As a low-middle-income country with a
gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of US$1,715 and a
population of 30 million (nearly half of all of the Central
Asian population), Uzbekistan has seen stable economic
progress since the mid-2000s, both in terms of growth and
poverty reduction. Growth has averaged 8 percent per year
since 2004 and extreme poverty has declined from 27 percent
in 2000 to 15 percent in 2012. Encouraged by this

Following the world food price spike in
2008 and again in 2011, there has been increased attention
on better understanding the drivers of food prices, their
impacts on the poor, and policy response options. This paper
provides a simple model that closely simulates actual
historical food price behavior around which the analysis of
the drivers of food price levels, volatility, and the
associated response options is derived. Future food prices

The objective of this report is twofold:
first, analyze and discuss the linkages between different
minimum standards currently used in the Kyrgyz Republic and
with the Monthly Benefit for Poor Families (MBPF), and,
secondly, to analyze the potential of alternative targeting
methods and benefit levels. The analysis in this report
mainly draws on data from the Kyrgyz Integrated Household
Survey (KIHS) 2010. The report is structured as follows: the

This Country Economic Memorandum (CEM)
sets a framework for a dialogue on inclusive economic growth
and income convergence in Romania. Generous Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) and other financial inflows lifted consumer
demand, built up key industries, modernized wholesale trade
and unleashed the movement of labor from low-productivity
activities like agriculture towards high-productivity
activities like manufacturing. Public and private

Natural resource abundance can lead to
strong economic growth if resource rents are well invested
in physical assets and other forms of productive capital.
This paper focuses on the case of the resource-abundant
economies in Eurasia, which has been less documented in the
literature on natural resource-led development than other
parts of the world. The analysis shows that the stock of
productive physical assets is relatively low, contrary to

This paper examines some of the concepts
surrounding the idea that forests and trees can contribute
to making households more resilient to food insecurity. The
paper begins with a discussion of the widely accepted
definitions of food security, and the implications for our
understanding of the role of forests and trees in
contributing to food security. Authors discuss the origins
of the idea of resilience, adaptability, and transformation

The report is structured to allow
readers familiar with Macedonia s agriculture sector to
quickly grasp the essentials needed to improve the sector,
as well as to inform a general audience on how to address
the challenges of a modern European Union (EU)-aspiring
state. Chapter two provides an in-depth analysis of the
sectoral background, illustrating the main characteristics
and challenges of Macedonia s agriculture sector. The

Transforming agriculture in Africa is
not simply about helping Africa; it is essential for
ensuring global food security. But Africa s agriculture is
also of critical importance when it comes to meeting the
world s future needs for food and fiber. With the global
population expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, food
security producing enough food of sufficient quality and
making it accessible and affordable for consumers around the

Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction
Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as
annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on
four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b)
expanding access to social services for the poor; c)
increasing employment and income-generating activities for
the poor; and d) promoting good governance. Increased public
expenditure and targeted social service provision also led

The Congo Basin has the largest forest
cover on the African continent. Of the 400 million hectares
that the Basin comprises, about 200 million of them are
covered by forest, with 90 percent being tropical dense
forests. The Congo Basin's logging sector has a
dualistic configuration. It boasts a highly visible formal
sector that is export oriented and dominated by large
industrial groups with foreign capital and an informal

Facing a huge fiscal burden due to
imports of entire petroleum despite the availability of a
surplus of agricultural land to produce biofuels, Zambia, a
country in Sub-Saharan Africa, has recently introduced a
biofuel mandate. But, a number of questions, particularly
those related to the economics of biofuels, have not been
fully investigated yet. Using an empirical model this study
analyzes the economics of meeting the biodiesel mandate

The Congo Basin is among the most poorly
served areas in terms of transport infrastructure in the
world, and it faces a challenging environment with dense
tropical forests crisscrossed by numerous rivers that
require construction of numerous bridges. Given such
complexities, constructing transport infrastructure as well
as properly maintaining it is certainly a key challenge for
the Congo Basin countries. Recent studies indicate that