The proposed Results-Based National
Urban Development Program in the Northern Mountains Region
(RBNUDP-NM or the Program ) will assist the Government of
Vietnam in developing the implementation framework for its
national urban program. It will do this by piloting a
performance-based transfer system that will provide
participating cities with a combination of much needed
resources along with a clarification of implementation

A development response to forced
displacement in the Sahel requires a regional approach. Such
an approach would have the benefits of being able to: (i)
overcome challenges relating to cross--- border movements,
(ii) obtain commitments by host governments to support the
prospects of displaced from neighboring countries and (iii)
facilitate common approaches, shared conceptualization and
learning. A regional approach will be appropriate in the

This report presents an analysis of
the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and policies
which affect young children in Sierra Leone. This report is
part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using
the SABER-ECD framework. The country report includes
analysis of early learning, health, nutrition and social and
child protection policies and interventions in Sierra Leone,
along with regional and international comparisons. The

The poor in Bangladesh are more likely
to belong to households with a larger number of dependents
and lower education among household members, be engaged in
daily wage labor, own little land, and be less likely to
receive remittances. This poverty profile for 2005 is
similar to the profile in the mid-1980s and hence at first
glance it would appear that little has changed over time. A
closer look at national household survey data suggests a

Many investments in infrastructure are
built on the belief that they will ineluctably lead to
poverty reduction and income generation. This has entailed
massive aid-financed projects in roads in developing
countries. However, the lack of robust evaluations and a
comprehensive theoretical framework could raise questions
about current strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using the
second Cameroonian national household survey (Enquete

The measurement of inequality of
opportunity has hitherto not been attempted in a number of
countries because of data limitations. This paper proposes
two alternative approaches to circumventing the missing data
problems in countries where a demographic and health survey
and an ancillary household expenditure survey are available.
One method relies only on the demographic and health survey,
and constructs a wealth index as a measure of economic

Since the 1980s and early 1990s, the
World Bank has been supporting projects that involve
communities own development. This has been largely
manifested in the design and implementation of
community-based development (CBD) and community-driven
development (CDD) initiatives, with the latter gaining
increasing momentum in recent years. The purpose of this
study was to assess the development effectiveness of the

The reduction of infant and child
death is one of the eight millennium development goals
(MDGs). In addition, one of the goal one indicators is child
malnutrition. A central question for the development
community is to understand the factors underlying child
health and nutritional status. What are the determinants of
these indicators, which of these determinants are amenable
to policy intervention, and which are the most effective

China has an ancient tradition of
hydraulic engineering but in the past half century the
intensity of exploitation of water resources has accelerated
as a result of population and economic growth. The three
major issues for Chinese water management are water
shortages, flood control and pollution. The World Commission
on Dams noted that since 1949 the number of large dams in
China had increased from 22 to 22,000, almost half the

The Africa Gas Initiative (AGI) has been
established by the Oil and Gas Division of the World Bank,
to promote the utilization of natural gas in Sub-Saharan
Africa. The study focuses on coastal countries - Angola,
Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gabon - along the
West African coastline, and the Gulf of Guinea, where most
of the region's gas reserves are located, and where
significant proportions of the gas produced, is being wasted

Leaded gasoline is the greatest single
source of human exposure to lead, and as such, the health
impacts of lead are serious, affecting, and causing elevated
blood pressure, cardiovascular conditions, neurological and
kidney disease, among many others. While over eighty percent
of the gasoline sold worldwide is now lead-free, Africa
remains the exception. The specific objectives of the
regional conference on the phase-out of leaded gasoline in

This is one of four documents of a
series presenting the results of studies, workshops and
action plans recently undertaken for four sub-Saharan
African countries (Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania and Tanzania)
on the elimination of lead in gasoline. This document
describes the work realized in Tanzania. These four
countries have the particularity of being oil importing
countries without local refining capability. The transition