This paper provides an overview of the
history of development research at the World Bank and points
to new future directions in both what we research and how we
research. Six main messages emerge. First, research and data
have long been essential elements of the Bank's country
programs and its contributions to global public goods, and
this will remain the case. Second, development thinking is
in a state of flux and uncertainty; it is time to reconsider

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

World Development Indicators (WDI) 2009
arrives at a moment of great uncertainty for the global
economy. The crisis that began more than a year ago in the
U.S. housing market spread to the global financial system
and is now taking its toll on real output and incomes. As a
consequence, an additional 50 million people will be left in
extreme poverty. And if the crisis deepens and widens or is
prolonged, other development indicators, school enrollments,

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

The commission on growth and development
was established in April 2006. It felt that the benefits of
growth were not fully appreciated, but also recognized that
the causes of growth were not fully understood. Growth is
often overlooked and underrated as an instrument for
tackling the world's most pressing problems, such as
poverty, illiteracy, income inequality, unemployment, and
pollution. At the same time, grasp of the sources of growth

Urban Development Investment
Corporations (UDICs) have over the years become the central
pillar in the local government drive to build infrastructure
in China, where local governments are not allowed to engage
in direct market borrowing. UDICs were established during
the early 1990s when local governments were under great
pressure to both build municipal infrastructure and to
reform the role of the government in infrastructure

This report " Country Social
Analysis (CSA) " focused on ethnicity and development
in Vietnam is a provocative analysis of marginality in
contemporary Southeast Asia. It seeks to understand the
macro social and political processes, and provides an
analysis of how social, political, and cultural factors
influence the opportunities and constraints to more
equitable, inclusive development. This study provides

Municipalities in Mozambique were
established by law in 1997 and elected in 1998 for the first
time, only a few years after the peace agreement. Most
inherited archaic and dysfunctional remnants of colonial and
central government systems and infrastructure, and as such
limited progress was achieved in transforming them into
functioning local governments during the first mandate
(1998-2002). During the second mandate (2003-2008), however,

This paper reviews the correlations and
potential links between health and economic growth and
summarizes the evidence on the role of government in
improving health status. At the macroeconomic level, the
evidence of an impact of health on growth remains ambiguous
due both to difficulties in measuring health, and to the
methodological challenges of identifying causal links. The
evidence on the micro linkages from health investments to

In many countries, place specific
investments in infrastructure are viewed as integral
components of territorial development policies. But are
these policies fighting market forces of concentration? Or
are they adding net value to the national economy by tapping
underexploited resources? This paper contributes to the
debate on the spatial allocation of infrastructure
investments by examining where these investments will

Son preference is known to be found in
certain types of cultures, that is patrilineal cultures. But
what explains the fact that China, South Korea, and
Northwest India manifest such extreme child sex ratios
compared with other patrilineal societies? This paper argues
that what makes these societies unique is that their
pre-modern political and administrative systems used
patrilineages to organize and administer their citizens. The

The purpose of this guidance note is to
bridge precisely identify how to implement World Bank
resettlement policies in the context of infrastructure
projects affecting South Asian largest cities, with a focus
on the impacts on poor areas and slums. The guidance note is
intended as a tool to help decision makers in Government
agencies and in the Bank, particularly in respect of the
main aspects: 1) methods to assess and evaluate resettlement