Since the early 2000s, Tanzania has seen
remarkable economic growth and strong resilience to external
shocks. Yet these achievements were overshadowed by the slow
response of poverty to the growing economy. Until 2007, the
poverty rate in Tanzania remained stagnant at around 34
percent despite a robust growth at an annualized rate of
approximately 7 percent. This apparent disconnect between
growth and poverty reduction has raised concerns among

This Botswana Agriculture Public
Expenditure Review (AgPER) is one of a series of similar
studies undertaken in over a dozen countries in sub-Saharan
Africa under the framework of a program coordinated by
CAADP, supported by the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation and
the CAADP Multi-Donor Trust Fund, and implemented by the
World Bank. The AgPER presents data about actual expenditure
for the period 2000 to 2013, with an outlook on the

This paper provides new empirical
insights on the joint distribution of consumption, income,
and wealth in three of the poorest countries in the world —
Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda — all located in Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA). The first finding is that while income
inequality is similar to that of the United States (US),
wealth inequality is barely one-third that of the US.
Similarly, while the top of the income distribution (1 and

The need for countries in Sub-Saharan
Africa to build more productive, modern, and market-oriented
farming sectors is one of our most pressing development
challenges. In coming years, African agriculture will have
to increase food production and expand and intensify value
chains in order to meet changing demand on the part of a
rapidly expanding and urbanizing consumer base. The process
of doing this will enable African countries to begin pushing

Between 2008 and 2012 the urban/rural poverty divide substantially narrowed
down, which was the result of relatively stable rural and rising urban poverty rates. Over the same period, food inflation spiked, whereby strong links between domestic and global price movements were observed owed to major import dependence on food. The high shares of consumption that households dedicate to food, especially among the poor, leave limited scope to deal with food price surges by economizing on non-food

Despite considerable progress in the
area of environmental management over the last decade,
Colombia still faces significant impacts from population
exposure to urban air pollution, inadequate access to water
supply and sanitation, and indoor air pollution from solid
fuel use. This study estimates that the total health cost
attributable to these three factors amounts to about 10.2
trillion Colombian Pesos (COP) annually, or about 2 percent

The overall goal of this report is to
assist the World Bank Group (WBG) to achieve greater impact
for women from its current activities in agribusiness in
Papua New Guinea (PNG), and to provide clear recommendations
on additional interventions aimed at improving outcomes for
women. The report focuses on the supply chains for coffee,
cocoa, and horticultural products (fresh produce), as there
is a wealth of knowledge on these supply chains and on

As Vietnam enters a crucial period of
urbanization corresponding to its present stage of economic
development, the Government of Vietnam has placed strong
emphasis on developing its system of cities. In accordance
with this objective this Urbanization Review is dedicated to
understanding the key dimensions and aspects of
Vietnam's urbanization process and to identifying
trends, opportunities, challenges and core policy priorities

In countries such as Azerbaijan, the
risks of climate change for the agricultural sector are a
particularly immediate and important problem because the
majority of the rural population depends either directly or
indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. The need to
adapt to climate change in all sectors is now on the agenda
of the countries and development partners. International
efforts to limit greenhouse gases and to mitigate climate

Deeper regional integration can be
beneficial especially for regions along international
borders. It can open up new markets on opposite sides of
borders and give consumers wider access to cheaper goods.
This paper uses data from five contiguous districts of
India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in the northeast of the
subcontinent to measure the degrees of trade complementarity
between districts. The paper illustrates that the regions

According to global spatial data sets in
2000 more than one-third of the rural population in
developing countries was located on less favored
agricultural land and areas. Less favored agricultural lands
are susceptible to low productivity and degradation, because
their agricultural potential is constrained biophysically by
terrain, poor soil quality, or limited rainfall. Less
favored agricultural areas include less favored agricultural

This report is the most recent in a
series aimed at monitoring economic developments in Ghana
and has two sections. The first section summarizes the
recent macroeconomic developments in the country while the
second section presents the main findings on poverty and
employment published recently by the Ghana statistical
service. Ghana s overall macroeconomic conditions have
deteriorated further in 2014 with large twin-deficits