How should Tajikistan adapt to ongoing
and future climate change, in particular given the many
pressing development challenges it currently faces? The
paper argues that for developing countries like Tajikistan,
faster economic and social development is the best possible
defense against climate change. It presents some key
findings from a recent nationally representative household
survey to illustrate the strong public support for more

Ethiopia's rural non-farm sector is
significant and participation is increasing. The sector is
particularly important for women and poorer households.
Non-farm enterprises provide income-earning opportunities to
those lacking alternative options and supplementary income
for farming households. This report is organized into seven
chapters. The first chapter lays the analytical groundwork
for assessing the rural investment climate in Ethiopia and

Measuring the poverty and distributional
impact of the global crisis for developing countries is not
easy, given the multiple channels of impact and the limited
availability of real-time data. Commonly-used approaches are
of limited use in addressing questions like who are being
affected by the crisis and by how much, and who are
vulnerable to falling into poverty if the crisis deepens?
This paper develops a simple micro-simulation method,

The authors analyze five rounds of
National Sample Survey data covering 1983, 1987/8, 1993/4,
1999/0, and 2004/5 to explore the relationship between rural
diversification and poverty. Poverty in rural India declined
at a modest rate during this period. The authors provide
region-level estimates that illustrate considerable
geographic heterogeneity in this progress. Poverty estimates
correlate well with region-level data on changes in

An increase in sea surface temperature
is evident at all latitudes and in all oceans. The current
understanding is that ocean warming plays a major role in
intensified cyclone activity and heightened storm surges.
The vulnerability of coastlines to intensified storm surges
can be ascertained by overlaying Geographic Information
System information with data on land, population density,
agriculture, urban extent, major cities, wetlands, and gross

The authors use recent data from the
2006 National Family Health Survey of India to explore the
relationship between religion and demographic behavior. They
find that fertility and mortality vary not only between
religious groups, but also across caste groups. These groups
also differ with respect to socio-economic status. The
central finding of this paper is that despite their
socio-economic disadvantages, Muslims have higher fertility

This study documents the long-term
welfare effects of household non-traditional agricultural
export (NTX) adoption. The analysis uses a unique panel
dataset, which spans the period 1985-2005, and employs
difference-in-differences estimation to investigate the
long-term impact of non-traditional agricultural export
adoption on changes in household consumption status and
asset position in the Central Highlands of Guatemala. Given

Namibia is a large country in Southern
Africa that borders the South Atlantic Ocean, between Angola
to the north and South Africa to the south. With a surface
area of 824,290 square kilometers, it is similar in size to
Mozambique and about half the size of the U.S. state of
Alaska. Namibia has a small population of approximately 2.1
million people. It is also one of the least densely
populated countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average

China's progress in poverty
reduction over the last 25 years is enviable. One cannot
fail to be impressed by what this vast nation of 1.3 billion
people has achieved in so little time. In terms of a wide
range of indicators, the progress has been remarkable.
Poverty in terms of income and consumption has been
dramatically reduced. Progress has also been substantial in
terms of human development indicators. Most of the

This report presents a comprehensive
analysis of poverty and its main determinants using the most
recent 2007 Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) data.
It provides an in-depth analysis of rural poverty, the
linkages between labor markets and poverty, the importance
of social transfers for poverty alleviation, and the
progress made since 2003 in the health and education
sectors, and also presents some findings on incomes trends

This study examines agricultural and
rural development (ARD) public expenditures in Mexico. The
study is based on federal public expenditures. The study is
structured in six parts as follows: the first part presents
the Mexican ARD context in terms of policy and performance.
The second part dissects the ARD public budget, classifying
expenditure programs in various ways so as to provide an
overview of the scope and composition of ARD spending. The

China's progress in poverty
reduction over the last 25 years is enviable. One cannot
fail to be impressed by what this vast nation of 1.3 billion
people has achieved in so little time. In terms of a wide
range of indicators, the progress has been remarkable.
Poverty in terms of income and consumption has been
dramatically reduced. Progress has also been substantial in
terms of human development indicators. Most of the