This report assesses the challenges and
opportunities for the development of the Khatlon oblast in
Tajikistan. The report argues that the rise in the strategic
significance of Khatlon must be matched by responses in
public policy and a strong upturn in private investment to
strengthen economic prospects. The report identifies four
key reform imperatives for stimulating growth in the oblast.
These are: (i) promoting cities and internal connectivity to

Diversification into high-value cash
crops among smallholders has been propagated as a strategy
to improve welfare in rural areas. However, the extent to
which cash crop production spurs projected gains remains an
under-researched question, especially in the context of
market imperfections leading to non-separable production and
consumption decisions, and price shocks to staple crops that
might be displaced on the farm by cash crops. This study is

In the standard model of corruption, the
rich are more likely to pay bribes for their children's
education, reflecting higher ability to pay. This prediction
is, however, driven by the assumption that the probability
of punishment for bribe-taking is invariant across
households. In many developing countries lacking in rule of
law, this assumption is untenable, because the enforcement
of law is not impersonal or unbiased and the poor have

This note on gender-sensitive
post-disaster assessments is the eighth in a series of
guidance notes on gender issues in disaster risk management
(DRM) in the East Asia and the Pacific region. Targeting
World Bank staff, clients and development partners, this
note gives an overview of the main reasons for assessing
gender impacts as part of a post-disaster needs assessment,
identifies the key challenges, and recommends strategies and

In order to have both dynamic and better
balanced growth, Serbia needs to rely more on exports. In
the last decade, Serbia's growth has depended primarily
on demand that was fueled by excessive debt finance. In the
future, the Serbian economy would be better served by
increasing its reliance on exports as a new, potentially
powerful source of growth. Serbia's export share of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently 25 percent, but

Fighting famine is basic to ending
poverty and saving lives. Emergency aid, which arrives after
the food has run out, isn't enough. Households most in
need of emergency aid often don't have enough food
during other times of the year, posing a broader challenge
for devising programs that can cut hunger and build food
security. Social protection programs, including grants,
social assistance and public works programs are one way to

Most researchers examining poverty and
multilateral trade liberalization have had to examine
average, or per capita effects, suggesting that if per
capita real income rises, poverty will fall. This inference
can be misleading. Combining results from a new
international cross-section consumption analysis with
earnings data from household surveys, this article analyzes
the implications of multilateral trade liberalization for

Data from China's national rural
and urban household surveys are used to measure and explain
the welfare impacts of changes in goods and factor prices
attributable to accession to the World Trade Organization
(WTO). The price changes are estimated separately using a
general equilibrium model to capture both direct and
indirect effects of the initial tariff changes. The welfare
impacts are first-order approximations based on a household

The process by which different
ecological conditions and historical trajectories interacted
to create different social and cultural systems resulted in
major differences in economic development performance within
Southeast Asia. In the late 19th century, Indonesia, the
Philippines, and Thailand commonly experienced
vent-for-surplus development through exploitation of unused
lands. Nevertheless, different agrarian structures were

As opposed to agribusiness or corporate farming, FAO defined family farming as “a means of organizing agricultural, forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture production which is managed and operated by a family, both female and male. The family and the farm are linked, co-evolve and combine economic, environmental, reproductive, social and cultural functions.

A new report by IDMC and Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) offers the most comprehensive analysis to date on Israel's lethal enforcement of Access-Restricted Areas - (ARA) - live-fire zones imposed by the Israeli military forces on large swathes of the Gaza Strip.

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This paper is a post-conference summary
of the International Conference on Land Policy Reform that
took place in Jarkarta from July 25-27, 2000. The paper
concerns best practice in land administration systems. While
the paper is focussed on world's best practice, it does
so in the context of developing and emerging industrial
countries such as Indonesia which have diverse land tenure
relationships ranging from areas in cities with active land