Over 70 percent of the farm workers in
Tajikistan are women. Most face difficult working conditions
and are paid in agricultural outputs such as oil, rather
than in cash. When the South Tajikistan Cotton Lending
Project started in early 2007, IFC and its donor, the
Canadian International Development Agency, decided to
develop a Gender Equality Plan to address gender issues a
high priority for both organizations. The challenge was to

This country program evaluation (CPE)
assesses the outcomes of the World Bank Group (WBG) program
in Timor-Leste during the review period (2000 to 2010). The
WBG’s strategy during this period was to support the
government of the nascent country in three broad areas: (a)
poverty alleviation and the provision of basic social
services, including health and education; (b) development of
state institutions, including creating good governance and

This report evaluates International
Development Association (IDA) support to Nepal during
2003-2008. IDA’s overarching goal during this period was to
support the Government’s efforts to reduce poverty and
improve human well-being. IDA focused on helping to foster
broad-based growth, social development, social inclusion,
and good governance. The evaluation highlights the need to
introduce greater realism into the country assistance

This research report examines the
technical efficiency and impact of the Zambia Fertilizer
Support Program (FSP). The FSP was launched by the
Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) in 2002 as a
temporary measure to provide subsidized hybrid maize seed
and fertilizer packages to smallholder farmers and to
promote the participation of private traders in supply. When
the FSP was announced, the Government indicated that farmers

Lessons from six case studies illustrate
the complex relationships between international trade,
vulnerable ecologies and the poor. The studies, taken from
Africa, Asia and Latin America and conducted by local
researchers, are set in places where the poor live in close
proximity to ecologies that are important to global
conservation efforts, and focus on the cascading
consequences of trade policy for local livelihoods and

This paper was based on a desk review of
the literature relating to best practice in public policy
supporting business incubation, supplemented by four
national case studies covering Brazil, Ma-laysia, New
Zealand and South Africa. These country studies were
prepared through engage-ment of stakeholders, site visits
and other sources of primary and secondary information
collection. In the context of the study, we focused on best

Since the cessation of conflict,
Mozambique has achieved impressive economic growth and has
become an example of successful post conflict reconstruction
and development, moving from a one-party state to a
multiparty democracy and from a socialist, command economy
to a market-based economy. Mozambique’s development has been
strongly supported by foreign aid, and since 2001 average
annual disbursements of official development assistance

Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank Group President, addresses the
biggest threat to the poor around the world: high and
volatile food prices. The Bank released an updated Food Price Watch
that underscores the need for the G20 to put food
first. The key driver behind the upward spiral in the food
price index has been sharp rises in the prices of wheat,
maize, sugar, and oils. He discusses the global food
price hikes which have pushed about 44 million people into

Malawi sits amid a vibrant Travel and
Tourism (T&T) region that is growing rapidly and
increasing its world market share. Proximate to countries
with thriving T&T sectors, Malawi has a relatively
underdeveloped diversity of natural, cultural, and man-made
attractions. It is challenged to embrace effective policies
that will enable public and private sector alignment to
achieve a viable niche as an economically productive, multi

Under the Vanuatu constitution, the
'rules of custom shall form the basis of ownership and
use of land.' Implementing this principle after decades
of land alienation, however, has proved to be challenging.
While the leasing arrangement was originally intended to
restore investor confidence and maintain agricultural
development in newly independent Vanuatu, it soon evolved
into the method of acquiring new leases over previously

The World Bank's Communication for
Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP) has spent
several years exploring the linkages between the media and
governance reform. The first stage of this process produced
public sentinel: news media and governance reform, an edited
volume that explored key issues surrounding the role of the
media in democratic governance and the policy interventions
that might enable this role. This how-to guide represents

Under the Kyoto Protocol to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the
industrialized countries adopted quantified emission
reductions obligations. Marking the 10th anniversary of the
establishment of the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF)
the world's first global carbon fund, this report seeks
to take stock of the World Bank's experience of working
with the Kyoto Protocol's project-based mechanisms over