Although charcoal is the single most
important energy source for millions of urban dwellers in
Tanzania, being used by all tiers of society from laborers
to politicians, it seems to be politically neglected and
even unwanted, given that it is not considered as a possible
mean to achieve long-term sustainable development, for
example as a low-carbon growth option contributing to energy
security, sustainable forest management, and poverty

Brazil, China and India have seen
falling poverty in their reform periods, but to varying
degrees and for different reasons. History left China with
favorable initial conditions for rapid poverty reduction
through market-led economic growth; at the outset of the
reform process there were ample distortions to remove and
relatively low inequality in access to the opportunities so
created, though inequality has risen markedly since. By

Over the past decade, faster growth and
smarter social policy have reversed the trend in Latin
America's poverty. Too slowly and insufficiently, but
undeniably, the percentage of Latinos who are poor has at
long last begun to fall. This has shifted the political and
policy debates from poverty toward inequality, something to
be expected in a region that exhibits the world's most
regressive distribution of development outcomes such as

Structural change is a key driver of
rapid growth: countries diversify into new industries, firms
learn new things, people move to new locations. Anything
that slows this structural change is also likely to slow
growth. Because urbanization is one of the most important
enabling parallel processes in rapid growth, making it work
well is critical. Urbanization's contribution to growth
comes from two sources: the difference between rural and

Government of Azerbaijan (GoA) and the
World Bank have a long history of partnership in addressing
the needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the
country. The purpose of this study was to start identifying
gaps and areas for further engagement. The report would not
have been possible without the support of GoA counterparts.
The report pursues the argument that in order to expand the
choice of IDP livelihoods it is possible to build upon and

Fourteen years of civil conflict
(1989-2003) have destroyed Liberia's social and
economic infrastructure and brought the economy nearly to a
halt. Workers who came of age during the conflict are
largely unskilled, and the supply of workers exceeds demand
by a substantial margin. The negative effects of
unemployment, underemployment, and low productivity on
economic growth have made employment the most urgent demand

This study represents a collaborative
initiative by the World Bank and the Department of Animal
Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Ministry of Agriculture,
Government of India, to review the marine fisheries
sub-sector, within a broader sector that also includes
aquaculture and inland fisheries. The policy note provides a
major step forward in understanding current issues and
future opportunities facing the marine fisheries sub-sector.

After 20 years of neglect by
international donors, agriculture is now again in the
headlines because higher food prices are increasing food
insecurity and poverty. In the coming years it will be
essential to increase food productivity and production in
developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and
with smallholders. This however requires finding viable
solutions to a number of complex technical, institutional

This paper aims to investigate
empirically how international migration and remittances in
Indonesia, particularly female migration, affect child
outcomes and labor supply behavior in sending households.
The authors analyze the Indonesia Family Life Survey data
set and apply an instrumental variable estimation method,
using historical migration networks as instruments for
migration and remittance receipts. The study finds that, in

This paper explores the reduction of
food insecurity in Bolivia, adopting a supply side approach
that analyzes the role of agricultural spending on
vulnerability. Vulnerability to food insecurity is captured
by a municipal level composite -- developed locally within
the framework of World Food Program food security analysis
-- that combines welfare outcomes, weather conditions and
agricultural potential for all 327 municipalities in 2003,

The aim of this paper is to study the
short and long-term fertility effects of mass violent
conflict on different population sub-groups. The authors
pool three nationally representative demographic and health
surveys from before and after the genocide in Rwanda,
identifying conflict exposure of the survivors in multiple
ways. The analysis finds a robust effect of genocide on
fertility, with a strong replacement effect for lost

This paper examines the role of social
safety-net programs in Bangladesh run by the government and
nongovernmental organizations to mitigate seasonal
deprivation in the country's highly vulnerable
northwest region. Specifically, the paper explores whether
social safety nets are limited to averting seasonal
deprivation or can also address seasonality of income and
employment more generally. Using a recent survey from the