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  • Publication
    Principles for Public Credit Guarantee Schemes for SMEs
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12) World Bank Group
    Access to finance, particularly credit, is widely recognized as problematic for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), hampering their growth and development. To address this challenge, many governments around the world intervene in SME credit markets through credit guarantee schemes (CGSs). A CGS offers risk mitigation to lenders by taking a share of the lenders’ losses on SME loans in case of default. CGSs can contribute to expand access to finance for SMEs. Yet they may bring limited value added and prove costly if they are not designed and implemented well. There have been efforts in recent years to identify good practices for CGSs, but the international community still lacks a common set of principles or standards that can help governments establish, operate, and evaluate CGSs for SMEs. The Principles for Public Credit Guarantees for SMEs are filling this gap. The Principles provide a generally accepted set of good practices, which can serve as a global reference for the design, execution, and evaluation of public CGSs around the world. The Principles propose appropriate governance and risk management arrangements, as well as operational conduct rules for CGSs, which can lead to improved outreach and additionality along with financial sustainability. Developed through extensive consultations with stakeholders, the Principles draw from both the literature on good practices for CGSs and sound practices implemented by a number of successful CGSs around the world.
  • Publication
    Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
    (Washington, DC, 2015-09-30) World Bank
    Palestinians are getting poorer on average for the third year in a row. As evidenced in previous World Bank reports, the competitiveness of the Palestinian economy has been progressively eroding since the signing of the Oslo accords, in particular its industry and agriculture. Even though donor aid had increased government-funded services and fueled consumption-driven growth during 2007 to 2011, this growth model has proved unsustainable. Donor support has significantly declined in recent years and, in any case, aid cannot sustainably make up for inadequate private investment. Thus, growth has started to slow since 2012 and the Palestinian economy contracted in 2014 following the Gaza war. In early 2015, GDP was still lower than it was a year ago. Due to population growth, real GDP per capita has been shrinking since 2013. Unemployment remains high, particularly amongst Gaza’s youth where it exceeds 60 percent, and 25 percent of Palestinians currently live in poverty. Against the backdrop of weak economic growth, reduced donor aid, and temporary suspension of revenue payments by the Government of Israel (GoI), the Palestinian Authority’s reform efforts have not been able to prevent another year with a financing gap. The persistence of this situation could potentially lead to political and social unrest. In short, the status quo is not sustainable and downside risks of further conflict and social unrest are high.
  • Publication
    Republic of Iraq: Financial Sector Review
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011) Nasr, Sahar
    This report was initiated at the request of the Iraqi government to get a better understanding of the overall financial sector in Iraq. The main objective of the report was to develop a comprehensive assessment of the financial sector. This report takes a first look at the overall financial system of Iraq with a forward looking approach. Key findings of the report are: 1) Iraq's financial sector is dominated by the banking system, with most assets held by state-owned banks; 2) many private banks are in the process of developing modern banking practices, but still need further strengthening and consolidation; 3) other financial markets are concentrated at the Iraqi stock exchange but capitalization is low, and few instruments are traded; 3) the insurance sector is small, dominated by state- owned enterprises, and is not supervised; 4) weak financial infrastructure is a clear impediment to access to finance; and 5) Small Medium Enterprises (SME) and microfinance is not well developed.
  • Publication
    The World Bank Annual Report 2011: Year in Review
    (Washington, DC, 2011) World Bank
    Executive Directors continued to play an important role as the World Bank faced many challenges in a global post crisis economy. The Board considered a number of key documents in preparation for the committee on development effectiveness meetings. These included the World Development Report 2011, which focuses on conflict, security, and development, and responding to global food price volatility and its impact on food security, which examines the Bank's responses to food price increases and climate change risks. The Board approved more than $42 billion in financial assistance in fiscal 2011, comprising about $26 billion in International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) lending and $16 billion in International Development Association (IDA) support. During fiscal 2011 the Bank Group committed $57.3 billion in loans, grants, equity investments, and guarantees to its members and to private businesses. IBRD commitments totaled $26.7 billion compared with $44.2billion in 2010, but still above pre crisis levels. The World Bank Group continues to operate under a real flat budget, for the seventh consecutive year.
  • Publication
    IFC Annual Report 2010 : Where Innovation Meets Impact, Volume 1. Main Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010) International Finance Corporation
    More than 200 million people in the developing world were out of work this year. Over 1 billion are hungry, while millions more are confronting the threat that climate change poses. The United Nations estimates that 884 million people don't have safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation. The population of the developing world will expand by a third over the next four decades, growth that will strain already weak infrastructure. In this environment, International Finance Corporation (IFC) is innovating to create opportunity where it's needed most. IFC committed a record $18 billion in fiscal year 2010, $12.7 billion of which was for own account. We invested in 528 projects, an 18 percent increase from FY09. Advisory Services portfolio comprised 736 active projects valued at more than $850 million, with annual expenditures totaling $268 million. Countries served by the International Development Association, or IDA, accounted for nearly half our investments 255 projects totaling $4.9 billion and more than 60 percent of Advisory Services expenditures. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 19 percent of our investment commitments and 25 percent of Advisory Services expenditures. The invested a record $1.64 billion in clean energy, leveraging $6.8 billion, while climate change related projects grew to 15 percent of the value of our Advisory Services portfolio. The investments in microfinance rose 10 percent to $400 million, expanding microfinance portfolio to $1.2 billion.
  • Publication
    Development Results in Middle-Income Countries : An Evaluation of the World Bank's Support
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Independent Evaluation Group
    This IEG evaluation brings a fresh perspective to the debate by assessing the development effectiveness of the Bank's recent work. It presents evidence -- including views from the client countries themselves -- about the outcomes of the Bank's support to individual countries over the past 12 years. It also spotlights three growing dimensions of the Bank Group's role -- sharing knowledge across countries, engaging countries in global programs, and combining support to the public and private sectors
  • Publication
    IFC Annual Report 2006 : Increasing Impact, Volume 1
    (Washington, DC, 2006) International Finance Corporation
    The International Finance Corporation (IFC), in its 50th year, is the largest provider of multilateral financing for private sector projects in the developing world. In fiscal 2006, it committed $6.7 billion in funds from its own account and mobilized an additional $1.6 billion through syndications and $1.3 billion through structured finance. Based on the total costs of the private sector projects it helped finance this year, each $1 in IFC commitments for its own account resulted in an additional $2.88 in funding from other sources. Altogether, IFC supported 284 investment projects in 66 countries. This year nearly a quarter of IFC commitments were in low-income or high-risk countries, demonstrating the viability of private enterprise even in difficult environments. IFC's investment commitments to firms operating in the Middle East and North Africa more than doubled in fiscal 2006, and commitments for private sector projects in Sub-Saharan Africa increased nearly 60 percent. IFC introduced a new development outcome tracking system for investment operations to measure and track results throughout the life of a project; a similar system was implemented to monitor the development impact of all active technical assistance and advisory projects.