"Herzberg examines the Bulldozer Initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an innovative reform methodology that successfully overcame the lack of political will and capacity at the government level through a bottom-up approach. Using an innovative grassroots and public awareness methodology, the initiative mobilized the local business community to bulldoze barriers by identifying concrete legislative changes and advocating for their adoption and implementation. By delivering fast results--50 reforms in 150 days--the initiative won the confidence of entrepreneurs and empowered them to institutionalize permanent grassroots reform committees. The force of this lobby group created political will by putting public pressure on the politicians to do their part to enact the reforms. Most important, it carried investment climate reform the last mile by delivering concrete, quantifiable results in all sectors of the economy. Over time, the initiative is establishing a dynamic of reform and public-private partnership that will facilitate the tackling of more complicated structural reforms. Complementing the systemic approach and framework reform efforts of governments and international agencies, competitiveness partnerships mobilize the local business community to catalog concrete problems across the full spectrum of investment climate concerns, pinpoint solutions, campaign for their adoption, and follow up on reform implementation. The author attempts to determine the applicability of competitiveness partnerships to different settings by modeling the interactions between several key success factors, thus providing a pertinent tool for development professionals, government officials, and private sector advocates who wish to establish a renewed implementation dynamic through this kind of results-oriented reform process. This paper--a product of the Investment Climate Unit--is part of a larger effort in the unit to communicate best practices in investment climate reform"--World Bank web site.

Abstract: This paper is a policy review of the role of investment climate in post-conflict situations. It summarizes the broad range of ways in which conflict negatively affects the investment climate, from macroeconomic instability to a degraded regulatory framework. It stresses that attention needs to be paid to the broader "enabling environment," including institutions, governance, capacity, and social capital. It suggests that a vibrant private sector underpinned by a good investment climate is particularly important in the post-conflict recovery phase for three reasons: it generates employment, provides public services where the state has retrenched, and builds social capital. By addressing these important "greed and grievance" factors, the private sector helps reduce the likelihood of a return to conflict. The paper concludes by distilling key lessons relating to the management of the post-conflict reform process. Despite the importance of a good investment climate, greater effort is needed to ensure that private sector development reforms are included in the first round of post-conflict policymaking. Local ownership of reforms and enhanced local capacity to implement them is key to sustainable improvements in the investment climate. Development partners have an important role to play in facilitating dialogue and promoting partnerships between public and private sector stakeholders. At the same time, development partners need to ensure that their presence in fragile post-conflict economies does not damage the very sector they are trying to support.

Strategic communication is a powerful tool for creating broad-based support for reform and change initiatives. Much has been written about why communication matters in reform efforts, but there is scant material available to help those who manage reforms apply communication concepts and approaches to their own programs and policy-reform initiatives. 'Building Commitment to Reform through Strategic Communication' attempts to bridge that gap. The authors present a pragmatic and systematic approach for reformers ready to use communication strategically to achieve their reform goals. The Five Communication Management Decision Tool helps reformers and their teams develop a framework for their communication strategies. This decision tool helps managers see change initiatives through the eyes of those who will be affected by the reforms. When the decision tool is used in the early stages of the development of change programs, reformers gain an even deeper understanding of the stakeholders perspectives on the reforms, which influence stakeholder opposition or support for them. Such understanding will not only be instructive, but possibly transformative for both change agents and those stakeholders whose support is critical to the success of reform. Reform agents may recognize the source of stakeholder resistance and be able to revise reform goals and redesign change interventions. Stakeholders who have a shared understanding of why the status quo is not acceptable and change is necessary are more likely to create coalitions of committed allies and supporters who will work together to achieve reform goals. This workbook illustrates how the decision tool can be used for various types of change and reform initiatives from policy reform, to country and donor partnership agreements, to sectoral reforms. Tested and used in learning interventions across cultures, regions, and sectors, the tool has been used successfully by teams in government, nongovernmental organizations, the business sector, and donor agencies. The book will be of great interest to readers working in all of these areas.

This study provides guidance on how to best approach the management of an internally-led peace implementation process after violent intrastate conflict, gives an overview of tasks to be taken on, explains the legal framework provided for under international law, and addresses management implications. With a foreword by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate President Martti Ahtisaari.

Firms and entrepreneurs of all types-from microenterprises to multinationals-play a central role in growth and poverty reduction. Their investment decisions drive job creation, the availability and affordability of goods and services for consumers, and the tax revenues governments can draw on to fund health, education, and other services. Their contribution depends largely on the way governments shape the investment climate in each location-through the protection of property rights, regulation and taxation, strategies for providing infrastructure, interventions in finance and labor markets, and broader governance features such as corruption. The World Development Report 2005 argues that improving the investment climates of their societies should be a top priority for governments. Drawing on surveys of nearly 30,000 firms in 53 developing countries, country case studies, and other new research, the Report explores questions such as: What are the key features of a good investment climate, and how do they influence growth and poverty? What can governments do to improve their investment climates, and how can they go about tackling such a broad agenda? What has been learned about good practice in each of the main areas of the investment climate? What role might selective interventions and international arrangements play in improving the investment climate? What can the international community do to help developing countries improve the investment climates of their societies? In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Bank's new program of Investment Climate Surveys, the Bank's Doing Business Project, and World Development Indicators 2004-an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.

Entrepreneurs can always find a way of making money in fragile states, but how do we get enough of them to generate the necessary jobs? This book finds that entrepreneurs in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) face special challanges and respond to different incentives.

Zimbabwe has had a chaotic foreign direct investment (FDI) regime. This has created the need for a detailed volume on the most important developments around the protection and treatment of FDI, at not only a domestic level, but also at bilateral, regional and international levels. The author argues that while Zimbabwe has now harmonised, previously scattered legislation under the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency Act [Chapter 14:37] and taken measures to reverse (to varying degrees) controversial policies such as the land reform programme and the Indigestion and Economic Empowerment Policy, scepticism still prevails over the investor-friendliness of the FDI regime in Zimbabwe.