Afghanistan is a deeply fragile and
conflict affected state. It has been in almost constant
conflict for over 35 years since the Soviet invasion of
1979. Today the country is at a crossroads in its
development with economic growth down sharply and poverty
incidence stubbornly high. Afghanistan faces tremendous
development challenges. Gross domestic product (GDP)
per-capita is among the lowest in the world, poverty is deep

Countries everywhere are divided into
two distinct spatial realms: one urban, one rural. Classic
models of development predict faster growth in the urban
sector, causing rapid migration from rural areas to cities,
lifting average incomes in both places. The process
continues until the marginal productivity of labor is
equalized across the two realms. The pattern of rising
urbanization accompanying economic growth has become one of

This study explores the changing
opportunities for children in Africa. While the definition
of opportunities can be subjective and depend on the
societal context, this report focuses on efforts to build
future human capital, directly (through education and health
investments) and indirectly (through complementary
infrastructure such as safe water, adequate sanitation,
electricity, and so on). It follows the practice of earlier

Launched in 2011, the Second Sustainable
and Participatory Energy Management Project (PROGEDE II) for
Senegal has been hailed for effectively mainstreaming a
gender perspective into an energy project. Under the
project, women have participated more in decision making;
developed skills in technical production, entrepreneurship,
and organizational management; and benefitted from increased incomes.

This paper aims to contribute to
learning on community engagement and community driven
development (CDD) in urban areas. Specifically, the review
describes the World Bank’s use of participatory and CDD
approaches in urban areas between 2003 and 2013; identifies
the challenges of using participatory and CDD approaches in
the urban context; assesses lessons from the application of
CDD in urban areas through case studies; and makes

Over the past two decades,
community-based approaches to project delivery have become a
popular means for governments and development agencies to
improve the alignment of projects with the needs of rural
communities and increase the participation of villagers in
project design and implementation. This paper briefly
summarizes the results of an impact evaluation of the
National Solidarity Program, a community-driven development

This report is based on a field study of
two large settlements, Satghara (a census town) and
Bhagwatipur (a rural cluster with 10,000 plus population) in
the Madhubani district of Bihar. The study explores the
social dynamics of the rural non-farm economy by empirically
mapping non-farm occupations in both the settlements. It
examines the dynamics of caste, community, and gender within
the social organization of the non-farm economy in terms of

This report summarizes the key themes
and findings from three in-depth case studies of EET
programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique. Each case study
produced rich information on the programs context, the
landscape of programs in each country, and the qualitative
insights from local EET stakeholders. This report
synthesizes information from across the case studies to
analyze the extent to which these countries programs are

The contribution of women to labor in
African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60
to 80 percent. Using individual-disaggregated, plot-level
labor input data from nationally representative household
surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study
estimates the average female labor share in crop production
at 40 percent. It is slightly above 50 percent in Malawi,
Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37

This report presents a brief discussion
of indigenous peoples’ development as evidenced in a select
number of case studies about World Bank financed projects
that had a positive impact on indigenous peoples’
communities. The main objective of this study is to identify
and document good practices and lessons learned that can be
shared with World Bank staff, borrower governments, and
Indigenous Peoples’ organizations to help improve the design

In 2012 Papua New Guinea undertook a
national Service Delivery Assessment of rural water, rural
sanitation, urban water and urban sanitation services to
identify coverage and targets, how well services are being
delivered and the financing shortfalls in these subsectors.
Immediately following this assessment, stakeholders, through
a national policy task force, have developed a draft of the
country s first National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

The paper investigates determinants of
civic participation in local budget processes in rural areas
in the Kyrgyz Republic by using data from the Life in
Kyrgyzstan survey, conducted in 2012. The analysis of the
data suggests that although civic awareness and interest in
local budget processes is relatively high, the participation
rate in local budgeting processes is low. The paper also
shows that interest, awareness, and participation are