World Bank demographic and country
characteristic statistics identify 16 small landlocked
countries that are similar to Lesotho. The authors attempt
to determine what useful policy information can be derived
from the recent trade performance of these
"comparators." Among questions they pose are
whether the trade profiles of the comparators suggest
potentially promising export ventures for Lesotho, do they

Many fear China's accession to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) will impoverish its rural
people by way of greater import competition in its
agricultural markets. Anderson, Huang, and Ianchovichina
explore that possibility bearing in mind that, even if
producer prices of some (land-intensive) farm products fall,
prices of other (labor-intensive) farm products could rise.
Also, the removal of restrictions on exports of textiles and

28 May 2014

GRAIN | La Vía Campesina

For immediate release

Enhanced transparency, accountability, and government or donor responsiveness to people needs are imperative to achieve better and more sustainable development results on the ground. The rapid spread of new technologies is transforming the daily lives of millions of poor people around the world and has the potential to be a real game changer for development.

This is the final report of the “Grassroots Capacity Building for REDD+” project in the Asia-Pacific region. The report highlights key achievements and impacts of the project, implemented in four countries—Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal and Vietnam between August 2010 and July 2013 in partnership with a total of 18 organizations.

This annual progress report highlights key achievements and lessons learned of the “Grassroots Capacity Building for REDD+” project in the Asia‐Pacific region in 2013.

This sourcebook summarizes the outputs
and lessons of the Livestock in Africa: improving data for
better policies project. It aims to present the challenges
facing professionals collecting and analyzing livestock data
and statistics and possible solutions. While the Sourcebook
does not address all conceivable issues related to enhancing
livestock data and underlining statistical issues, it does
represent a unique document for a number of reasons. To

Disasters are increasing worldwide, with
more devastating effects than ever before. While the
absolute number of disasters around the world has almost
doubled since the 1980s, the average number of natural
disasters in Middle East and North Africa (MNA) has almost
tripled over the same period of time. In the MNA, the
interplay of natural disasters, rapid urbanization, water
scarcity, and climate change has emerged as a serious

The Palestinian Territories have a
uniquely fragmented geography, characterized by the
isolation of Gaza from the rest of the world, and the
man-made barriers to mobility within the West Bank. The
internal mobility restrictions imposed by Israel, unique to
the West Bank, play an important role in explaining spatial
variations in outcomes within the West Bank. This is
strikingly analogous to the role of Gaza's external

Pakistan's rebound from the global
financial crisis has been slow and fragile, and unless it
changes course swiftly, it could face the prospects of a
second balance of payments crisis in less than five years.
Its recovery from the 2008-09 global financial crisis has
been the weakest in South Asia, featuring a unique
double-dip growth pattern. With high fertility, Pakistan
will double the size of its already young population by

This paper reviews Pakistan's
agriculture performance and analyzes its agriculture and
water policies. It discusses the nature of rural poverty and
emphasizes the reasons why agricultural growth is a critical
component to any pro-poor growth strategy for Pakistan. It
supports these arguments by summarizing key results from
recent empirical analysis where the relative benefits of
agricultural versus non-agricultural led growth are

Implementation arrangements for Reducing
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation can be seen as contracts that could address some
of the inherent problems with forest carbon credits that
often lead to high transaction costs -- measuring,
monitoring, and verification. Self-enforcing contracts,
where it is in the best interest of the environmental
service providers to comply with the contracts, may be one