This study aims to assess the extent to
which reforms have actually been implemented, the impact
they have had on the rural population, and the challenges
which, as a consequence, need to be addressed by the new
administration. This report is organized as follows: Section
1 describes Mexico's rural economy. It reviews the
broad context of macro, trade, and sector-level reforms, the
strengths and weaknesses of both the productive and

The objective of this report is to
design an integrated strategy for rural poverty reduction in
Brazil. It contains an updated and detailed profile of the
rural poor in the northeast and southeast regions of Brazil;
identifies key determinants of rural poverty in these
regions; and proposes a five-pronged strategic framework and
a tentative set of policy options. The latter were
identified via an analysis of rural poverty determinants

Development is about fundamental change
in economic structures, about the movement of resources out
of agriculture to services and industry, about migration to
cities and international movement of labor, and about
transformation in trade and technology. Social inclusion and
change-change in health and life expectancy, in education
and literacy, in population size and structure, and in
gender relations-are at the heart of the story. The policy

Economic development has brought about,
the decline in contribution of the agricultural sector to
the economy of Sri Lanka, and, consistent with this economic
transformation, the structure of employment also changed.
Thus, as labor migrates away from agriculture, the
productivity, for those who remain in the land, needs to
increase significantly. This report examines the constraints
to promoting more rapid agricultural, and rural non-farm

This study serves as the preliminary
basis for further rounds of discussions and analyses among
stakeholders to arrive at a strategic vision for the Eritrea
health sector. It incorporates comments received from the
Ministry of Health's central agencies, Zoba (regional)
health teams, external partners working in Eritrea, and the
World Bank Eritrea Country Team. In March 2001, the Ministry
of Health of the Government of Eritrea launched a process to

Since its recovery of macroeconomic
stability in 1991, the Dominican Republic has experienced a
period of notable economic growth. Poverty has declined in
the 1990s. Nevertheless, a segment of the population-mainly
in rural areas-does not seem to have benefited from this
growth. Poverty in this country in 1998 is less than that of
other countries if one adjusts for the level of economic
development. The principal poverty characteristics are the

This report finalized in March 2001
constitutes a step toward the objective of designing an
integrated strategy for rural poverty reduction in Brazil,
The report contains an updated and more detailed profile of
the rural poor in the northeast (NE) and southeast (SE) of
Brazil; identifies key determinants of rural poverty in
these regions; and proposes a five-pronged strategic
framework in which to couch a set of integrated policies

The focus of the report, combined with
Vietnam's remarkable long-term growth potential,
presents a favorable outlook, suggesting the effects of the
East Asian crisis are over. The country is committed to
socially inclusive development, and, translates a vision of
transition towards a market economy, with socialist
orientation into concrete public actions, emphasizing the
transition should be pro-poor, noting this will require

What drives growth at the microeconomic
level? The authors divide the factors that determine a
location's growth performance into two groups,
"1st advantage" and "2nd advantage." The
term 1st advantage refers to the conditions that provide the
environment in which new activities can be profitably
developed, including most of the factors on which
traditional theory has focused, such as access to inputs

Modern fruit sector development in Chile
led to agricultural employment for women, though usually
only as temporary workers and often at a piece rate.
Nonetheless, fruit sector employment offered women access to
income and personal fulfillment previously lacking. The
authors link the fruit sector to improving female and family
economic welfare in rural Chile and changing gender
relations. Using a unique longitudinal data set, they

This book documents the experiences of
men, women, and children in Armenia, Georgia, the Kyrgyz
Republic, Latvia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and
Uzbekistan as they struggle with the dramatic changes in
lifestyle and extreme poverty that followed the collapse of
the Soviet Union. Based on hundreds of open-ended interviews
conducted by local people over a span of five years, this
book captures the particularities of poverty in each

This povert y update finds the
following: Between 1997 and 2000, poverty has increased
unambiguously, for a full set of poverty lines and
definitions of poverty measures. Poverty has increased
because over the period, consumption fell and inequality
rose. Living standards have not risen despite growth in
Gross Domestic Product because growth was too weak, too
concentrated in a narrow set of sectors, and there were no