The demand for verifiable evidence of
results and impacts of development agricultural programs and
projects is growing. However, most of the indicators that
development practitioners have traditionally used in
tracking progress toward achieving projects' objectives
focus on the workings of the development operation itself.
These performance indicators relate mainly to lower-level
inputs and outputs and are used to populate management

Food insecurity and income poverty are
rampant in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thirty-one percent of
children under the age of five are malnourished and some 72
percent of the population lives on less than US$2 day.
Forty-one percent lives on less than US$1 day. The
impoverished and hungry are concentrated disproportionately
in rural areas and rely mainly on the consumption and sale
of agricultural produce for their food and income. Africa

Morocco is a middle-income country with
good water infrastructure that provides access to safe
drinking water and sanitation to the majority of the urban
population. In 2005, Morocco made it a priority to extend
service to poor peri-urban settlements, and encouraged
operators and local governments to reduce connection fees
for their inhabitants. These connection fees had been priced
at marginal cost, which represented a major obstacle for

Agricultural water has been seen as a
prime mechanism for fostering rural economic growth and
reducing rural poverty. But agricultural water has
encountered problems of performance, profitability and
sustainability. This resulted in a reduction in investments
from governments and lending from development organizations
like the World Bank up to early 2000s. A sourcebook on
improving poverty reduction performance of agricultural

Developing countries are most exposed to
the impact of climate change and within these countries, the
poor face the brunt of the burden. Climate change is not a
discrete problem that can be dealt with through isolated
reforms: impacting economic growth, health, and
institutional capacity, it represents a full-frontal
challenge to development. This note traces the
multi-dimensional impacts of climate change, particularly on

Enterprises use credit to acquire
productivity-enhancing assets. Rural enterprises in
developing economies, however, often lack access to the
credit they need. Key reasons for this lack of access
include the low level and scattered nature of economic
activity in rural areas, the enterprises' lack of
collateral, inadequate capacity among the country's
lenders to lend in rural areas, and legal and policy

Communities supported by World Bank
rural development projects often cite support for the
development of income-generating activities (IGAs) as a
critical need. This note identifies some of the core
problems encountered by Bank task teams that attempt to
respond to this need, outlines the issues involved, and
offers suggestions on some of the points that should be kept
in mind when designing grant programs for this purpose.

This article highlights some of the
findings from recent analytical work that has been carried
out in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, notably
a number of promising practices that are being developed to
effectively address the infrastructure provision challenge,
and in particular to ensure that infrastructure increases
rural competitiveness and incomes.

With a population of seven million,
Honduras is the second most populous country in Central
America. It is also the second poorest country in the region
with an annual per capita income of less than US$ 1,000. Two
out of every three people in Honduras are poor (per capita
income less than US$ 1.50/day); and three out of every four
poor people are extremely poor (per capita income less than
US$ 1.00/day). Social indicators such as child malnutrition

The note looks at poverty in Ecuador,
assessing macroeconomic developments through its policies to
maintain stability with fiscal discipline, and increase
economic productivity and competitiveness, in particular,
the 1998/99 crisis, the 2000 dollarization and their effect
on poverty. From 1990 to 2001, national consumption-based
poverty rose from 40 to 45 percent, and the number of poor
people increased from 3.5 to 5.2 million. Poverty increased

In 2002, half of Mexico's
population lived in poverty and one fifth in extreme
poverty, slightly lower than before the 1994-1995 crisis.
Mexico has made major progress in some poverty dimensions
-health, nutrition and education outcomes, access to basic
health and education services, electricity, water and (to a
lesser extent) sanitation. Large increases in government
spending enabled key social programs to expand. Programs

Poverty and economic stagnation
characterize most rural areas in Peru. National growth has
been slow and uneven since the mid-1970s, benefiting urban
areas rather than rural ones. Between 1985 and 2000, the
number of poor people increased by 71 percent. The incidence
of poverty (67 percent) and extreme poverty (40 percent) is
highest in rural areas, reaching 73 percent (poverty) and 41
percent (extreme poverty) in the sierra. This means that 4.2