One area of weakness in current
agricultural policy work in Vietnam is the lack of a clear
understanding of both the private profitability of farmers
for different crop activities and the social profitability
of such activities. Agricultural performance is thus gauged
in physical terms (i.e. yields and the volume of aggregate
output) rather than in financial or economic terms. This has
hampered efforts to compare and contrast the impacts and

Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction
Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as
annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on
four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b)
expanding access to social services for the poor; c)
increasing employment and income-generating activities for
the poor; and d) promoting good governance. Increased public
expenditure and targeted social service provision also led

This overview of climate change
activities in Tajikistan is part of a series of country
notes for five Central Asian countries that summarize
climate portfolio of the major development partners in a
number of climate-sensitive sectors, namely energy,
agriculture, forestry and natural resources, water, health,
and transport. Recognizing the nature and significance of
climate change contribution to an increase in disaster risk,

The Government of the Republic of Uganda
has requested an update of the 2006 Diagnostic Trade
Integration Study (DTIS) and has asked the World Bank to
take the leading role in this exercise. The update's
objectives are: (a) to take stock of progress in the
mainstreaming of trade in the national development plan and
of the implementation of action matrix recommendations; (b)
to complement and deepen the analysis in selected areas; and

Following the Great East Japan
Earthquake (GEJE), the government of Japan responded
promptly to stabilize markets and ensure a swift recovery.
Economic activity has since started picking up, in part to
domestic demand driven by the massive reconstruction effort.
Uncertainties remain, however, surrounding the restructuring
of power supply and both national and global economic
prospects. The year 2011 will be remembered for the severe

Like other regions, Eastern Europe and
Central Asia is vulnerable to climate change and its
potential socioeconomic impacts. While all countries are
facing warmer temperatures, a changing hydrology, and more
extreme events (for example, floods and droughts) and are
concerned about the level of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, they differ in their financial and institutional
capacities to respond. Therefore, especially for the most

For more than four centuries Japan has
been developing forested green belts to mitigate coastal
hazards such as sandstorms, salty winds, high tides, and
tsunamis. Although Japan's green belts were severely
damaged by the March 11 tsunami, they did reduce the impact
of waves, and protected houses by capturing floating debris.
Local governments are planning to reconstruct the green
belts as a countermeasure against tsunamis. While local

The national accounts are the single
most important source of information about the economy, and
are widely used in all countries to assess economic
performance and for policy analysis. However, the national
accounts have a number of well-known shortcomings when it
comes to treatment of the environment. For example, while
the income from harvesting timber is recorded in national
accounts, the simultaneous depletion of natural forest

There are many reasons to believe that
Syrian agriculture has great potential for the future. The
liberalisation of agriculture in Eastern Europe delivered
rapid growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Countries
such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Kazachstan, Romania and Russia achieved labour productivity
growth in constant US$ terms of over 7 percent between 1998
and 2004. Syria has a global comparative advantage in fruit

The NAP 2013 aims at addressing challenges that continue to hinder the development of the agricultural sector; these include low productivity; over dependence on rain-fed agriculture; inadequate agriculture support services; poor infrastructure; weak agro-industries; low quality of agricultural produce; inadequate participation of the country’s private sector in agriculture; environmental degradation and crop pests and diseases.

An Act to provide the establishment of the National Irrigation Commission; to provide for the development,operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage systems; to provide for effective implementation of the National Irrigation Policy, the National Irrigation Development Strategy and to provide for related matters.

Relying entirely on survey information and personal exchanges with over 70 scientists from within the CGIAR network, this working paper attempts to achieve a better understanding of the scope of social learning related efforts undertaken in CGIAR and main issues of relevance to more current efforts, such as that planned by the CGIAR program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). A wide range of methods was identified, where groups of people learn in order to jointly arrive at solutions to pressing food security problems.