Although the State of Ceara, in Brazil,
is a model of good economic, and fiscal performance given
its poverty status, recent analysis show poverty remains
severe, in spite of significant reductions over the last
decade. The combination of good governance, and sound fiscal
management, industrial promotion, and public investments
have been successful, but the report questions whether
different policies, could have led to higher growth, and

Economic development has brought about,
the decline in contribution of the agricultural sector to
the economy of Sri Lanka, and, consistent with this economic
transformation, the structure of employment also changed.
Thus, as labor migrates away from agriculture, the
productivity, for those who remain in the land, needs to
increase significantly. This report examines the constraints
to promoting more rapid agricultural, and rural non-farm

This review aims to provide the
Government of Madagascar with a situation assessment and
insights and guidance on how to position the rural and
environment sector as an engine for inclusive and
sustainable economic growth. The review has cast the
analytical net quite widely with the aim to come up with a
comprehensive overview of the sector. In view of the
intimate linkages between rural development and the

Human welfare and development are
heavily influenced by climatic factors. As many as 95
percent of all disaster-related casualties occur in
developing countries, and after an event the recovery often
takes years. Natural disasters can significantly derail the
process of social and economic development. The Bank has
always supported reconstruction in countries affected by
natural disasters. A forward-looking approach to disaster

Many fear China's accession to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) will impoverish its rural
people by way of greater import competition in its
agricultural markets. Anderson, Huang, and Ianchovichina
explore that possibility bearing in mind that, even if
producer prices of some (land-intensive) farm products fall,
prices of other (labor-intensive) farm products could rise.
Also, the removal of restrictions on exports of textiles and

Many developing country governments
discriminate against sectors that export primary
commodities. India, for example, discriminates against
cotton production. Exports of cotton have been restricted by
quotas, and the mill industry has been subject to such
regulations as the obligation to supply hank yarn for Indian
handlooms. These interventions have led to stagnating cotton
yields, rent-seeking activities, manipulation of cotton

The authors present evidence that in
Burkina Faso, certain high-performing local institutions
contribute to equitable economic development. They link
reduced levels of poverty, and inequality to a high degree
of internal village organization. The structure of these
high-performing local organizations means they can exist in
a number of African countries, because they depend more on
internal participation, rather than on nay one

Central control of forests takes
management responsibility away from the communities most
dependent on them, inevitably resulting in tensions. Like
many African countries, Tanzania--which has forest or
woodland cover over 30-40 percent of its land--established
central forestry institutions at a time when there was
little need for active management and protection because
population pressures were low. But in the face of scarce

The Global Poverty Report considers
the effects of globalizing markets on poverty in developing
countries. It outlines the channels through which increased
trade openness can affect poverty and examines the evidence
from four regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific,
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the
Caribbean. Written at the request of the G8, the report is
the result of a joint effort of the regional development

The authors compare changes in gender
roles and women's empowerment in China, India, and the
Republic of Korea. Around 1950, these newly formed states
were largely poor and agrarian, with common cultural factors
that placed similar severe constraints on women's
autonomy. They adopted very different paths of development,
which are well known to have profoundly affected development
outcomes. These choices have also had a tremendous impact on

This case study is one of six
evaluations of the implementation of the World Bank's
1991 Forest Strategy. This and the other cases (Brazil,
Cameroon, Costa Rica, India, and Indonesia) complement a
review of the entire set of lending and nonlending
activities of the World Bank Group and the Global
Environment Facility. This OED study finds that while
China's forest program was highly successful, much

The introduction of green revolution
technologies in wheat, and rice production in Asia, in the
mid 1960s reversed the food crisis, and stimulated rapid
agricultural, and economic growth. But the sustainability of
this intensification strategy is being questioned, in light
of the heavy use of external inputs, and growing evidence of
a slowdown in productivity growth, and degradation of the
resource base. The authors address the critical issue of