La Oficina Regional de la FAO para América Latina y el Caribe, con la colaboración de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) y la Organización Internacional de Trabajo (OIT) realizó durante los años 2009-2011 una investigación regional titulada Políticas de mercado de trabajo y pobreza rural. En el marco de esta investigación se profundizó el análisis sobre las condiciones laborales en un sector que concentra una importante proporción de mano de obra femenina.

This volume is an introduction to the
theories and policies that affect economic growth and
poverty. It is a compilation of lecture notes used in
face-to-face and e-learning courses presented by the World
Bank Institute's (WBI) Poverty Program during 2004-08.
The volume is divided into three parts. Part one discusses
basic concepts and measurement issues pertaining to poverty,
national income, and economic growth. Part two deals with

International migration has profound
implications for human welfare, and African governments have
had only a limited influence on welfare outcomes, for good
or ill. Improved efforts to manage migration will require
information on the nature and impact of migratory patterns.
This book seeks to contribute toward this goal, by reviewing
previous research and providing new analyses (including
surveys and case studies) as well as by formulating policy

Biofuels offer new opportunities for
African countries. They can contribute to economic growth,
employment, and rural incomes. They can become an important
export for some countries and provide low-cost fuel for
others. There is also a potentially large demand for
biofuels to meet the rapidly growing need for local fuel.
Abundant natural resources and low-cost labor make producing
biofuel feedstock's a viable alternative to traditional

The female population deficit in India
has been explained in a number of ways, but the great
heterogeneity in the deficit across districts within India
still remains an open question. This paper argues that
across India, a largely agrarian economy, soil texture
varies exogenously and determines the workability of the
soil and the technology used in land preparation. Deep
tillage, possible only in lighter and looser loamy soils,

This paper studies the use of labor
markets to mitigate the impact of violent shocks on
households in rural areas in Colombia. It examines changes
in the labor supply from on-farm to off-farm labor as a
means of coping with the violent shock and the ensuing
redistribution of time within households. It identifies the
heterogeneous response by gender. Because the incidence of
violent shocks is not exogenous, the analysis uses

This paper revisits the role of land
measurement error in the inverse farm size and productivity
relationship. By making use of data from a nationally
representative household survey from Uganda, in which
self-reported land size information is complemented by plot
measurements collected using Global Position System devices,
the authors reject the hypothesis that the inverse
relationship may just be a statistical artifact linked to

This report aims to show how
macroeconomic policies create differential opportunities for
women and men. This volume comprises nine chapters covering
four broad themes: gender as a category of analysis in
macroeconomics; the implications of gender for macroeconomic
aggregates, in particular consumption and economic growth;
the role of gender in the labor market, globalization, and
access to credit; and gender budgeting. Chapters one and two

Around the world, countries are becoming
urbanized at an astonishing pace. As countries develop
economically, their economies shift from mainly rural and
agrarian to increasingly urban and nonagricultural. This
rural-urban transformation presents both opportunities and
challenges for development. When managed effectively, the
transformation spurs growth and reduces poverty. When
managed poorly, however, the process can result in stark

Executive Directors continued to play an
important role as the World Bank faced many challenges in a
global post crisis economy. The Board considered a number of
key documents in preparation for the committee on
development effectiveness meetings. These included the World
Development Report 2011, which focuses on conflict,
security, and development, and responding to global food
price volatility and its impact on food security, which

The World Development Report (WDR) has
become such a fixture that it is easy to forget the
circumstances under which it was born and the Bank's
motivation for producing such a report at that time. In the
first chapter of this essay, the authors provide a brief
background on the circumstances of newly independent
developing countries and summarize some of the main strands
of the emerging field of development economics. This

The countries of Central and Eastern
Europe and Central Asia have a long history of striving for
gender equality, especially in the public sphere. Not only
was this an important goal during the socialist era, but
governments continued to pursue gender equality even during
the difficult years of transition. The governments in the
region allocated substantial resources toward the health and
education of both women and men. They also adopted