The World Bank Group (WBG) has the potential to improve the contribution of extractive industries (EI) to sustainable development and poverty reduction. However, this report by the WBG’s operations evaluation departments finds that although its EI projects have produced positive economic and financial results, it has not been successful in ensuring compliance to environmental and social safeguards.

Reviews recent practices relating to displacement, resettlement, rehabilitation and development of people negatively affected by the construction of dams, in order to locate the global experiences in dam induced displacement and understand the socio-political context of displacement and resettlement. Further, the assessment focuses on how legal and regulatory instruments facilitating displacement and involuntary resettlement have performed in safeguarding the rights of affected people.

This paper follows the 2005 Dhaka workshop on "Peri-urban aquatic production and improvement of the livelihoods of the urban poor in south east Asia". It aims to raise awareness and create dialogue amongst policy-makers and development practitioners concerning the nature, extent and potential of urban and peri-urban aquaculture in Bangladesh and West Bengal, in support of the Bengal Platform established at the workshop.

Aimed at young people, this booklet presents key points from the 2006 Human Development Report on water scarcity and its effects on human life. The report is user-friendly, using photographs and illustrations, stories from young people, basic data on the health effects of poor-quality water, and examples of efforts to bring water to poor communities.

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are disadvantaged in a myriad of ways and they have special needs which require special attention. Challenges such as undiversified economies, vulnerability to climate change and climate variability, land degradation and desertification, among others, are undermining the economic potential of many LLDCs. This has been exacerbated by weak export base of many LLDCs centered on a few primary agricultural and/ or mineral commodities.

South Africa is endowed with substantial subsoil mineral wealth, yet the development promise typically associated with this wealth has not been realised. Between 2001 and 2008 the South African mining industry contracted at a rate of 1% a year, while comparable mining jurisdictions grew at an average of 5% a year.1 This period marked the longest commodity price boom in recent history.

Based on travel to diamond fields in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Angola and the DRC, the study examines the reality on the ground.

This technical paper has been produced by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) to support the implementation of the Strategic Framework for Water Security and Climate Resilience Development, developed by the African Union through AMWOC. The framework itself seeks to help with the identification, development and mainstreaming of ‘no/low regrets’ investment strategies, and to make development planning activities more resilient to climate change.

Corruption is a serious problem in many developing countries that are rich in oil and other natural resources. This is central in explaining why resource rich countries perform badly in terms of socioeconomic development. Transparency has recently been viewed as a key factor in reducing corruption and other dysfunctions in natural resource rich countries. The paper addresses the relationship between transparency and corruption, with an emphasis on oil rich countries.

Participatory mapping, commonly used in participatory development, plays an important role in helping marginalised groups by making visible the association between land and local communities, highlighting important social, historical and cultural knowledge as well as presenting geographical feature information.

Mineral wealth often detracts from, rather than enhances, the economic performance of developing countries, a phenomenon known as the “resource curse”. The need to finance basic government expenditure, as well as rent-seeking behaviour by individuals and interest groups, puts pressure on developing country governments to spend mineral revenues rather than reinvest them.