This paper addresses two vital concerns
in the debate on adaptation to climate change. First, how
can countries prepare to manage the impact of climate-change
induced natural disasters? Second, how can countries ensure
that they have the governmental institutions required to
manage the phenomenal challenge of adaptation to climate
change? A range of economic and institutional measures are
tested for their potential effects on natural disaster

This assessment, reflecting
poverty's many dimensions in Mozambique, combines
multiple disciplines and diagnostic tools to explore
poverty. It draws on a combination of approaches and tools
from three separate analytical diagnostics developed by the
World Bank: poverty assessment, country gender assessment,
and country social analysis. It uses monetary, human, and
social indicators and combines quantitative and qualitative

The rural roads program, overseen by
Provias Descentralizado (subdivision of Peru's Ministry
of Transportation and Communications), began in 1995, and
has received funds from the Peruvian Government, the World
Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It is a
national program for the rehabilitation and maintenance of
roads that link rural communities and villages with
secondary and principal roads, and through these, with towns

This report assesses the ongoing
transition in Orissa. It examines how and why the successes
were achieved. It attempts to outline the dimensions of the
challenge ahead, as Orissa marches forward into the second
phase of policy and institutional reforms, building on its
improved fiscal position to deliver rapid and inclusive
growth. It highlights key issues and binding or soon-to-be
binding constraints. The concluding section identifies

Traditionally both national and regional
development planning in Vietnam has been driven by
'top-down' Central Government social and economic
targets based on limited analytical investigation. However,
with the advent of the free market economy in Vietnam since
the late 1980s, vigorous global economic competitiveness and
Vietnam's membership to the World Trade Organization
(WTO), changes in national policy in Vietnam have now

The present report was prepared on the
basis of the findings of an international workshop held from
September 12-14, 2005, in Salvador da Bahia, and was
attended by delegations of three to five practitioners from
12 cities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. It had two main
objectives: (a) to share experiences on innovative solutions
to provide electricity services in poor peri-urban and urban
areas; and (b) to develop a body of knowledge to be

This report provides an assessment of
damages and needs resulting from the earthquake that struck
India on the 8m of October 2005. It provides a preliminary
estimate of the total cost of damage identifies the needs
for reconstruction and discusses strategies and guiding
principles for the implementation for a program of
reconstruction, the whole based on a need to mitigate future
impact of natural disasters through the strengthening of

Participatory community-based Natural
Resources Management (NRM) Projects have been implemented
over the last 5-6 years in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and
Niger with the support of France, Germany, Norway, the
United States, and the World Bank's International
Development Association facility. Furthermore, pilot
operation concentrating on specific NRM issues are underway
in Chad (pastoral perimeters) and Guinea (land tenure

What factors influence community
participation in the delivery of urban services? In
particular, does security of tenure enhance the probability
of participation as it provides individuals with incentives
to act collectively in pursuit of a common objective? And
are collective efforts less likely to succeed when there is
a high degree of heterogeneity in culture or endowments
among community members? The authors use household level

Are the household characteristics that
are good for transition to a more diversified
market-oriented development process in Vietnam also
important for reducing poverty? Or are there tradeoffs? The
determinants of both poverty incidence and participation in
rural off-farm activities are modeled as functions of
household and community characteristics using comprehensive
national household surveys for 1993 and 1998. Despite some

This has to be accomplished against a
background of high illiteracy rates, rapidly growing
populations, low and erratic rainfall, inherently infertile
soils, and development strategies which have had a strong
urban bias. Under such conditions, traditional production
systems are unable to sustain the population. Without
significant change, land degradation will accelerate and the
natural resource base on which agricultural production

Modern political economy stresses
"society's polarization" as a determinant of
development outcomes. Among the most common dorms of social
conflict are class polarization, and ethnic polarization. A
middle class consensus is defined as a high share of income
for the middle class and a low degree of ethnic
polarization. A middle class consensus distinguishes
development successes from failures. A theoretical model