The objective of this paper is to
present a succinct and up-to-date review of the urban sector
in Egypt, with a focus on issues for which there is new
insight or emerging government interest. The two main themes
of the report are the challenges facing the urban sector and
the policy implications at various levels of government.
Some of the reports mains findings are: urbanization in
Egypt takes on forms and processes which are not well

The present study examines the
challenges facing municipal governments in FYR Macedonia.
The introductory chapter provides some further context for
these developments, in terms of the challenges they pose
for urban areas and their governments. Chapter Two examines
issues for financial management of municipalities under the
decentralized regime, and the attendant need for improving
local government capacity. The third chapter highlights

Large increases in international food
prices in 2007 and early 2008 have become a key concern for
policy makers in East Asia. The increases are likely to have
a significant impact on the living standards of many,
particularly the poor. By March 2008, dollar nominated world
food prices were more than two and a half times higher than
in early 2002. Almost three quarters of this increase
occurred since the start of 2007, and about half since the

This report on Albania urban sector
review focuses on trends and issues that have come to the
fore with rapid urbanization and with the recent
decentralization of major responsibilities to local
governments. Continuing the achievements and addressing the
problems will require actions by local governments and, just
as importantly, by the central government, which sets the
legal and regulatory conditions for local governance and the

This report assesses Sri Lanka's
experience with decentralization to date and discusses
options for decentralization and implications for service
delivery in three sectors: roads, solid waste and health.
The selected sectors illustrate the considerations relevant
to the decentralization decision and its future direction.
The services selected cover a range of central, provincial
and local responsibilities in delivery and illustrate how

The most striking fact about the
economic geography of the world is the uneven spatial
distribution of economic activity, including the coexistence
of economic development and underdevelopment. High-income
regions are almost entirely concentrated in a few temperate
zones, half of the world's GDP is produced by 15
percent of the world's population, and 54 percent of
the world's GDP is produced by countries occupying just

Are the household characteristics that
are good for transition to a more diversified
market-oriented development process in Vietnam also
important for reducing poverty? Or are there tradeoffs? The
determinants of both poverty incidence and participation in
rural off-farm activities are modeled as functions of
household and community characteristics using comprehensive
national household surveys for 1993 and 1998. Despite some

In a globalizing world, cities at or
near the apex of the international urban hierarchy are among
the favored few--New York, London, and Tokyo--that have
acquired large economic, cultural, and symbolic roles. Among
a handful of regions that aspire to such a role--such as
Hong Kong, Miami, and Sao Paulo--Shanghai has reasonable
long-term prospects. If the Chinese economy can sustain its
growth rate, it will rival the United States in a few

Central control of forests takes
management responsibility away from the communities most
dependent on them, inevitably resulting in tensions. Like
many African countries, Tanzania--which has forest or
woodland cover over 30-40 percent of its land--established
central forestry institutions at a time when there was
little need for active management and protection because
population pressures were low. But in the face of scarce

The author identifies conditions under
which the urban sector's share of the poor population
in a developing country will be a strictly increasing and
strictly convex function of its share of the total
population. Cross-sectional data afor 39 countries and
time-series data for for India are consistent with the
expected theoretical relationship. The empirical results
imply that the poor urbanize faster than the population as a

Within the next two decades Indonesia
aspires to generate prosperity, avoid a middle-income trap
and leave no one behind as it tries to catch up with
high-income economies. These are ambitious goals. Realizing
them requires sustained high growth and job creation, as
well as reduced inequality. Can Indonesia achieve them? This
report argues that the country has the potential to rise and
become more prosperous and equitable. But the risk of

This report supports a joint World
Bank-IFC initiative to review and evaluate economic growth
prospects for Khatlon oblast in order to develop a private
sector-driven strategy for accelerating the region's
growth over the medium term.