This book synthesizes and makes accessible in one place some of the principal lessons learned by the World Bank in thirty-five years of financing development in its member countries. It provides guidance to developing countries in selecting, preparing, and carrying out thier whole portfolio of investment projects, regardless of the source of financing.

Although written primarily for senior and middle-level civil servants in the finance, plannning and sector ministeries and agencies in developing countries, as well as for project managers in the public and private sectors, the book should also be useful to development practitioners in aid agencies, universities, research organizations, consulting firms, and elsewhere. It is designed to be fully intelligible to economists and noneconomists alike, with the emphasis not on how to do investment and project analysis but on how to understand and use it. A wealth of country and project examples throughout the book illustrate the issues and concepts.