Infrastructure development has made a
major contribution to East Asia's enviable record on
growth and poverty reduction. However, substantial new
investments in infrastructure and service delivery
improvements will be required to sustain progress in the
future, and to address new challenges posed by urbanization,
decentralization, and regional integration. At the same
time, questions have often been raised about the impact of

Reliable supplies of water for
agriculture have helped meet rapidly rising demand for food
in developing countries, making farms more profitable,
reducing poverty, and helping vast regions of the world
develop more dynamic and diversified economies. Can these
successes be sustained with demand for food rising and water
resources waning? That is the challenge now facing policy
makers, planners, and practitioners in agricultural water

This is a draft edition of the Poverty Environment Nexus (PEN) report for Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. The purpose of this conference edition is to present the findings from the studies that have been undertaken in each country over the last three years as well as to obtain relevant comments and feedback from the conference participants that could be included in the final edition of the report. The material presented in this report is based upon comprehensive case studies as well as national analytical work performed in each country.

The World Bank's revised forest
policy came into being in 2002 and covers all types of
forests. It has the following key objectives: (i) harnessing
the potential of forests to reduce poverty in a sustainable
manner; (ii) integrating forests effectively into
sustainable development; and (iii) protecting vital local
and global environmental services and values. The policy
enables the bank to fully engage in forestry throughout the

With three quarters of its population
living in cities, Latin America is now essentially an urban
region. Higher urbanization is usually associated with a
number of positives, such as higher income, greater access
to services, and lower poverty incidence, and, Latin America
is no exception. Today, urban poverty incidence, at 28
percent, is half that of in rural areas; extreme poverty, at
12 percent, is a third. Despite this relatively low poverty

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
are a challenge the global community has set for itself.
They are a challenge to poor countries to demonstrate good
governance and a commitment to poverty reduction. And they
are a challenge to wealthy countries to make good on their
promise to support economic and social development. The MDGs
have captured the world's attention, in part because
they can be measured, as this little book demonstrates. More

This report studies the impact that gender differences in Bangladesh have on access to energy and energy services and the consequences of these impacts based on review of recent literature on the matter. The report concludes that the structural gender differences that arise from cultural and religious norms can lead to various impacts in access to energy services which in turn can have long term consequences on women and all these factors must be considered while designing rural energy- gender projects.

The purpose of this paper is to assess
the World Bank's recent relations with civil society
organizations (CSOs), that is, nongovernmental organizations
and not-for-profit organizations, and to propose options for
promoting more effective civic engagement in Bank-supported
activities and managing associated risks in the future. The
analysis in this paper points to four main issues and
challenges for the Bank as it seeks to achieve more

Agricultural water management is a vital
practice in ensuring reduction, and environmental
protection. After decades of successfully expanding
irrigation and improving productivity, farmers and managers
face an emerging crisis in the form of poorly performing
irrigation schemes, slow modernization, declining
investment, constrained water availability, and
environmental degradation. More and better investments in

This regional study encompasses three
Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
Honduras. The focus of this report is Honduras. The
objective of the study is to understand how broad-based
economic growth can be stimulated and sustained in rural
Central America. The study identifies "drivers" of
sustainable rural growth and poverty reduction. Drivers are
defined as the assets and combinations of assets needed by

The objective of this paper is to: (a) review World Bank's pest management activities during 1999-2004; (b) assess those in view of the changes in the external and internal contexts; (c) identify appropriate opportunities of engagement on pest and pesticide issues; and (d) suggest means to further promote sound pest management in the World Bank operations. The importance of sound pest management for sustainable agricultural production is being recognized by many developing countries.

This paper addresses labor markets in
Haiti, including farm and nonfarm employment and income
generation. The analyses are based on the first Living
Conditions Survey of 7,186 households covering the whole
country and representative at the regional level. The
findings suggest that four key determinants of employment
and productivity in nonfarm activities are education,
gender, location, and migration status. This is emphasized