Economic growth, job creation, and
development are central to the decade of transformation
(2015-25) and long-term security for the people of
Afghanistan. The Bank and the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) recognize that agriculture
and rural development are a key to inclusive growth, and
hence need renewed vigor and strategic long-term
investments. Further, the Bank and the GoIRA acknowledge

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

Motivations behind the extreme brutality
used in many cases of rape in the context of armed conflict
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains poorly
understood and under-researched. This study has been
conducted in partnership with the Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO) vivo international, to determine
individual motivations, as well as strategic or tactical
aspects of sexual violence of different armed groups and

Rapid urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa
places immense pressure on urban services to meet the needs
of the burgeoning urban population. Although several
country- or city-level reports offer insight into the
housing challenges of specific places, little is known about
regional patterns affecting housing markets. This lack of
clear knowledge on the relative importance of the factors
influencing households' housing demand in countries in

This study uses household models based
on detailed expenditure and agricultural production data
from 31 developing countries to assess the impacts of
changes in global food prices on poverty in individual
countries and for the world as a whole. The analysis finds
that food price increases unrelated to productivity changes
in developing countries raise poverty in the short run in
all but a few countries with broadly-distributed

This report provides an analysis of the
spatial planning system in Romania and suggests ways in
which it can be improved. Romania has recently experienced a
proliferation of plans, strategies, and policies developed
at all administrative levels. Adding to this, the analysis
of territorial and urban development in Romania reveals
important dynamics and challenges, such as uncontrolled
expansion of built perimeters, increased pressures on

Across the world, the housing sector
plays a key role in local and national economies, and
expanding access to housing can encourage more equitably
shared economic growth. This report surveys current policy
interventions designed to encourage affordable housing in
East Asia and the Pacific (EAP). The purpose of this report
is to provide a general overview of the recent trends in
urbanization and development in EAP and to consider

This paper seeks to provide evidence on
the extent of household vulnerability to exogenous economic
shocks in the Pacific region and consider policy options
that help to manage this risk. Characteristics of the region
such as remoteness, small size, dispersion, and urbanizing
populations lead to pronounced vulnerabilities. The paper
presents macroeconomic and distributional analysis and
complements it with results of a micro-simulation model

The Government of Sierra Leone (GosL)
and the World Bank (WB) have agreed upon the design and
implementation of a growth poles program (GPP) in support of
the agenda for prosperity (A4P), the GoSL's third
poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSPIII). With support
from the European Union competitive industries and
innovation practice trust fund, the WB has been undertaking
a series of scoping and diagnostic analyses on the GPP since

The objective of this report is to
examine the linkages between rural economic activity, food
insecurity and poverty in Haiti as a means of determining
the barriers to rural development. The analysis draws on a
newly available set of house-hold level living standards
measurement data collected in 2012 (ECVMAS). About 70.7
percent of all rural households are poor, and education
levels are low with an average of 2.8 years of education for

This report identifies the key drivers
of rapid poverty reduction in Bhutan over the recent years,
explaining why some dzongkhags are stuck in poverty or
reducing poverty is not significant while others prospered,
and whether female headed households have a harder time
reducing poverty. The exercise draws mainly on data from the
two rounds of Bhutan Living Standards Survey (2007 and 2012)
supplemented with focus group discussions carried out for

Since economic liberalization in the
early 1990s, India has experienced high economic growth and
made considerable progress in gender equality in areas such
as primary education. However, it fared poorly on
gender-parity in labor force participation (LFP). During the
period between 1993-94 and 2011-12, female labor force
participation rate (LFPR) remained consistently low as
compared to male participation. More alarming is the fact