This paper revisits the identification
of the binding constraints to investment and growth in
Pakistan by rigorously applying the growth diagnostic
framework. It has a central finding: Pakistan's
economy faces two major groups of constraints emerging and
structural. The emerging constraints include infrastructure
(energy) deficit, high macro-fiscal risks, and inadequate
international financing (high country risks and low FDI

This paper explains the major issues and
lessons derived from the national forest management program
and REDD+ initiatives in Tanzania. It finds that addressing
the most important drivers of forest degradation and
deforestation, in particular the country energy needs and
landownership, is essential for success in reducing
emissions regardless of the type of program implemented. It
also finds that, through the national program, forest users

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

This paper explores the challenges and
opportunities that government officials face in designing
coherent 'rules of the game' for achieving urban
sustainability during times of growth. Sustainability is
judged by three criteria. The first involves elements of
day-to-day quality of life, such as having clean air and
water and green space. The provision of these public goods
has direct effects on the urban public's health and

Housing matters to the livability of
cities and to the productivity of their economies. The
failure of cities to accommodate the housing needs of
growing urban populations can be seen in the proliferation
of poorly serviced, high-density informal settlements. Such
settlements are not new in the history of rapidly growing
cities, their persistence results as much from policies as
from economics and demographic transition. Slums have

This policy paper explores the relative
importance of the software regulatory barriers to growth in
Pakistan. Such software barriers have been identified as
part of the major constraint in the Framework for Economic
Growth of the Government of Pakistan. Indeed, adequate
software is needed to provide an environment in which the
hardware of growth (physical infrastructure) could be
expanded and made more productive. Among possible software

This report is based on seven background
papers comprising household studies, national level
analyses, and technical assessments. Household studies were
undertaken in Mozambique and Zambia to develop a clearer
picture of the role of Miombo woodlands in household
consumption. These studies were an outcome of intensive,
seasonal structured household surveys, which have formed the
core of the original work supported by this project

Tanzania has tremendous potential to
support a thriving agribusiness sector. Agriculture is
diverse and extensive, employing more than 80 percent of the
population, and contributing about 28 percent of Gross
Domestic Product, or GDP and 30 percent of export earnings.
A wide range of agricultural commodities are produced in
Tanzania, including fiber (sisal, cotton), beverages
(coffee, tea), sugar, grains (a diverse range of cereals and

Payments for Environmental Services
(PES) are one of the instruments that countries might use to
try to reduce deforestation, and hence receive payments for
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation
(REDD). This paper discusses four aspects related to the use
of PES as an instrument to implement an avoided
deforestation program, based on a review of PES experiences
in Latin America. First, the paper discusses the

Costa Rica's Program of Payments
for Environmental Services (Pago de Servicios Ambientales,
PSA) provides a unique opportunity to evaluate direct
payments as a conservation policy tool. This paper reports
evidence on how much more forest has been conserved in Costa
Rica as a result of PSA contracts with landowners. Such
evidence requires estimating a counterfactual outcome: how
much forest would have been preserved if there had been no

This report analyzes some key aspects of
food security, namely production, trade, markets and food
aid at the national level, and consumption at the household
level. In doing so it aspires to make a contribution to the
on-going work in Afghanistan regarding the attainment of the
poverty and hunger Millennium Development Goal. The major
findings of the report can be summarized as follows: Food
security (at the national level) does not necessarily

Structural reforms are often designed to
change the prices of key goods and services. Since the
overall intention of such reforms is the reduction of
poverty, it is important to understand how the resulting
price changes affect the poor. However, organizations
seeking to provide timely advice to policymakers in
developing countries often do not have the data and
resources needed to undertake the most sophisticated