Vietnam's rapid and sustained economic growth and poverty reduction in the last two decades benefitted from the policy and legal reforms embodied in the Land Laws of 1987, 1993 and 2003 and subsequent related legal acts. This note outlines reforms related to four main themes. The first relates to the needed reform for agriculture land use to create opportunity to enhance effectiveness of land use as well as to secure farmers' rights in land use. Prolonging the duration of agricultural land tenure would give land users greater incentives to invest and care for the land.

The Wenchuan earthquake affected 20
cities, 158 counties, and 3,655 towns and villages.
Geographic and demographic conditions varied significantly
from small, rural villages to county-level cities, as did
the magnitude of the physical damages. The reconstruction
strategy and plan, inclusive of land management, depended on
the conditions specific to each locale, from in situ
reconstruction for the cities and towns with limited damage

This report is about integrated land
policy reform in context of rapid urbanization in China.
Over the past thirty years, China has undergone a profound
economic and social transformation as it moves towards a
market-oriented economy. Land issues are implicated in this
ongoing transformation in numerous ways. The allocation and
security of land rights are key factors in China's
quest for economic growth and social stability. Land use

This paper provides a brief overview of
the intersection of state and customary laws governing land
in peri-urban settlements around Honiara, focusing on their
impact upon landowners, particularly women landowners. It
suggests that the intersection of customary and state legal
systems allows a small number of individuals, predominantly
men, to solidify their control over customary land. This has
occurred to the detriment of many landowners, who have often

This note summarizes findings from an
analysis of Vanuatu national leasing data drawn from the
Vanuatu department of lands databases for the period of
1980-2010. It provides a preliminary indication of how much
of Vanuatu is currently under lease, where land is being
leased, how leased land is being used, the length of leases,
and the extent that leases have been subdivided. The profile
also highlights areas where data collection needs to be improved.

This note builds on the proactive
measures taken by the Government of China as announced in:
(i) the Decree of the state council of the people's
Republic of China, issued on 9 June 2008, providing
regulations on post-Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction; (ii)
the Directive on Counterpart Assistance (Directive) of 11
June 2008; and (iii) the land policies to support the
reconstruction of Wenchuan (land policies) of 11 June 2008

This paper focuses on the experience of
the national-level adaptation planning efforts and the
lessons that can be derived for more effective adaptation
from an examination of local governance of development and
natural resources. After examining national level adaptation
plans, particularly the NAPAs (National Adaptation
Programmes of Action), the paper analyzes the range of
institutional instruments and relationships visible in

The emergence of city-regions in England
offers some useful lessons for the World Bank partners in
developing countries. The city-region approach, as applied
in England touches upon issues of decentralization,
intergovernmental fiscal relations, governance, and the need
to realign outdated administrative arrangements with a
metropolitan area's economic footprint, among other
highly relevant topics for rapidly urbanizing cities in

Housing is one of the most important
sectors of the economy -- in developing countries as in
richer ones -- with large positive externalities in terms of
economic growth, public health and societal stability. It is
the primary form of asset accumulation for the poor -- often
representing more than 50 percent of the assets of
households. However, housing systems in developing countries
are dominated by badly designed, poorly targeted, and

The Bank has been involved in a number
of urban upgrading projects over the last three decades,
which have demonstrated that quality of life in slums can be
improved through realistic policies, investments and
implementation processes. This note reviews community-driven
development (CDD) in World Bank-assisted urban upgrading
projects. The note identifies how CDD approaches have been
applied in such projects. The review focuses on a small

The note looks at poverty in Ecuador,
assessing macroeconomic developments through its policies to
maintain stability with fiscal discipline, and increase
economic productivity and competitiveness, in particular,
the 1998/99 crisis, the 2000 dollarization and their effect
on poverty. From 1990 to 2001, national consumption-based
poverty rose from 40 to 45 percent, and the number of poor
people increased from 3.5 to 5.2 million. Poverty increased

The proliferation of urban slums is due
in large part to obsolete regulatory, legal and
institutional frameworks at the local level governing land
use, development standards, land registration and titling.
These regulations are often exclusionary, insisting on
development norms and standards that are outside the realm
of the poor to pay and subdivision procedures are often over
burdensome, leading to informal land subdivision, thus