The World Bank has had a long history of
supporting community driven development and urban upgrading
projects in Indonesia, reaching back to the 1970's. The
primary approach of all program nasional pemberdayaana
masyarakat (PNPM) urban projects is to provide block grants
at the kelurahan level to community trusts (BKM) that work
with their communities to identify, plan, and implement
activities (largely infrastructure) to improve urban

East Sudan has received a continuous
influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees
over the last forty years. Mass influxes were witnessed
during years when the region experienced natural
catastrophes as droughts and floods, or an escalation of
tensions and conflict in neighboring countries, mainly
Eritrea and Ethiopia. Presently there is still a steady but
smaller in numbers influx of refugees, mostly from Eritrea,

At an average above 6.0 percent per year
over the past two decades, Uganda' s growth rate was
impressive by all standards. In parallel, poverty declined
significantly, not only in urban areas, but also to some
extent within the rural areas. This combination was possible
because the key drivers of growth were labor-intensive
services sectors, some of which are agriculture based. In
fact, Uganda's growth process has reduced overall

Although charcoal is the single most
important energy source for millions of urban dwellers in
Tanzania, being used by all tiers of society from laborers
to politicians, it seems to be politically neglected and
even unwanted, given that it is not considered as a possible
mean to achieve long-term sustainable development, for
example as a low-carbon growth option contributing to energy
security, sustainable forest management, and poverty

As donors pledge growing support for
protecting and managing forests to address climate change,
the question of how to pay tropical countries to reduce
their emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
assumes greater urgency. Depending on the detailed
implementation of REDD plus at a national and international
level, forest nations may be able to secure funding from a
range of sources, including donors and multilateral funds (a

This paper reviews empirical findings
from economic analyses of the role of gender equality and
women's empowerment in reducing poverty and stimulating
growth. Going beyond the large literature documenting the
impact of female education on a range of development
outcomes, the paper presents evidence on the impact of
women's access to markets (labor, land, and credit) and
women's decision-making power within households on

To ensure sustainable and optimal use of
its common property natural resources, Mexico will need to
strengthen its focus on enhancing stewardship in three key
sectors-forests, water, and energy resources. The key
objectives include the following: 1) identifying options
that would contribute to Mexico's climate agenda and
build social resilience through forest management; 2)
ensuring economically efficient and environmentally and

The East Asia region is highly prone to
the impacts of natural disasters. Situated in the ring of
fire, countries in the region are regularly hit by typhoons,
earthquakes, floods, and other events. Natural disasters can
have major impacts on the social and economic welfare of a
population, and often pose serious obstacles in the
achievement of sustainable social and economic development.
Moreover, impacts from disasters are not uniformly

Payments for Environmental Services
(PES) are one of the instruments that countries might use to
try to reduce deforestation, and hence receive payments for
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation
(REDD). This paper discusses four aspects related to the use
of PES as an instrument to implement an avoided
deforestation program, based on a review of PES experiences
in Latin America. First, the paper discusses the

After 20 years of neglect by
international donors, agriculture is now again in the
headlines because higher food prices are increasing food
insecurity and poverty. In the coming years it will be
essential to increase food productivity and production in
developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and
with smallholders. This however requires finding viable
solutions to a number of complex technical, institutional

This paper explores the reduction of
food insecurity in Bolivia, adopting a supply side approach
that analyzes the role of agricultural spending on
vulnerability. Vulnerability to food insecurity is captured
by a municipal level composite -- developed locally within
the framework of World Food Program food security analysis
-- that combines welfare outcomes, weather conditions and
agricultural potential for all 327 municipalities in 2003,

This article uses a unique database on 542 villages in southwestern Darfur to analyze patterns of land reallocation and population change that have emerged as a consequence of the recent conflict. The analysis demonstrates that a displacement from this region alone of more than 300,000 people from three targeted African groups has occurred and that villages have been repopulated by Arab and other African groups. Almost a fourth of all villages have been squatted by newly settled populations.