The Sahel region has seen the forcible
displacement of more than million persons as a result of
conflict. Tackling displacement in the Sahel is critical for
both poverty alleviation and stabilization, and only a
development response will be adequate to the task. A
development response to forced displacement in the Sahel
requires a regional approach. Such an approach would have
the benefits of being able to overcome challenges relating

This paper sheds light on how to harvest
the "youth dividend" in Sub-Saharan Africa by
creating jobs in agriculture. The agriculture that attracts
the youth will have to be profitable, competitive, and
dynamic. These are the same characteristics needed for
agriculture to deliver growth, to improve food security, and
to preserve a fragile natural environment. With higher
priority accorded to implementation of well-designed public

The global extreme poverty rate has
fallen by half since 1990, but progress within the
developing world has been uneven. Extreme poverty remains
widespread in most low-income countries while many
middle-income countries also continue to have substantial
levels with many people there who have escaped extreme
poverty remaining poor and vulnerable. Nor has there been
robust progress in sharing prosperity: in many developing

As the 21st century unfolds, the vast
nation of India faces an array of challenges, including how
to feed its burgeoning population in a situation where rural
poverty is widespread and land resources are under mounting
pressure. In such a situation it is vital that the resources
supporting agriculture (especially rain-fed arable farming)
- soil and water, physical infrastructure, and those
employed on the land operate efficiently and in harmony. Two

Benin has made substantial progress over
the past decade in reinforcing macroeconomic stability,
which has laid the foundation for modest but accelerating
growth. After averaging less than 3.7 percent from
2007-2011, GDP growth rose to 5.4 percent in 2012 and
reached 5.6 percent in 2013. Growth is expected to remain
strong at 5.5 percent in 2014. Benin s enhanced growth
performance has been supported by ongoing efficiency

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

This paper assembles data at the
all-India level and for the village of Palanpur, Uttar
Pradesh, to document the growing importance, and influence,
of the non-farm sector in the rural economy between the
early 1980s and late 2000s. The suggestion from the combined
National Sample Survey and Palanpur data is of a slow
process of non-farm diversification, whose distributional
incidence, on the margin, is increasingly pro-poor. The

This basic Agriculture Public
Expenditure Review (AgPER) documents and analyzes
information on the volume and structure of Liberia's
past public expenditure on the agriculture sector and draws
conclusions that can provide an orientation for future
policies in view of the effectiveness of spending. The
AgPER's focus is on the sectors of agriculture,
including crops, fisheries, and forestry, in line with 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

Ghana, like many other African
countries, had made a commitment in 2003 to allocate at
least ten percent of their national budgetary resources to
develop the agricultural sector by 2008, following the
adoption of the Comprehensive African Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP), with an aim towards realizing
food security and poverty reduction. This Agriculture Public
Expenditure Review (AgPER) for Ghana analyzes data on public

With farms cultivating tens or hundreds
of thousands of hectares, Ukraine is often used to
demonstrate the existence of economies of scale in modern
grain production. Panel data analysis for all the
country's farms with more than 200 hectares in
2001-2011 suggests that higher yields and profits are due to
unobserved factors at rayon (district) and farm level rather
than economies of scale. Productivity growth was driven not

In Africa, farmers have been reluctant
to take up new varieties of staple crops developed to boost
smallholder yields and rural incomes. Low fertilizer use is
often mentioned as a proximate cause, but some believe the
problem originates with incomplete input markets. As a
remedy, African governments have introduced technology
adoption programs with fertilizer subsidies as a core
component. Still, the links between market performance and