This report shows that after a decade of
moderate growth but little or no long term change in rural
poverty in Pakistan, agricultural output, rural incomes,
rural poverty and social welfare indicators all showed
marked improvements between 2001-02 and 2004-05. However,
longer term trends suggest there is little reason for
complacency. The agricultural GDP per capita growth rate
(1999- 2000 to 2004-05) was only 0.3 percent per year; rural

Through an analysis of selected topics,
this study aims to offer inputs for a successful recovery
strategy for the city and the metropolitan region of Sao
Paulo (MSRP) in Brazil. The study first presents an analysis
of the underlying factors of the economic transition in the
MRSP, highlighting the factors behind the recent performance
of the MRSP in terms of job creation and growth. Then, four
inputs that would lead to a 'recovery strategy'

This report presents an update on the
economic challenges facing Ethiopia with a focus on the
shared goal of accelerating equitable growth. The starting
point is the Government's own Plan for Accelerated and
Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), which is in
the process of finalization, and is designed to cover the
period 2005-2010. This report proposes that the growth
strategy should more explicitly adopt a

Half of the moderately poor, and one third of the extremely poor now live in urban areas in Mexico. While cities offer a number of opportunities and specific challenges for the poor, low quality and high costs restrict real access to basic public services. Yet, the urban-rural distinctions need to be seen as a continuum, where depth and characteristics of poverty vary with settlement size. The objective of this report is to inform the design of urban poverty interventions. It is organized as follows.

Rural poverty remains a crucial part of the poverty picture in Argentina. This paper used a rural dataset collected by the World Bank in 2003. Findings show that extreme income poverty in rural areas reached 39 percent of the people or 200,000-250,000 indigent families.

This paper addresses the deceptively simple question: What is the rural population of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)? It argues that rurality is a gradient, not a dichotomy, and nominates two dimensions to that gradient: population density and remoteness from large metropolitan areas. It uses geographically referenced population data (from the Gridded Population of the World, version 3) to tabulate the distribution of populations in Latin America and in individual countries by population density and by remoteness.

By reviewing the Bank's experience
with shelter lending, this paper seeks to address the
question of whether the Bank has helped developing countries
deal with the inevitable problems that arise with
urbanization, particularly problems with the provision of
shelter. It reviews the Bank's performance, with a
focus on identifying lessons learned so that current demands
can be more effectively addressed. In contrast to earlier

Infrastructure development has made a
major contribution to East Asia's enviable record on
growth and poverty reduction. However, substantial new
investments in infrastructure and service delivery
improvements will be required to sustain progress in the
future, and to address new challenges posed by urbanization,
decentralization, and regional integration. At the same
time, questions have often been raised about the impact of

With three quarters of its population
living in cities, Latin America is now essentially an urban
region. Higher urbanization is usually associated with a
number of positives, such as higher income, greater access
to services, and lower poverty incidence, and, Latin America
is no exception. Today, urban poverty incidence, at 28
percent, is half that of in rural areas; extreme poverty, at
12 percent, is a third. Despite this relatively low poverty

The developing world has made remarkable
progress. The number of people living in extreme poverty on
less than $1 a day has fallen by about 400 million in the
last 25 years. Many more children, particularly girls, are
completing primary school. Illiteracy rates have fallen by
half in 30 years. And life expectancy is nearly 15 years
longer, on average, than it was 40 years ago. The demand for
statistics to measure progress and demonstrate the

Through an analysis of selected topics,
this study aims to offer inputs for a successful recovery
strategy for the city and the metropolitan region of Sao
Paulo (MSRP) in Brazil. The study first presents an analysis
of the underlying factors of the economic transition in the
MRSP, highlighting the factors behind the recent performance
of the MRSP in terms of job creation and growth. Then, four
inputs that would lead to a 'recovery strategy'

The report documents poverty in Zamia
along a number of dimensions, including material
deprivation, human deprivation, vulnerability, destitution,
and social stigmatization. The report identified a number of
basic actions to facilitate growth in the rural sector;
these include (1) a (revived) system of regular manual
maintenance of rural roads; (2) simple systems of animal
disease control; animal movement control; health inspection