This report reviews poverty in Armenia
in 2001, and examines the most recent trends covering the
1998/99 to 2001 period. It looks at the determinants of
poverty, and analyzes linkages between economic growth,
sector policies and poverty. The findings are based on two
rounds of the Armenia Integrated Living Conditions Survey
(ILCS), one carried out in 1998/99, and the other in 2001.
The report has contributed to the development of

These policy notes are intended as
background for initial discussions between the new
Government and the World Bank about the development strategy
for Turkey, and the possible support the World Bank could
bring to implement that strategy. This paper presents recent
work on specific sectors where action by the government
would be needed. The main points in each note are outlined
here: Strict fiscal management is key to full realization of

This Health Sector Note is the result of
the first phase of an open, participatory three-step process
for developing the Health Sector Policy and Strategic Plan
(HSPSP), and serves as the preliminary basis for further
rounds of discussions, and analyses among stakeholders, to
arrive at a strategic vision for the national health sector.
The socioeconomic situation is reviewed, stipulating Eritrea
remains one of the poorest countries in the world, where

This report represents a further chapter
in the dialogue between the World Bank and the People's
Republic of China about how to promote economic growth and
protect China's environment. There are three
cross-cutting issues that keep recurring throughout the
analysis. These issues characterize the environmental
management challenge over the next decade: First, the
environmental agenda is becoming so complex and large that

Four years have passed since the
Millennium Development Goals sharpened the focus on
measuring the results of development-not the number of
projects undertaken or the dollars spent, but the
improvements in people's lives. The emphasis on
quantitative targets and the requirement for monitoring
progress on country poverty reduction strategies have
increased the demand for statistics. And that showed us how

This discussion paper: a) proposes a new
approach of targeted collaboration among different sectors;
b) devises new tools or enhances existing ones to facilitate
the contributions of different sectors to help relieve
health problems; and c) puts theory into practice through a
pilot in Ghana. The report is divided into three parts. Part
1 explains the foundations of environmental health and
proposes a new approach that taps health benefits

This environment strategy outlines the
current thinking in the World Bank Group Africa Region about
priorities and actions for the institution in the
environmental arena. The Africa Region Environment Strategy
(ARES) outlines the Bank's commitment to help its
clients achieve sustainable poverty reduction through better
environmental management. It identifies the most urgent
issues at the interface of environment and poverty and

The World Bank research program seeks to
improve the design of Bank-financed projects, and programs
to increase the effectiveness of aid, and improve
recognition of emerging problems, in a responsive manner to
crises. Moreover, this program supports policy-oriented
research in developing, and transition economies, by
assisting in the development of research capacity in member
countries, as well as improving the Bank's own advisory

Environmental impact assessment, or EIA
as it is known, is a procedures for evaluating the impact,
proposed activities may have on the environment. In recent
years, significant strides have been made to build a legal
foundation for EIAs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Whereas EIAs
typically used to be carried out only to meet requirements
of foreign donors, they are now mandated in twenty two
Sub-Saharan countries, as an important element of domestic

The Lands, Housing and Urban Development Sector Strategic Plan is a national sectoral plan of Uganda for the period 2013/14 - 2017/18. Its main objective is to ensure sustainable land management, orderly development and adequate housing for socio-economic development.The Plan aims to make land use more productive and sustainable.

Over the past year, the global economy has cooled significantly, a far cry from the boom just a year ago in various countries and across markets. At the same time, the scientific community communicated the heightened urgency of taking action on climate change. Policymakers at national, regional, and international levels have put forward proposals to respond to the climate challenge. The most concrete of these is the adopted European Union (EU) climate and energy package (20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020), which guarantees a level of carbon market continuity beyond 2012.

Many African countries have thin energy and industrial sectors with limited opportunities to reduce carbon emissions, certainly relative to countries such as China and India. Carbon sequestration from avoided deforestation and from agriculture--potentially important areas for climate mitigation and important in many African economies--has been systematically excluded from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).