultural practices in the country. Also provides general information including population, geography, political system and transport infrastructure within Colombia.

This market brief provides information on the opportunities available for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in engineering services.

This market brief provides information on the opportunities available for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in fashion.

This market brief provides information on the opportunities available for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in furniture.

This market brief provides information on the opportunities available for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in handicrafts.

This market brief provides information on the opportunities available for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in health and wellness services.

This market brief provides information on the opportunities available for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in management consulting services.

This market brief provides information on the opportunities available for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in processed foods.

This paper tries to fill this lacunae by providing a selective, although fairly comprehensive, discussion of some of the main developmental issues posed by the FTAA and FTAs. This is an issues paper. Its main objective is to raise relevant questions and review different academic and expert positions as well as existing empirical research results surrounding them. In light of the complexity of the subject matter, it would be over-ambitious to provide definite answers to these issues. Thus the spirit of this paper is more analytical and positive than normative or prescriptive.

The paper considers the developmental benefits and issues posed by the FTAA and FTAs in general, for LAC countries grouping them under six issue areas:  (i) market access issues in industrial goods and agriculture; (ii) market access and rules issues in services and investment; (iii) other rules related issues in areas such as intellectual property, subsidies and industrial policy; (iv) the question of treatment of differences in size and levels of development, (v) technical assistance and capacity building issues, and finally, (vi) governance issues and the relationship between open markets and political institutions.  In terms of trade rules in a number of areas, World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements provide – if not the floor – at least a very important reference point for the FTAA. Given this fact, this paper makes frequent reference to WTO rules and their developmental implications.

The objective of this paper is threefold: to review the demand, and the case, for regional public goods in the light of growing integration; to report on the response of certain international organizations and the system of official development assistance to perceived growth in the demand of these goods; and to analyze the challenges of financing regional public goods.

The purpose of this document is to describe, analyze and assess export promotion policies in the case of CARICOM Caribbean economies. The document is divided into six sections. Following the introduction, the first section provides the context for export promotion policies by analyzing how size and geography can shape export promotion efforts and their outcome. The second section focuses on CARICOM Caribbean economies’ export promotion objectives. The argument in this section is that smaller economies pursue three types of export promotion objectives. These are to secure markets, to maximize foreign exchange earnings, and to promote product recognition. Securing markets, which is analyzed at the national and regional levels, involves niche-market production for non- traditional products and preferential market access for traditional products. The exception to the rule is Guyana that has managed to create an ethnic niche-market for its agricultural products. The section also argues that smaller economies do not pursue, with a few exceptions, export diversification.
The third section examines the institutional setting and instruments for export promotion policies. For historical reasons and also due to the constraints imposed by small size, the government rather than the private sector is the major export promotion agent. The instruments for export promotion include the Common External Tariff, fiscal incentives, government capital expenditure, export financing schemes and trade diplomacy.  The fourth section analyses the implications and impact of export promotion policies. It sustains that CARICOM Caribbean economies have lost market share in the goods market for their major extra-regional markets and gained market share at the intraregional level. In the services sector and in particular in tourism, CARICOM Caribbean states have also lost market share to the lower costs producers such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

The PowerPoint presentation provides an overview of the challenges in the implementation of services and investment in the EPA.