This staff sector assessment note
accompanies the recently completed national environmental
action plan for sustainable development (NEAP-SD), which, as
an output of the Industrial Pollution Control Project in
Algeria, focused on charting a new course for environmental
management in the country, based on an objective assessment
of past policy, and institutional failures, on a new
consensus on the need for mainstreaming the environment into

The report argues that Nicaragua's
best hope for sustained growth, and poverty reduction,
probably lies with agricultural exports, which have the
potential to gain from opportunities in world markets.
Despite the small share of farmland devoted to the
production of exports (25 percent of harvested area), the
total trade of agricultural goods (including the value of
both imports, and exports) accounted for almost eighty five

The major constraints to RNF growth,
according to a large survey of rural entrepreneurs,'
include (1) flood and natural disasters; (2) access to
electricity; (3) road conditions, (4) access to finance and
(5) transportation to markets. Bangladesh's
vulnerability to frequent floods and other natural disasters
severely hampers operations of more than a third of rural
firms. The next most important constraint to RNF growth is

This review systematically assesses the
focus of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) on
environment-related issues. A total of 40 Interim and full
PRSPs from countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern
Europe, the Middle East, Central and East Asia are reviewed.
Four major questions: are posed: (i) What issues of
environmental concerns and opportunities are identified in
the PRSPs?; (ii) To what extent are poverty-environment

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Bank introduced the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP) process in 1999 to strengthen the poverty
alleviation focus of their assistance to low-income
countries. At the IMF, the introduction of the PRSP was
accompanied by the transformation of the Enhanced Structural
Adjustment Facility (ESAF), the concessional lending window,
into the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), with

The asset-based approach considers links between households' productive, social, and locational assets; the policy, institutional, and risk context; household behavior as expressed in livelihood strategies; and well-being outcomes. For sustainable poverty reducing growth, it is critical to examine household asset portfolios and understand how assets interact with the context to influence the selection of livelihood strategies, which in turn determine well-being. Policy reforms can change the context and income-generating potential of assets.

Since its recovery of macroeconomic
stability in 1991, the Dominican Republic has experienced a
period of notable economic growth. Poverty has declined in
the 1990s. Nevertheless, a segment of the population-mainly
in rural areas-does not seem to have benefited from this
growth. Poverty in this country in 1998 is less than that of
other countries if one adjusts for the level of economic
development. The principal poverty characteristics are the

The study examines Bangladesh's
extreme vulnerability to climate change, whose low-lying
topography, and funnel-shaped coast, further exposes the
land to cyclones, and tidal surges, resulting in seasonal
floods. These factors, and the large population base,
widespread poverty, aggravated by the lack of strong
institutional development, makes the country particularly
vulnerable to climate variability. Various climatic factors,

Environmental degradation can inflict
serious damage on poor people because their livelihoods
often depend on natural resource use and their living
conditions may offer little protection from air, water, and
soil pollution. At the same time, poverty-constrained
options may induce the poor to deplete resources and degrade
the environment at rates that are incompatible with
long-term sustainability. In such cases, degraded resources

The main objective of the study is to
provide the Government of Senegal the analyses and
information to implement policies towards reducing the rural
poor's vulnerability. While during the latest years,
economic growth reduced poverty in the country, this has
been less noticeable among the rural population, who
actually account for 6 million people over a total
population of 10 million. The rural economy remains

This environment strategy outlines the
current thinking in the World Bank Group Africa Region about
priorities and actions for the institution in the
environmental arena. The Africa Region Environment Strategy
(ARES) outlines the Bank's commitment to help its
clients achieve sustainable poverty reduction through better
environmental management. It identifies the most urgent
issues at the interface of environment and poverty and

This book presents papers on several
events organized by the World Bank's Disaster
Management Fund (DMF). The DMF's objectives are to help
the Bank provide a more strategic and rapid response to
disaster emergencies and to integrate disaster prevention
and mitigation measures in all Bank activities. Part I of
this book on risk identification contains chapters on the
economic impacts on natural disasters in developing