The paper estimates the effects on
presidential election returns in Mexico of a government
climatic contingency transfer that is allocated through
rainfall-indexed insurance. The analysis uses the
discontinuity in payments that slightly deviate from a
pre-established threshold, based on rainfall accumulation
measured at local weather stations. It turns out that
voters reward the incumbent presidential party for

Climate change presents significant
threats to sustainable poverty reduction in Tajikistan. The
primary impacts on rural livelihoods are expected to stem
from reduced water quantity and quality (affecting
agriculture), and increased frequency and severity of
disasters. Options for farming households to autonomously
adapt (and thereby move from climate vulnerability to
resilience) include adoption of on-farm and off-farm

A disproportionately large number of
Roma in Europe today face deep poverty, social exclusion,
and poor living conditions. Improving these is critical to
achieving the targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the
European Union s 10-year growth strategy, which aims to
reduce poverty, social exclusion, early school leaving, and
increase school attainment and employment by 2020. The EU
Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) up

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 paper is part of a larger effort to
document, assess, and promote scalable models and approaches
to empower poor communities to manage a climate and disaster
risk agenda in support of their development goals and to
identify practical ways of getting climate and disaster risk
financing directly to the ground level where impacts are
felt. Social funds, social protection systems and safety
nets, community-driven development (CDD) projects,

Myanmar is an agricultural country. It
is estimated that the agriculture sector represents between
35 to 40 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and that up
to 70 percent of the labor force (of 32.5 million) is
directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural activities or
depend on agriculture for their income. Given
agriculture's important contribution to the economy,
the modernization of the agriculture sector is a top

While the real sector and governments
(along with a few micro economists) have long recognized the
core economic role that the insurance function plays, the
mainstream economics profession has largely treated it as
invisible background. This literature review of the relevant
research, most of which has been carried out in the past few
decades, demonstrates that the insurance sector contributes
at a basic level to inclusive economic growth and the

Within the next two decades Indonesia
aspires to generate prosperity, avoid a middle-income trap
and leave no one behind as it tries to catch up with
high-income economies. These are ambitious goals. Realizing
them requires sustained high growth and job creation, as
well as reduced inequality. Can Indonesia achieve them? This
report argues that the country has the potential to rise and
become more prosperous and equitable. But the risk of

The World Bank Group (WBG) has a long
experience in engaging in biodiversity with world-class
expertise in the field. It has been the single largest
funder of biodiversity investments since the late 1980s. The
WBG investments have largely been of two kinds: (1)
investments in biodiversity, aimed at the conservation and
sustainable use of species, habitats, and ecosystems that
sustain healthy ecosystems, while enhancing people's

Section one of the papers provides a
brief overview of the relationship between the Sahel region
of Africa and climate variability trends and predictions,
ultimately posing the primary research question of the
study: Is the Sahel region more likely to have a higher
probability of conflict and migration as a result of climate
change and climate change-related events? In section two,
research and analysis aim to identify causal paths between

Urbanization is the single most
important transformation that the African continent will
undergo this century. More than half of Africa's
population will live in its cities by 2040. In the face of
rapid urbanization, there is a narrow window of opportunity
to harness the potential of cities as engines of economic
growth, and use this as a powerful leverage to achieve
sustainable development and poverty reduction. Despite its

This report presents the World Bank
Group's experience in climate and disaster resilient
development and contends that it is essential to eliminate
extreme poverty and achieve shared prosperity by 2030. The
report argues for closer collaboration between the climate
resilience and disaster risk management communities through
the incorporation of climate and disaster resilience into
broader development processes. Selected case studies are