Bad governance undermines development. Two important types of World Bank support for local governance are social funds and broadly based support for governments committed to decentralizing responsibility and power to local governments and other local institutions. But there are concerns that these two...

The African continent is one of the world richest regions in oil, gas and minerals. Proven reserves have expanded and prospects improved recently making the continent an important player on the world stage. The share of natural resources in GDP is increasing rapidly. Exports of minerals and hydrocarbo...