The ‘Price Penalty’ exists where a poor person pays an above-average price per unit of the facility, product, or service. The ‘Quality Penalty’ refers to the provision of a facility, product, or service of low quality, which is still offered at a price similar to that of higher-quality.

As Vietnam embraces the market economy, and a number of state policies promote reforestation and rural market integration, land use and land cover (LULC) changes are occurring in the country’s northern uplands in increasingly complex and fragmented ways. Yet understandings of the degree and consequences of LULC changes in this diverse agro-ecological region are incomplete. We conduct a systematic literature review of research reported in academic articles tracing and analysing LULC change in Vietnam’s northern regions.

In order to stimulate revenue mobilisation and local autonomy, some governments decentralise property taxes to the municipal level. Indonesia did so in a gradual process between 2010 and 2014, transferring responsibility for the rural and urban land and building tax to its nearly 500 cities and districts. But has this so-called devolution led to strengthening the property tax as a source of public revenue? The present study explores whether decentralisation leads to a better use of the land and building taxation potential in Indonesia.

This Country Profile on Uzbekistan is the eighteenth in the series. The country profile programme continues to focus on specific challenges or achievements in the housing and land management sectors that are particularly relevant to the country under review. In the case of Uzbekistan, these issues include housing policies and government support measures for the construction of housing in rural areas; the increased demand for housing of the fast-growing population; and the depleted urban infrastructure inherited from Soviet times.

Despite myriad challenges, Kenya has emerged in recent years as one of Africa’s frontier economies, with headline growth in the most recent decade propelling the country toward middle-income status. Less well understood is how risk dynamics associated with production, markets, and policy adversely impact sector performance, in terms of both influencing ex ante decision making among farmers, traders, and other sector stakeholders and causing ex post losses to crops, livestock, and incomes - destabilizing livelihoods and jeopardizing the country’s food security.

El Salvador is the smallest country in
Central America, and one of the most densely populated in
the world. El Salvador is among the countries most affected
by weather-related events and other hazards, incurring
annual losses of around 2.5 percent of GDP. Worldwide, it
ranks second highest for risk exposure to two or more
hazards and highest for the total population at a relatively
high risk of mortality. Furthermore, climate change is

The urban population in Ethiopia is
increasing rapidly. If managed proactively, urban population
growth presents a huge opportunity to shift the structure
and location of economic activity from rural agriculture to
the larger and more diversified urban industrial and service
sectors. If not managed proactively, rapid urban population
growth may pose a demographic challenge as cities struggle
to provide jobs, infrastructure and services, and housing.

Fast growth in Rwanda since the turn of
the century has been accompanied by solid poverty reduction.
Between 2000 and 2013, gross domestic product (GDP) grew at
eight percent per year, resulting in a 170 percent increase
in real GDP. As the poor almost uniquely depend on labor to
generate income, the strong reduction in poverty suggests
tangible improvements in employment outcomes over this
period. This jobs and employment study focuses on the recent

Mauritania is a vast country covering
over a million square kilometers, where a relatively small
population of 3.5 million people lives on just one-fifth of
the country’s total area. With extremely advanced
desertification, the country is particularly vulnerable to
the impact of climate change and other external shocks. The
main sources of income in Mauritania are agriculture, which
is either irrigated or rain-fed, and livestock. This is

Affordable housing will be instrumental
to helping Vietnam achieve its goals for increasing
productivity and inclusive urban growth. Since Doi Moi, the
country has experienced impressive economic growth, averaged
at 7.4 percent per annum from 1990 to 2008, lowering to an
average of 6 percent per annum from 2007 to 2013. Strong
economic growth has supported a substantial reduction in
poverty, from 58 percent in 1993 to 17 percent in 20121.

A social audit is a community-led process of reviewing of crucial documents to determine whether the public expenditure and service delivery outcomes reported by the government really reflect the public money spent and the services received by the community. Members of the community collectively participate in a process of verifying government (or private company) documents by comparing them with the realities on the ground and the experiences of the community. Evidence collected during the audit is then reported to the responsible authorities at a public meeting.