Policies on municipal actions to promote
local competitiveness have typically focused in three areas:
i) providing infrastructure (transportation,
telecommunications, water & sanitation, etc.); ii)
improving public services (education, health, public
security, housing, etc.); and iii) reducing the cost of
doing business by simplifying regulations (making it easier
to open businesses, pay taxes, hire workers, acquire land,

The acquisition of land by foreigners in developing countries has emerged as a key mechanism for foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI is defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the category of international investment that reflects the objective of a resident entity in one economy to obtain a lasting interest in an enterprise resident in another economy.

This report is about how to
progressively reduce over time Afghanistan's dependence
on opium - currently the country's leading economic
activity - by development initiatives and shifting economic
incentives toward sustainable legal livelihoods.
Specifically, the report identifies additional investments
and policy and institutional measures to support development
responses that can counterbalance the economic advantages of

The objective of this study is to
accompany Malagasy authorities in their transition towards
economic emergence. If the contribution of foreign capital
and the abundance of natural resources should help the
Malagasy economy escape from the poverty trap by increasing
its domestic savings and investment capacities, as well as
its technological capacities. International experience
reminds us that this transition is far from being automatic.

The objective of this study is to
accompany Malagasy authorities in their transition towards
economic emergence. If the contribution of foreign capital
and the abundance of natural resources should help the
Malagasy economy escape from the poverty trap by increasing
its domestic savings and investment capacities, as well as
its technological capacities. International experience
reminds us that this transition is far from being automatic.

This Country Economic Memorandum (CEM),
prepared in collaboration with the Turkish authorities,
summarizes recent accomplishments in achieving high growth
and analyzes remaining public policy challenges and options
available to the authorities to meet these challenges. The
country seeks to double the nominal per capita income of its
population by 2013. It wants this rapid growth to be
inclusive of all segments of society, regions, and economic

In 2006 most of the people of Uganda,
with the notable exception of those in the conflict-blighted
Northern Region, enjoy a better quality of life and brighter
opportunities in a stable and growing economy. Uganda's
economy has bounced back beyond what could be regarded as
recovery, with real incomes per person now exceeding the
levels reached at Independence in 1962. The report structure
is as follows: volume one synthesizes the conclusions from

Despite significant changes in poverty
overall in Latin America, the proportion of indigenous
peoples living in poverty did not change much from the early
1990s to the present. While earlier work focused on human
development, much less has been done on the distribution and
returns to income-generating assets and the effect these
have on income generation strategies. The authors show that
low income and low assets are mutually reinforcing. For

Drawing on an integrated mixed methods
research design, the authors explore the dynamics of the
development-conflict nexus in rural Indonesia, and the
specific role of development projects in shaping the nature,
extent, and trajectories of "everyday" conflicts.
They find that projects that give inadequate attention to
dispute resolution mechanisms in many cases stimulate local
conflict, either through the injection of development

In considering the contribution that Rural Local Institutions (RLIs) can make to Sustainable Livelihoods (SLs), authors bring together two important concerns that emerged among development practitioners in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively. RLIs are important for addressing and mitigating factors of insecurity and instability, dealing in particular with various aspects of vulnerability. RLIs can also support participation (voice), conflict mitigation (peace), and external linkage (market expansion).

Recovering from three decades of conflict, over this last decade, Cambodia has undergone dramatic economic, political, and social transitions. Cambodia experienced rapid institutional changes as it restored peace, moved from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy, and moved from isolation to regional and global integration. Cambodia has achieved political and macroeconomic stability, and has initiated key structural reforms. Nevertheless, Cambodia's economy remains vulnerable, and economic growth has not translated into widespread poverty reduction.

Slum upgrading programs are being used by national and city governments in many countries to improve the welfare of households living in slum and squatter settlements. These programs typically include a combination of improvements in neighborhood infrastructure, land tenure, and building quality. In this paper, the authors develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to compare the effectiveness of alternative slum upgrading instruments in a second-best setting with distortions in the land and credit markets.