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Foreign direct investment and private capital flows are highly concentrated geographically, with almost half of them reaching five top destinations. These flows tend to evade many high-risk countries. Regulatory and contractual risks, particularly in infrastructure, have inhibited investments in many parts of the developing world. A core objective of the World Bank Group (WBG) has been to support the flow of private investment for development; guarantees and insurance have been among the instruments that the WBG has used to pursue this objective. This study examines three main questions: • Should the WBG be in the guarantee business? • Have guarantee instruments in the three WBG institutions been used to their potential as reflected in WBG expectations and perceived demand? • Is the WBG appropriately organized to deliver its range of guarantee products in an effective and efficient manner?

Football language may be regarded as the world's most widespread special language, where English has played a key role. The focus of the present study is the influence of English football vocabulary in the form of loan translations, contrasted with direct loans, as manifested in 16 European languages from different language families (Germanic, Romance, Slavic, etc.). Drawing on a set of 25 English football words (match, corner, dribble, offside, etc.), the investigation shows that there is a great deal of variation between the languages studied. For example, Icelandic shows the largest number of loan translations, while direct loans are most numerous in Norwegian; overall, combining direct loans and loan translations, Finnish displays the lowest number of English loans. The tendencies noted are discussed, offering some tentative explanations of the results, where both linguistic and sociolinguistic factors, such as language similarity and attitudes to borrowing, are considered.

This study utilizes Farm Service Agency lending data to verify if previous racial and gender bias allegations still persist in more recent lending decisions. Beyond loan approval decisions, this study focuses on trends in direct loan packaging terms for approved single proprietorship farm borrowers. Results indicate that although no significant disparities were noted in loan amounts and maturities prescribed for various racial and gender minority groups, nonwhite male and female borrowers were usually charged higher interest rates than the others. Loan pricing differentials could have been the lenders' strategy for price management of borrowers' credit risks.

The National policy on public-private partnerships (PPP) recently approved by the Government of Ghana (GoG) sets out the government's intention to use PPPs to improve the quality, cost-effectiveness, and timely provision of public infrastructure in Ghana. The PPP policy highlights the role of the government's financial support to PPPs, as well as the importance of putting in place a system to manage the associated fiscal commitments (FCs). As noted in the policy, the government's contribution to a PPP may include remuneration to the private party from government budgets, which may be fixed or partially fixed, periodic payments (annuities) and contingent. This report proposes an operational framework for managing fiscal obligations arising from PPPs in Ghana. This framework aims to ensure that PPP FCs are consistently identified and assessed during PPP project preparation, and that these assessments are fed into project approval. The report outlines roles and responsibilities, concepts, and processes for managing PPP FCs, drawing on international standards and practices, bearing in mind existing institutions and capacities in Ghana. The report also suggests legislative additions and capacity building needed to establish this framework in practice. This report focuses primarily on managing long-term FCs to PPPs, including regular payments or contingent liabilities (CL) that typically last throughout a project's lifetime. This report is structured as follows: chapter 1 is introduction; chapter; 2 introduces the concept of FCs from PPPs: how and why PPPs create FCs, why managing them is important, and an overview of what it entails; chapter 3 presents institutional roles and responsibilities; chapter 4 describes how FC management should be incorporated in the PPP development and approval process; chapter 5 describes how FCs can be managed during PPP implementation by monitoring, reporting, and budgeting adequately; and chapter 6 sets out the steps needed to begin to implement this PPP framework-to build its core requirements into the forthcoming PPP Law, and to build capacity in the relevant entities to carry out those requirements in practice.

As part of its strategy to support global trade, the World Bank Group seeks to enhance trade finance in emerging markets. In 2005 the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the Bank Group, introduced the Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP) to support the extension of trade finance to underserved clients globally. This IEG evaluation found that overall, the GTFP was a relevant response to the demand to reduce risk in trade finance in emerging markets. The program significantly improved IFC's engagement in trade finance by introducing an open network of banks and a quick, flexible response platform to support the supply of trade finance. IEG's evaluation covers the program's operations from its inception in 2005 through FY2012. The program grew from a $500 million annual commitment to $5 billion in FY12. It accounted for 39 percent of total IFC commitments and has low costs. It accounted for 2.4 percent of IFC's capital use and 1.2 percent of its staff costs and has had no claims to date. It is profitable as well, although not to the extent originally expected, accounting for 0.6 percent of IFC's net profit. IEG found that the GTFP has particular additionality among higher-risk countries. In its early years, it was concentrated in these countries, particularly in Africa. During the global crisis, the program risk-mitigation instrument became relevant in much broader markets. Client feedback on the program has been positive. In its evaluation IEG does offer several recommendations to enhance its effectiveness, including on issues of transparency and reporting methods, as well as expanding the share of the program in needier markets. For development professionals, the lessons in this evaluation can be applied to private sector development situations, particularly mitigation of financing risks in emerging markets.

Following on from a previous contribution in this journal, the article gives three addi- tional examples of lexis in the field of funeral terminology among Chinese Muslims (here from those collected from Chinese Muslims in the Malay Archipelago) as well as various considerations regarding the socio-linguistic environment

With this paper the writers continue their series of articles on Chinese Muslim elementary vocabulary. As already mentioned in the first part, in most Chinese dictionaries the specific elementary vocabulary of Islam is omitted. The paper in hand deals with the funeral terminology of Chinese Muslim. In contrast to the prayer terminology, we can only find one direct borrowing in Sino-Arabic, but no Sino-Persian transcription (Arabic and Persian loanwords phonetically transcribed with Chinese characters) among the funeral terms. More often the common Chinese terms are also used in the specific Muslim context. Furthermore, it is obvious that the number of terms is somehow limited comparing to the prayer terminology.

This evaluation assesses the strategies, investment projects, and technical assistance operations of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from Fiscal Year 1994 - Fiscal Year 2005 to support micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) in frontier countries (i.e., low income or high risk countries). The confluence of two IFC strategic priorities - support for MSMEs and support for enterprises in frontier countries - serves as the point of departure of the evaluation. This timely report will find widespread interest among economic development practitioners in finding sustainable business models for providing financial support to micro-enterprises. It includes an evaluation of the performance of the MSME-FIs in implementing IFC's environmental, health, social and safety (ESHS) requirements.

In the article, which forms the first part of a series on Chinese Hui-Muslim religious terminology, the authors are dealing with the Hui Muslim prayer terminology, that can roughly be divided into direct and indirect loans. While the direct loans are borrowings from Arabic or Persian, the indirect loans are formed by the means of the own languages (so-called calques).