Mongolia was hit hard by the global economic recession, notably the fall in commodity prices. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 1.6 percent in 2009 after growth of 8.9 percent in 2008. The country is narrowly specialized in production of a few primary goods with minerals comprising 70 percent of total exports. Since mid-2008, the prices of main export goods, including copper, zinc, crude petroleum, combed goat-down and cashmere dropped by close to or more than 50 percent, though prices of coal and gold held strong.

In recent years, Indonesia has made great strides in economic growth and development. This growth has been accompanied by rapid urbanization that has transformed Indonesian cities. Urbanization has the potential to boost national economic growth by facilitating the emergence of agglomeration and localization economies. Increasing urbanization presents Indonesia with an opportunity to leverage the transformation taking place to ensure that it is harnessed for economic growth and, more importantly, sustained improvements in the quality of life of its community members.

This country note for Armenia is part of a series of country briefs that summarize information relevant to climate change and agriculture for three pilot countries in the Southern Caucasus Region, with a particular focus on climate and crop projections, adaptation options, policy development and institutional involvement. The note series has been developed to provide a baseline of knowledge on climate change and agriculture for the countries participating in the regional program on reducing vulnerability to climate change in Southern Caucasus Agricultural systems.

This note discusses the development dimensions of forced displacement, and the potential role of the World Bank to address these dimensions and contribute to durable solutions for group's who have returned from or are in displacement situations. For the purposes of this note, forced displacement refers to the situation of persons who are forced to leave or flee their homes due to conflict, violence, and human rights violations.

This paper provides a descriptive and multivariate analysis of poverty dynamics in Vietnam using panel data from the Vietnam household living standards surveys of 2002, 2004, and 2006. Transition matrices and contour plots confirm that while large numbers of households moved out of poverty between these years, many did not move far the poverty line and that around a tenth of rural households appear to be trapped in chronic poverty. Different categorical models are then estimated to analyze the correlates of chronic poverty and the drivers of poverty transitions in rural areas.

The Indonesian economic quarterly reports on and synthesizes the past three months' key developments in Indonesia's economy. Its coverage ranges from the macro economy to financial markets to indicators of human welfare and development. It is intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, business leaders, and financial market participants, and the community of analysts and professionals engaged in Indonesia's evolving economy.

The objectives of the Costing Adaptation through Local Institutions (CALI) study were (a) to identify the costs of adaptation through local institutions, and (b) to investigate which institutions help households adapt to climate variability, which efforts and costs are needed to realize the adaptation options, and how they facilitate adaptation to climate variability. The study was carried out in Ethiopia, Mali, and Yemen. This report discusses the results for Yemen.

Backed by sound economic policies and until the global crisis, a buoyant global economy, many developing countries made significant movement toward achieving the 2015millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly those for poverty reduction, gender parity in education, and reliable access to safe water. But even before the global economic crisis, progress in achieving some MDGs, especially those on child and maternal mortality, primary school completion, hunger, and sanitation, was lagging. The global food, fuel and economic crises have set back progress to the MDGs.

This review of public expenditures on Social Protection (SP) in Nicaragua is based on the analytical framework of Social Risk Management (SRM) developed by the World Bank. The concept of managing social risk comes from the notion that certain groups in society are vulnerable to unexpected shocks which threaten their livelihood and/or survival. Social protection focuses on the poor since they are more vulnerable to the risks and normally do not have the instruments to handle these risks.

The operations policy on Development Policy Lending (DPL), approved by the Board in August 2004, requires that the Bank systematically analyze whether specific country policies supported by an operation are likely to have "significant effects" on the country's environment, forests, and other natural resources. The implicit objective behind this requirement is to ensure that there is adequate capacity in the country to deal with adverse effects on the environment, forests, and other natural resources that the policies could trigger, even at the program design stage.

Bangladesh has made good progress in reducing poverty over the past decade despite the series of external shocks which have routinely affected the country. Poverty fell from 49 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2005, propelled by respectable economic growth and relatively stable inequality. These statistics are reflected in tangible improvements in poor people's lives, such as a sharp reduction in those living under flimsy straw roofs in rural areas.

China's progress in poverty reduction over the last 25 years is enviable. One cannot fail to be impressed by what this vast nation of 1.3 billion people has achieved in so little time. In terms of a wide range of indicators, the progress has been remarkable. Poverty in terms of income and consumption has been dramatically reduced. Progress has also been substantial in terms of human development indicators. Most of the millennium development goals have either already been achieved or the country is well on the way to achieving them.