The demand for verifiable evidence of
results and impacts of development agricultural programs and
projects is growing. However, most of the indicators that
development practitioners have traditionally used in
tracking progress toward achieving projects' objectives
focus on the workings of the development operation itself.
These performance indicators relate mainly to lower-level
inputs and outputs and are used to populate management

This note deals with the extent to
which, and the means by which, project level distributional
analysis of benefits can be undertaken and how poverty
impact indicators can be developed. Section 1 sets out the
issues associated with using traditional cost benefit
analysis for the appraisal of pro-poor projects. Section 2
discusses the techniques and analysis available to consider
the distributional consequences of a transport change,

Poverty and economic stagnation
characterize most rural areas in Peru. National growth has
been slow and uneven since the mid-1970s, benefiting urban
areas rather than rural ones. Between 1985 and 2000, the
number of poor people increased by 71 percent. The incidence
of poverty (67 percent) and extreme poverty (40 percent) is
highest in rural areas, reaching 73 percent (poverty) and 41
percent (extreme poverty) in the sierra. This means that 4.2

The note aims to prompt policy makers,
and development managers to reassess, and give more weight
to neglected production, and consumption of traditional
vegetables, so as to enhance nutrition, income generation,
and food security for small scale households. Though the
views expressed herewith are the results of interviews in
several African countries, it focuses mainly on the Uganda
situation. The contribution of indigenous vegetables to

In Uganda, efforts to decentralize the
management of the extension service and to launch the
village participation in land development exercise have led
to a number of issues, outcomes and expectations. This
overview looks at what can be realistically expected from
the extension service (in terms of contact with farmers),
from decentralization (in terms of management improvement),
and from the village participation exercise (in terms of

Food production is not keeping pace with
Africa's rapidly growing needs. Aid programs in the
1970s and 1980s were considered a temporary solution to the
most appalling famines, but Africa's food shortage
appears to be worsening. This paper discusses the reasons
for this situation and ways to address it. African
policymakers should consider intensifying and diversifying
local production and establishing systems for marketing and

? This article outlines the role that
the World Bank will play in supporting a modified rural
development strategy for the Sub-Saharan Africa region: The
Bank will be more selective in targeting countries for
assistance in rural development programs, focusing on those
that demonstrate commitment to appropriate agricultural
policy and investment. It will expand its information,
education and communication initiatives to help governments

An important finding from analyzing the
survey data from the poverty assessment study on Nigeria is
the concentration of the poor in communities in which most
of the other households are also poor, and the tendency of
the non-poor households to reside in communities in which
the population is largely non-poor. As a result, the overall
income inequality in the country is due largely to income
inequality between communities and much less to income

About half of Kenya's rural
population (approximately 9 million people) was the poverty
line in 1992, a proportion unchanged from 1982. In urban
areas, approximately a million and a quarter persons or 30
percent of the population was below the poverty line. In the
early 1980s, Kenya's social indicators were distinctly
more favorable than those of most countries in the region,
and there was further progress. But many indicators

The continued decline in global poverty
over the past 100 years particularly in the past three
decades is a remarkable achievement. In 1981, 52 percent of
the world population lived on less than $1.25 a day. By
2005, that rate had been cut in half, to 25.0 percent, and
by 2008 to 22.2 percent (World Bank 2012). Preliminary
estimates for 2010 indicate that the extreme poverty rate
has fallen further still; if follow-up studies confirm this,

The authorities' determined implementation of stabilization measures over the past year has helped to avert a macroeconomic crisis. If the deterioration of the macroeconomic environment in 2010-11 was rapid, the improvement in the situation in the past twelve months has been equally swift. Regaining macroeconomic stability has been costly, but not stabilizing the economy would have led to even bigger losses.

Dzud is the Mongolian term for a winter weather disaster in which deep snow, severe cold, or other conditions render forage unavailable or inaccessible and lead to high livestock mortality. Dzud is a regular occurrence in Mongolia, and plays an important role in regulating livestock populations. However, dzud, especially when combined with other environmental or socio-economic stresses and changes, can have a significant impact on household well-being as well as local and national economies.