This policy note, Environmental
Management for a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy
for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, investigates six environmental
management topics which will affect the capacity of the
province to develop the economy and need to be underpinned
by strong environmental and natural resource management. The
six topics cover: agriculture, forestry, fisheries, land and
water, environmental law and regulations, and spatial

Belarus has a large and extensive social
protection system (SP) covering a significant share of the
population. Belarus has adopted a single methodology for
calculating income to target Public Targeted Social
Assistance (GASP). This methodology also is used when
testing an applicant's income/means for some of the
child benefits. To reduce the leakage of benefits to the
non-poor while expanding GASP, this note assesses the

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
is the third most populous county in Sub Saharan Africa and
has many natural advantages that would enable it to
experience rapid sustained economic growth and rapid poverty
alleviation. These include rich and diverse natural
resources, such as mining and hydroelectric potential,
abundant fertile land, and a large domestic market. The
country is emerging from conflict and democratic election,

This study, the first to concentrate on
Bangladesh's energy systems and their effects on the
lives of rural people, drew on these background studies, as
well as other World Bank-financed research on IAP and rural
infrastructure, to present a rural energy strategy for the
country. The study's broad aim was to identify ways to
improve the living standard in rural Bangladesh through
better and more efficient use of energy, while creating an

The newly elected government takes
office at a time of stark economic challenges. The outfall
of the global economic crisis threatens to undo many of the
achievements of the recent past, derail convergence with the
European Union (EU), and heighten social vulnerability. The
election of a strong government offers a timely opportunity
to restore and broaden the economic reform agenda which had
been initiated before EU accession and but lost some

This policy note assesses the potential
of foreign direct investment (FDI) to diversify Lesotho s
exports. Lesotho must preserve capacity to produce more and
better goods, seek new markets, preserve existing
manufacturing jobs, undertake structural and institutional
reforms, and take advantage of its location inside South
Africa. Given the low savings in the country, as well as
major fiscal challenges arising from declines in SACU

The dramatic increases in world food and
fuel prices during 2007 and early 2008 may set back
Mozambique's considerable advances in poverty reduction
during the past decade. This study assesses the impact of
higher fuel and food prices at both household and
macroeconomic levels, and also considers policy options to
mitigate some of the negative impacts of higher prices.
Rising world prices certainly represents a negative

The present study examines the
challenges facing municipal governments in FYR Macedonia.
The introductory chapter provides some further context for
these developments, in terms of the challenges they pose
for urban areas and their governments. Chapter Two examines
issues for financial management of municipalities under the
decentralized regime, and the attendant need for improving
local government capacity. The third chapter highlights

This study analyzes the complicated and
dynamic nature of welfare differences across space. The
objectives are two-fold. First, the study seeks to provide a
methodological framework useful for investigating the
determinants of the observed differences in the standards of
living between two regions at a given point in time. Second,
it aims to provide empirical evidence on regional welfare
differences to inform the policy debate surrounding regional

This assessment of poverty and
inequality comes at an important juncture for Kenya. The
December 2007 elections and subsequent pronouncements of the
newly formed Grand Coalition have underlined the salience of
these issues to ordinary Kenyans, and for policy makers. The
violence in early 2008 highlighted the importance of
addressing poverty and inequality as major goals in their
own right, but also for instrumental reasons, as major goals

The relationship between wealth and
child labor has been widely examined. This paper uses three
rounds of time-series, cross-sectional data to examine the
relationship between wealth and child labor and schooling.
The paper finds that wealth is crucial in determining a
child's activities, but that this factor is far from
being a sufficient condition to enroll a child in school.
This is particularly the case for rural girls. Nonparametric

Although there has been considerable
recent interest in micro-credit programs, rigorous evidence
on the impacts of forming self-help groups to mobilize
savings and foster social empowerment at the local level is
virtually non-existent, despite a large number of programs
following this pattern. The authors use a large household
survey to assess the economic and social impacts of the
formation of self-help groups in India. They find positive