FOCAL POINT: Fighting HIV/AIDS...a key priority for the World Bank in South Asia.  Focal Point is our monthly focus on the development issues South Asia cares about most.  For December, learn more about efforts to prevent the spread of HIV, and how the region is at a crossroads with the disease.  Features audio interviews with Chief Economist Shanta Devarajan on the economic impact of HIV/AIDS in South Asia and Director for Human Development Julian Schweitzer on the health challenges facing South Asia.

Featured Publications and Reports

Drugs and Development in Afghanistan: A Working Paper (adobe pdf) - Dec. 2004
This paper analyzes the linkages between drugs and development in Afghanistan. It argues that the opium economy—including its nexus with insecurity, warlords, state weakness, and poor governance— constitutes a central development problem for the country. The Afghan drug industry is unprecedented in international experience in terms of its relative economic size, its penetration of the polity, economy, and society, and the insecure and lawless environment in which it has thrived.

Trade Policies in South Asia: An Overview (adobe pdf) - Nov. 2004
A new World Bank report suggests that the poor of South Asia would be among the significant beneficiaries of wider and faster trade liberalization in the region. The Trade Policies in South Asia: An Overview, released today in Dhaka,  describes key aspects of the current trade regimes in the five largest South Asian countries and concludes that, despite progress towards liberalization, protectionist forces are still strong in the region hampering growth and poverty reduction.

Fiscal Decentralization to Rural Governments in India (adobe pdf) - July 2004
The worldwide trend towards decentralization has been accompanied by heated debates on its costs and benefits. While there are some perceived costs in terms of reduced central ability to implement macroeconomic stabilization programs and possible efficiency losses due to poor local capacity, it has been strongly argued in its favor that decentralization results in better service delivery, popular involvement in governance, and revenue mobilization.

New & Noteworthy

Workshop on Improving Pakistan's Investment Climate: World Development Report 2005 & Doing Business in 2005 Dissemination

Development Topics: Water in South Asia

Nepal Resource Center Opens for Business