The purpose of this study was to augment
the Bank's research on land markets and investigate key
land market issues in four case study cities in South and
East Asia. From the study results, the consultants have
attempted to determine whether or not certain policy
instruments can be adopted in the respective cities and in
other regions of the world. Ultimately the study, in tracing
the role of various land development policies in these

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
for Tunisia, prepared jointly by International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Finance
Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee
Agency (MIGA) covers the period Fiscal Year (FY) 2016
through FY 2020. The CPF is anchored in the Government of
Tunisia’s September 2015 Note d’Orientation Stratégique and
the WBG’s October 2015 Strategy for the Middle East and

In its drive to meet the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals, the World Bank issued, in
October 2002, new strategies for agricultural and rural
development, and water resources management. These
strategies both identified more and better drainage
investments as important to achieving some of the Millennium
Development Goals, notably poverty reduction and
environmental sustainability. The Bank subsequently

This report summarizes the findings of
the Uganda Sustainable Land Management Public Expenditure
Review (SLM PER). The SLM PER was undertaken to achieve six
main objectives: (i) establish a robust data base on
SLM-related public expenditure that can support credible
empirical analysis; (ii) develop a sound methodology for
conducting SLM PERs, which could guide similar work in the
future; (iii) analyze the level and composition of SLM

This paper presents such a stocktaking
of land reform and farm restructuring in four countries
(Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and Moldova) that have
had particular difficulties with land reform, farm
restructuring, farm performance, or rural poverty. It is
organized by case studies, each of which is designed to
analyze a central conundrum about land reform and farm
restructuring in an individual country. Much of the

The authors use evidence from a survey of about 1200 beneficiaries of South African land reform to assess the performance of the initial phase of the land reform program. They find that the program has not lived up to the quantitative goals set, but did successfully target the poor. It has led to a significant number of economically successful projects that already generate sustainable revenues.

India's Uttar Pradesh Sodic Lands
Reclamation Project has two objectives. First, it seeks to
reverse the decline of productivity through sustainable
reclamation of sodic lands. Second, it is intended to
prevent additional increases in sodicity through
strengthening local institutions and enabling effective
management of such programs with strong beneficiary
participation and nongovernmental organization (NGO)

A competitive city is a city that
successfully facilitates its firms and industries to create
jobs, raise productivity, and increase the incomes of
citizens over time. Worldwide, improving the competitiveness
of cities is a pathway to eliminating extreme poverty and to
promoting shared prosperity. The primary source of job
creation has been the growth of private sector firms, which
have typically accounted for around 75 percent of job

Rural areas in Cote d'Ivoire
account for 55 percent of the total population. Rural people
rely heavily on export- and food-crop production as their
primary source of livelihood. However, 71 percent of the
rural population live below the poverty line. The government
and the Bank agree that access to land and natural resource
management are critical factors in coping with the rural
crisis. The government invited the Bank to help meet the

Latin America and the Caribbean (LCR)
will be center stage in the global development debate as
leaders from around the world convene in Lima, Peru for the
annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International
Monetary Fund. Critical progress in poverty reduction has
been made in the region over the last decade. The region’s
bottom 40 percent of the population saw growth eclipsing
that seen by the group in every other region in the world.

Inequality in Indonesia is rising
rapidly. During the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, poverty
rosesharply, while the Gini measure of inequality fell, as
the richest were the hardest hit. Since then, the Gini has
increased from 30 points in 2000 to 41 points in 2014, its
highest recorded level. In 2002, the richest 10 percent of
Indonesians consumed as much as the poorest 42 percent
combined; by 2014, they consumed as much as the poorest 54

Policies that enable rural communities
to participate in expanding economic opportunities can be
central to inclusive growth in Myanmar. Rural communities
are home to the majority of Myanmar’s population, the
majority of its many ethnic groups, and 70 percent of its
poor. Development in rural areas is constrained by low
returns to agriculture, and significantly lower levels of
public service delivery and human development outcomes