Acknowledgments This Report has been prepared by a core team led by Ana Revenga and Sudhir Shetty,and comprising Luis Benveniste,Aline Coudouel,Jishnu Das,Markus Goldstein,Ana Maria Munoz Boudet,and Carolina Sanchez-Paramo.Research assistance was provided by Rabia Ali,Maria Ines Berniell,Rita Costa,Nina Rosas,and Lucia Solbes Castro.The multi- country qualitative assessment was coordinated by PattiL.Petesch and Carolyn Turk.Extensive and valuable contributions were made by Andre Croppenstedt,Malcolm Ehrenpreis,Rebekka Grun,Mary Hallward-Driemeier,Tazeen Hasan,Karla Hoff,Ghazala Mansuri,Claudio E. Montenegro,and Bob Rijkers. The World Development Report 2012 is co-sponsored by the Development Econom- ics Vice-Presidency(DEC)and the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Vice- Presidency(PREM).The work was conducted under the joint guidance of Justin Yifu Lin in DEC and Otaviano Canuto dos Santos Filho in PREM.Ann E.Harrison and the DEC team and Mayra Buvinic and the PREM Gender(PRMGE)team provided valuable guidance and contributions at various stages of the production of this report. A panel of advisers comprising Bina Agarwal,Ragui Assad,Anne Case,Alison Evans,Raquel Fernandez,Naila Kabeer,Ravi Kanbur,Santiago Levy,and Germano Mwabu provided excel- lent advice.Valuable comments and contributions were provided by Kathleen Beegle,Laura Chioda,Louise Cord,Maria Correia,Monica Das Gupta,Shantayanan Devarajan,Marianne Fay,Francisco H.G.Ferreira,Ariel Fiszbein,Indermit Gill,Alejandro Hoyos,Emmanuel Jime- nez,Elizabeth King,Andrew Mason,William Maloney,Ambar Narayan,Pierella Paci,Tara Vishwanath,and Michael Walton.Many others inside and outside the World Bank contrib- uted with valuable comments and input(their names are listed in the Bibliographical Note). World Bank President Robert B.Zoellick and Managing Directors Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Mahmoud Mohieldin,and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala provided invaluable guidance and advice. The team benefited greatly from many consultations,meetings,and regional workshops held locally and in-country.These discussions included policy makers,civil society represen- tatives,academics,and development partners from Benin,Bolivia,Burkina Faso,Burundi,the Caribbean nations,the Central African Republic,Chile,Colombia,the Dominican Repub- lic,Georgia,Guatemala,India,Indonesia,Jordan,Kenya,Kuwait,Lebanon,Mali,Mexico, Morocco,Panama,Paraguay,Rwanda,Senegal,the Slovak Republic,South Africa,Sudan, Tanzania,Thailand,Togo,Turkey,Uganda,Uruguay,Vietnam,Zambia,and Zimbabwe. Consultations were also held at different stages of report preparation with representatives from multilateral and bilateral partners,including the Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID),the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA),the Inter-American Commission of Women-Organization of American States(CIM-OAS),the Danish International Development Agency(DANIDA),the U.K.Department for International Development(DFID),the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO),the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),the International Labour Organization(ILO),the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland,MCC,NORAD,the Organisation for Economic Co-operation XVxv Acknowledgments This Report has been prepared by a core team led by Ana Revenga and Sudhir Shetty, and comprising Luis Benveniste, Aline Coudouel, Jishnu Das, Markus Goldstein, Ana María Muñoz Boudet, and Carolina Sánchez-Páramo. Research assistance was provided by Rabia Ali, María Inés Berniell, Rita Costa, Nina Rosas, and Lucía Solbes Castro. The multi￾country qualitative assessment was coordinated by Patti L. Petesch and Carolyn Turk. Extensive and valuable contributions were made by Andre Croppenstedt, Malcolm Ehrenpreis, Rebekka Grun, Mary Hallward-Driemeier, Tazeen Hasan, Karla Hoff, Ghazala Mansuri, Claudio E. Montenegro, and Bob Rijkers. The World Development Report 2012 is co-sponsored by the Development Econom￾ics Vice-Presidency (DEC) and the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Vice￾Presidency (PREM). The work was conducted under the joint guidance of Justin Yifu Lin in DEC and Otaviano Canuto dos Santos Filho in PREM. Ann E. Harrison and the DEC team and Mayra Buvinic and the PREM Gender (PRMGE) team provided valuable guidance and contributions at various stages of the production of this report. A panel of advisers comprising Bina Agarwal, Ragui Assad, Anne Case, Alison Evans, Raquel Fernández, Naila Kabeer, Ravi Kanbur, Santiago Levy, and Germano Mwabu provided excel￾lent advice. Valuable comments and contributions were provided by Kathleen Beegle, Laura Chioda, Louise Cord, Maria Correia, Monica Das Gupta, Shantayanan Devarajan, Marianne Fay, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, Ariel Fiszbein, Indermit Gill, Alejandro Hoyos, Emmanuel Jime￾nez, Elizabeth King, Andrew Mason, William Maloney, Ambar Narayan, Pierella Paci, Tara Vishwanath, and Michael Walton. Many others inside and outside the World Bank contrib￾uted with valuable comments and input (their names are listed in the Bibliographical Note). World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick and Managing Directors Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Mahmoud Mohieldin, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala provided invaluable guidance and advice. The team benefi ted greatly from many consultations, meetings, and regional workshops held locally and in-country. These discussions included policy makers, civil society represen￾tatives, academics, and development partners from Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Caribbean nations, the Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Repub￾lic, Georgia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Panama, Paraguay, Rwanda, Senegal, the Slovak Republic, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Consultations were also held at different stages of report preparation with representatives from multilateral and bilateral partners, including the Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Inter-American Commission of Women-Organization of American States (CIM-OAS), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, MCC, NORAD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation