The largest hydrographic basin in the
world, the Amazon is the source of 20 percent of all the
fresh water on the planet. The Basin covers some 600 million
hectares in nine countries, over half of which are located
within Brazil's national boundaries. A striking
characteristic of the Amazon region is its tremendous
biodiversity, which includes an estimated 50,000 species of
plants, 3,000 species of fish and over 400 known species of

the authors examine how economic activity and market participation are distributed across space. Applying a nonparametric von Thunen model to Nepalese data, the authors uncover a strong spatial division of labor. Nonfarm employment is concentrated in and around cities, while agricultural wage employment dominates villages located further away. Vegetables are produced near urban centers. Paddy and commercial crops are more important at intermediate distances. Isolated villages revert to self-subsistence.

The objective of this book is to provide
detailed advice on how to design multi-topic household
surveys based on the experience of past household surveys.
The book will help identify define objectives, identify data
needed to analyze objectives, and draft questionnaires to
collect such data. Much of the book is based on the
experience of the World Bank's Living Standard's
Measurement Study (LSMS) program, established in 1980 to

The Africa Gas Initiative (AGI) has been
established by the Oil and Gas Division of the World Bank,
to promote the utilization of natural gas in Sub-Saharan
Africa. The study focuses on coastal countries - Angola,
Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gabon - along the
West African coastline, and the Gulf of Guinea, where most
of the region's gas reserves are located, and where
significant proportions of the gas produced, is being wasted

The review focuses on development and
the environment in Yemen, particularly analyzing the
environment resource base, where renewable fresh water is
scarce, mainly ground water, and its over exploitation is
one of the country's major environmental problems.
Fisheries resources are also important, while oil and gas
are significant resources contributing to some eighty five
percent of Yemen's export revenues. Environmental

This report addresses the role public
expenditure can play in the alleviation of poverty in the
Brazilian northeast, involving both regional growth, and
social services. Notwithstanding relatively high growth in
the past two years, the northeast lags behind the rest of
the country, with a per capita GDP just under sixty percent
of the country's GDP, with no significant variations
since 1965. Based on national statistical data, the study

Are the household characteristics that
are good for transition to a more diversified
market-oriented development process in Vietnam also
important for reducing poverty? Or are there tradeoffs? The
determinants of both poverty incidence and participation in
rural off-farm activities are modeled as functions of
household and community characteristics using comprehensive
national household surveys for 1993 and 1998. Despite some

The objective of this paper is to
examine the challenges in the water sector faced by Armenia
today, and outline options for management and allocation of
its water resources in the future, considering the need for
a stable, transparent apublic sector management framework
and sustainable resource use for long-term private
investment and job creation, and for appropriate balances
among water uses for domestic, industrial, agriculture,

This report focuses on understanding key
issues related to poverty, vulnerability and social policy
in the context of a changing Uruguayan economy. Because the
country is highly urbanized (90 percent), and data on rural
areas are scant, most of the analysis in this study focuses
on urban areas. Chapter 1 presents a profile of poverty and
its trends in the nineties using household survey data.
Chapter 2 looks at changes in the structure of the economy

Using panel data from a unique survey of
public primary schools in Uganda, The authors assess the
degree of leakage of public funds in education. The survey
data reveal that on average during 1991-95 schools received
only 13 percent of the central government's allocation
for the schools' nonwage expenditures. Most of the
allocated funds were used by public officials for purposes
unrelated to education or captured for private gain

The intensive development of tourism in
the Gulf of Aqaba presents both an opportunity and a dilemma
for Egypt. Intensive tourism, if left unmanaged, can inflict
irreversible damage on coral reef and desert ecosystems and
curtail the area's economic potential. Together with
current projections for a rapid expansion of the tourism
base in the Aqaba coast, degradation from mounting
recreational activities give rise to serious concerns about

This is the sixth issue of the
"Thailand Social Monitor." It is written for Thai
policymakers, to provide them with the best evidence
currently available on poverty and public policy, and to
strengthen the foundation for anti-poverty strategies in
Thailand. This report approaches Poverty in Thailand from
four perspectives: 1) the changing profile of the poor, who
they are, where they live, their defining characteristics,