In Uganda, efforts to decentralize the
management of the extension service and to launch the
village participation in land development exercise have led
to a number of issues, outcomes and expectations. This
overview looks at what can be realistically expected from
the extension service (in terms of contact with farmers),
from decentralization (in terms of management improvement),
and from the village participation exercise (in terms of

India's environmental problems
are deep-rooted and severe. Estimates of annual
environmental damage range from 4.5 percent to 8 percent of
gross domestic product (GDP), in line with annual economic
growth. Since 1990 the World Bank has lent India 1.94
billion dollars for 19 projects to mitigate environmental
damage and another 97 million dollars was granted under
global environmental facility (GEF) and Montreal protocol

The purpose of the Sofia City Strategy
(SCS) is to combat poverty and provide the basis for
sustainable development of the local economy and the welfare
of city residents. SCS is driven by the need to reevaluate
the increased role of Bulgarian local authorities that
resulted from the country's transition from socialism
to a market economy. Launching a long-term strategy for
Sofia will provide the municipality with an opportunity to

The Northeast region of Brazil has long
been the single largest pocket of rural poverty in Latin
America. With a combined area of 1.6 million square
kilometers-16 percent of Brazil's total-the Northeast
is home to 45 million people, 28 percent of Brazil's
total population , of whom 5.4 million people live on about
$1 a day and a total of 10.7 million on $1.60 or less per
day. Nearly half of all rural communities are in the

If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital depend positively on knowledge, but a household cannot hire skilled labor to compensate for low skills, then even if it has access to credit, the household will achieve lower returns than an educated household. If, as is common, the income-poor are less educated because of failures in the credit market, and because they live in areas where there is less access to schooling, then the poor will also have lower returns on investments. The author tests this argument for the case of irrigation infrastructure in Vietnam.

A comprehensive investigative study was
implemented in 2002, on the status, and development of urban
mobility in three Sub-Saharan African cities - Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia; Nairobi, Kenya; and, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Its
purpose was to gather information in terms of size, regional
spread, and availability data, that would allow
identification of issues affecting urban mobility in the
related cities, and prepare action plans, that would lead to

The report's objectives are i) to
better understand the nature and magnitude of urban
transport problems, particularly in respect of the poor, and
ii) to articulate a strategy by which the World Bank and
other agencies can assist national and city governments to
address these problems. The first part of the report
considers how urban transport can be used as an instrument
of urban development and poverty reduction. Chapter 2

The issue of administering the
distribution of oil rents is the subject of increased debate
among oil companies, civil society, development agencies,
and governments, which tacit agreement suggests that regions
where oil and gas production takes place, in particular the
communities, ought to receive "indemnifications"
due to damages, and losses derived from the use of land for
oil production operations. Such debate sparked the need for

Brazil entered the 1990s suffering the
consequences of a lost decade of high inflation and slow
growth. Between 1980 and 1990, per capita income declined in
real terms, and the share of the population in extreme
poverty rose from 16.5 to 19 percent -and from 36 to 42
percent in the Northeast. Income distribution worsened. Key
social indicators improved little, particularly in the
Northeast. These adverse conditions persisted in the early

In July 2001, the extractive industries
review (EIR) was initiated with the appointment of Dr. Emil
Salim, former Minister of the Environment for Indonesia, as
eminent person to the review. The EIR was designed to engage
all stakeholders-governments, nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), indigenous peoples' organizations, affected
communities and community-based organizations, labor unions,
industry, academia, international organizations, and the

India's transport
system--especially surface transport--is seriously
deficient, and its services are highly inefficient by
international standards. The economic losses from congestion
and poor roads are estimated at 120 to 300 billion rupees a
year. This report takes a critical assessment of the key
policy and institutional issues that continue to contribute
to the poor performance of the transport sector in India.

The objective of the report is to point
at the need for a new poverty strategy, and the areas of
action it should cover, where each area should be
specifically discussed, addressing the lives of
Indonesia's poor, and the tradeoffs policymakers will
need to consider, based on the belief that this poverty
strategy should emerge from a broad dialogue among
stakeholders. First, in broadening poverty, the report looks