Despite fiscal and administrative
reforms pursued by the Government of Madagascar since the
mid 1980s, to prod economic and financial liberalization,
contributing to steady GDP growth rates, manufacturing
production however, still represents a relatively small
share of value added. And, the development of
import-substituting (IS) firms has been considerably slower,
showing stagnating signs as these firms are unprepared for

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

The Government of Tanzania has, in
recent years, focused on revitalizing its mining sector in
order to attract foreign investment, with the goal of
raising its contribution to Tanzania's Gross Domestic
Product. With the support from the World Bank through the
Mineral Sector Development Project (MSDP), the legal and
fiscal regimes were revised and an environmental framework
was put in place. As the growth of the small scale mining

Participatory community-based Natural
Resources Management (NRM) Projects have been implemented
over the last 5-6 years in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and
Niger with the support of France, Germany, Norway, the
United States, and the World Bank's International
Development Association facility. Furthermore, pilot
operation concentrating on specific NRM issues are underway
in Chad (pastoral perimeters) and Guinea (land tenure

In Sri Lanka, ayurveda (a holistic
system of medicine and health care which originated in
India-in Sanskrit, "Ayu" means " life'
and "veda" means " the knowledge of ")
and the traditional system of health care have been
systematically used for over two thousand years to treat
illnesses. When last listed, 1,414 plant species have been
used for this purpose. These species include several endemic

This social assessment (SA) is part of
the Sanliurfa and Harran On-farm Development Project in
Turkey, and aims at identifying an appropriate mix of
project inputs to reduce poverty. The objectives of the SA
are to understand the impact of rapid agricultural
modernization on various social groups, according to
ownership criteria, and gender issues, and, to learn how
those benefiting from irrigation, assess the quality of

This has to be accomplished against a
background of high illiteracy rates, rapidly growing
populations, low and erratic rainfall, inherently infertile
soils, and development strategies which have had a strong
urban bias. Under such conditions, traditional production
systems are unable to sustain the population. Without
significant change, land degradation will accelerate and the
natural resource base on which agricultural production

The note reviews the cultural role of
traditional healers in communities in Ghana, and Zambia, as
one of the best hopes for treating, and stemming the spread
of AIDS. However, healers rely on medicinal plants which
have significantly decreased, as their habitats are lost
through deforestation, cultivation, overgrazing, burning
droughts, and desertification among others. This has been
exacerbated by poor management of local, and international

This note focuses on the economic
evaluation of more conventional infrastructure investments,
and specifically on two types of projects which may result
in significant economic restructuring - relocation of
economic activities, generation of new activities, or
changes in the way that current activities are undertaken.
The two examples used: new urban rail lines and major new
barrier crossings serve simply as examples of a much wider

Accounting for around a third of the
1996 Goss Domestic Product (GDP) of US$ 9 billion (second
only to oil), and almost three-fourths of all employment,
agriculture is a dominant sector of the Cameroonian economy.
Also, as in most African countries, poverty in Cameroon is
concentrated in rural areas, with more than 80 percent
(approximately 5.5 million) of all poor people living in
such areas. The Government of Cameroon's objectives

Since 1991, radical changes have taken
place in the policy and institutional environment governing
the agriculture sector in Zambia. Policies of liberalization
and privatization have entailed the replacement of
previously state-supplied agricultural services (notably
credit, inputs supply and agricultural marketing) by private
sector provision. The Agricultural Sector Investment Program
(ASIP), assisted by the World Bank, provides the context for

The livestock sector in Mali accounts
for 43 percent of cattle exports in the Sahel sub-region.
However, while the sub-sector accounted for 28.6 percent of
agriculture's contribution to Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), investment in it amounted to only 10.7 percent of the
total budget allocation to rural development. The African
Financial Community (CFA) devaluation in January 1994
increased the competitiveness of red meat from Sahelian