Country Assistance Strategies (CASs)
have been periodically reviewed from a variety of different
perspectives. This review assesses how environment is
integrated in CASs for 2005 and also compares the progress
made by 37 countries over the period of 1999-2005. Five
themes are used to assess the 23 CASs across an established
methodology also used in previous reviews. The five themes
are: issues identification, treatment, mainstreaming,

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

This paper analyzes the available
literature about the effects of structural adjustment
programs (SAPs) on the environment and the convincing
evidence for their success or failure. The studies covered
refer to the SAPs by the World Bank as well as to general
government programs that have similar policy implications.
SAPs are designed to reform economies to become more
liberalized and export-oriented while reducing the role of

Bringing the United States and major
developing countries to control their greenhouse gas
emissions will be the key challenge for the international
climate regime beyond the Kyoto Protocol. But in the current
quantity-based coordination, large uncertainties surrounding
future emissions and future abatement opportunities make the
costs of any commitment very difficult to assess ex ante,
hence a strong risk that the negotiation will be stalled.

Logistics is the backbone of industry
and commerce. As a discipline, it describes the management
and coordination of activities along supply chains. These
activities include freight transport, storage, inventory
management, materials handling and related information
processing. A large part of logistics activities are often
outsourced to specialized providers that provide
cost-effective services. Research has shown that, at least

This report summarizes the findings of a
long and meticulous journey of data gathering and analysis
to quantify the health losses from road deaths and injuries
worldwide, as part of the path-finding Global Burden of
Disease (GBD) study. It is important, first, to acknowledge
the profound contribution made by the lead authors and
global team of injury prevention professionals to estimate
the disease burden of road trauma, before absorbing their

Urbanization is undoubtedly a key driver
of development - cities provide the national platform for
prosperity, job creation, and poverty reduction. But
urbanization also poses enormous challenges that one is
familiar with: congestion, air pollution, social divisions,
crime, the breakdown of public services and infrastructure,
and the slums that one billion urban resident's call
home. Urbanization is perhaps the single most important

The Multi Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias
(MDF) and the Java Reconstruction Fund (JRF) have played
significant roles in the remarkable recovery of Aceh, Nias
and Java, following some of the worst disasters in Indonesia
in recent years. The MDF and the JRF, which is patterned
after it, are each considered a highly successful model for
post-disaster reconstruction. This paper discusses the value
of a phased approach to post-disaster reconstruction as a

Indonesia's Program Nasional
Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM) is the largest Community
Driven Development (CDD) program in the world covering all
urban wards (PNPM-Urban) and rural villages (PNPM-Rural) in
Indonesia. This policy note summarizes a comprehensive
process evaluation of the PNPM-Urban program which has been
carried by the Research and Development (RAND) corporation
in collaboration with survey meter, as well as a rapid

Pakistan experienced severe flooding
after torrential monsoon rains hit southern Sindh and the
adjoining areas of Punjab and north-eastern Balochistan in
August 2011. Flash floods triggered by the monsoon rain
caused severe damage to infrastructure in the affected
areas. Entire villages and urban centers have been flooded,
homes have been destroyed, and over a million acres of crops
and agricultural lands have been damaged. A Damage and Needs

This document aims to provide background
information and motivation regarding bioenergy's role
in promoting sustainable rural development. It discusses
ways to support the implementation of bioenergy through
policies, including those that can mobilize private sector
activity. Volume I, the main report provides an overview of
implementation issues for bioenergy projects and programs;
Volume II provides technical information regarding biomass

Renewable energy (RE) resources have
been attracting growing interest in both the industrialized
and the developing world in the last five to eight years.
The main drivers for this interest and accelerated activity
have been the expected strong demand for energy in the
developing world and environmental concerns, particularly of
the risk of drastic climate change as a result of the
increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the