The dramatic increases in world food and
fuel prices during 2007 and early 2008 may set back
Mozambique's considerable advances in poverty reduction
during the past decade. This study assesses the impact of
higher fuel and food prices at both household and
macroeconomic levels, and also considers policy options to
mitigate some of the negative impacts of higher prices.
Rising world prices certainly represents a negative

This history illustrates a number of
themes encountered in Swaziland that faces developing
countries and their external partners in Africa and beyond.
Firstly, the history relates the experience of a small and
comparatively insular country in addressing complex
challenges deriving from rapid urbanization and, as a
result, the growing need to adapt governance systems and
structures. A second key issue is the challenge that small

The World Bank's revised forest
policy came into being in 2002 and covers all types of
forests. It has the following key objectives: (i) harnessing
the potential of forests to reduce poverty in a sustainable
manner; (ii) integrating forests effectively into
sustainable development; and (iii) protecting vital local
and global environmental services and values. The policy
enables the bank to fully engage in forestry throughout the

Strong boy-bias and its consequences for
young and unborn girls have been widely documented for Asia.
This paper considers a country in Sub-Saharan Africa and
finds that parental gender preferences do affect fertility
behavior and shape traditional social institutions with
negative effects on adult women's health and
well-being. Using individual-level data for Nigeria, the
paper shows that, compared to women with first-born sons,

The paper uses harmonized household
survey micro-data to assess the levels and determinants of
economic inequality in 12 Arab countries. It focuses on the
sources of rural-urban, as well as
metropolitan-nonmetropolitan, inequalities and applies the
unconditional quantile regression decomposition technique to
analyze the welfare gaps across the entire distribution. The
analysis finds moderate inequality levels, with the Gini

This paper documents a significant
impact of climate variation on urbanization in Sub-Saharan
Africa, primarily in more arid countries. By lowering farm
incomes, reduced moisture availability encourages migration
to nearby cities, while wetter conditions slow migration.
The paper also provides evidence for rural-urban income
links. In countries with a larger industrial base, reduced
moisture shrinks the agricultural sector and raises total

In the Pacific island countries, which
are small and far from world markets, labor mobility
represents the most significant and substantial opportunity
for overcoming geographic constraints on employment. This
report presents a brief overview of employment challenges in
small Pacific island countries and recommendations for
addressing them. The report contributes to an ongoing World
Bank analytical program examining the linkages between

This report analyses the experiences and
lessons from three World Bank-Supported watershed
development projects in the Indian states of Karnataka,
Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.5 The primary reason for
the analysis was to guide the development and execution of
new watershed programs in India, including new
Bank-supported state-level operations in Uttarakhand and
Karnataka, and a proposed national project now under

This economy profile presents the Doing
Business indicators for Brazil. In a series of annual
reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting
domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in
10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a
business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.
This year's report data cover regulations measured from
June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the 11th edition

Successive policies of the Government of
Vietnam for economic reform and modernization have helped
Vietnam to emerge as one of the world's fastest growing
economies. The report provides continued recommendations on
improving land policies to ensure efficiency of their
practical implementation and to target at both economic
development and social sustainability. Policies with regard
to voluntary benefits sharing, promoting the participation

This economy profile presents the Doing
Business indicators for Syrian Arab Republic. In a series of
annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations
affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the
economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as
starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across
borders. This year's report data cover regulations
measured from June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the