A pattern of forest area loss followed
by a period of reforestation is representative of the forest
transition process. Forest transition has been observed in
many countries and is a feature of the development process.
China reached its inflection point earlier and faster than
most other countries that have gone through the transition.
The report describes the success of reforms to forest
resource tenure in collective forest areas. These reforms,

The study presents an analysis of the
situation of the Pygmies in Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), including their history and relations with the other,
mainly Bantu, populations. It provides a brief description
of their lifestyle, their socioeconomic status, and a
participatory diagnosis of the key factors that lead to
their current impoverishment and marginalization. The study
discusses the rationale for protecting Pygmy culture and

The sustainable development of ger areas
in Ulaanbaatar (UB), the capital city of Mongolia, is one of
the critical development issues facing the country. The
transitions to a market economy and a series of severe
winters (called zud) have resulted in the large-scale
migration of low-income families into the ger areas of UB.
The city represents 40 percent of the nation's
population and generates more than 60 percent of

This study examines the constraints on
the housing sector in Afghanistan. It evaluates government
policy on housing, looks at the state of housing finance,
and examines legal and regulatory barriers with a bearing on
the housing market. The report provides policy
recommendations aimed at helping to develop a private-sector
led housing market. To assist in formulating policies and
implementing actions, the study recommends forming a housing

First tested in Mexico in 2003, and most
recently applied in 2009 in Argentina, the World Bank has
developed a model to incorporate gender equity into private
sector organizations while simultaneously enhancing their
business. Under the model, participating organizations
conduct a self-diagnosis to identify gender biases and gaps
in the operations. This baseline is then used to create and
subsequently implement an action plan to address these

This report presents the outcomes of the
functional review of Romania's agricultural
administration. Given the sectoral and territorial relevance
of its regulatory domain, Romania s Agricultural and Rural
Development Administration is a key administrative body
undergoing this Functional Review. The review will examine
whether the policy goals and objectives of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) and its agencies

The Government of Cameroon has declared
poverty reduction through strong and sustainable economic
growth the central objective of its socioeconomic policy.
This paper uses available household survey data to assess
the performance of the economy with respect to this
objective over the period 1996-2007. The authors use
counterfactual decompositions based on both the Shapley
method and the generalized Oaxaca-Blinder framework to

Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in
India, has 170 million inhabitants who represent 16.2
percent of India's population. Uttar Pradesh (UP) is
classified as one of the 'lagging states of India'
for its slow growth, low human development indicators and
high concentration of the poor. UP occupies an important
position in India because of its size and as a determinant
of the country's overall progress. UP has continuously

The consensus among scholars and
policymakers that "institutions matter" for
development has led inexorably to a conclusion that
"history matters," since institutions clearly form
and evolve over time. Unfortunately, however, the next
logical step has not yet been taken, which is to recognize
that historians (and not only economic historians) might
also have useful and distinctive insights to offer. This

Agriculture sector growth has made a
powerful contribution to post-war economic recovery in
Tajikistan, accounting for approximately one third of
overall economic growth from 1998 to 2004. Sector output
increased by 65 percent in real terms during this period,
and has now returned to the level extant at independence in
1990. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) has also increased, by
3 percent per year. Despite this progress, there is

This paper presents counterfactual
decompositions based on both the Shapley method and a
generalization of the Oaxaca-Blinder approach to identify
proximate factors that might explain differences in the
distribution of economic welfare in Cameroon in 1996-2007.
In particular, the analysis uses re-centered influence
function regressions to link the growth incidence curve for
2001-2007 to household characteristics and account for

The last two decades have witnessed a
growing recognition of the importance of taking cultural and
ethnic diversity into consideration when designing and
implementing development programs. As societies around the
world have become more culturally diverse, and the role
culture plays in the formation of identity has become better
understood, governments are beginning to pay greater
attention to the management of cultural diversity and are