To speed the transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture, Ethiopia recognized that it needed to reform its land administration. However, the country’s mechanisms for enforcing property rights, lowering transaction costs, and encouraging investment in land were weak. To build institutional capacity, Ethiopia requested World Bank help through analytical work and knowledge exchange facilitation.

In 1995, with technical assistance from the World Bank, Indonesia introduced its Program for Pollution Control Evaluation and Rating (PROPER), the first such environmental rating and disclosure (ERD) initiative in the developing world. With experience from Indonesia, the World Bank helped introduce the concept to other countries, including Ghana, and eventually to the Indian State of Odisha. This made Odisha the first state to begin ranking pollution intensive industries.