Reforming Business-related Laws to Promote Private Sector Development: The World Bank Experience in Africa

The importance of an appropriate legal framework reflecting the cultural, sociopolitical, and economic circumstances of a country is now widely considered to be an important element in the development process. The latest recognition of this link may be found in the Comprehensive Development Framework adopted by the World Bank, where the second pillar underscores the fact that no equitable development is possible without, among other things, an effective system of property, contract, labor, bankruptcy, commercial codes, personal rights laws, and other elements of a comprehensive legal system. This study, which reviews the World Bank's experience in legal reform in a continent with a rich legal heritage, both indigenous and inherited, is timely especially because of the rapid expansion of World Bank-assisted work in this area, in Africa and in other parts of the world. The African experience reviewed in this connection provides lessons of relevance for the World Bank and member countries in other regions.