This book of SmartLessons is a compendium of our knowledge on implementing corporategovernance projects. The lessons represent an impressive body of work, with individualcontributions written by our staff—the people who really know what they are talkingabout, because they are out there, engaged in the work on a day-to-day basis. It reflects theevolution of our project approach as the world has changed. In the early years of our work,efforts focused on the newly independent and newly market-driven nations of the formerSoviet Union. More recently, projects have addressed the sometimes rocky road to stabilityfor emerging market countries as they struggle to regain economic momentum in the wakeof the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, new opportunities and new challenges lie ahead asevents in the Middle East and North Africa underscore the broader importance of IFC’s coremission to drive job creation and economic development by supporting expansion of well-governed, sustainable, and thriving private sectors.