Risk-sensitive land use planning is
vital for sustainable economic development and effective
Disaster Risk Management (DRM). Urban development programs
should adopt risk-sensitive land use planning to encourage
resilient development guiding the growth of people, assets
and services within and away from hazardous zones. Many East
Asia and the Pacific (EAP) countries have national land use
policy and local plans which incorporate risk assessments;

The objective of this report is twofold:
first, analyze and discuss the linkages between different
minimum standards currently used in the Kyrgyz Republic and
with the Monthly Benefit for Poor Families (MBPF), and,
secondly, to analyze the potential of alternative targeting
methods and benefit levels. The analysis in this report
mainly draws on data from the Kyrgyz Integrated Household
Survey (KIHS) 2010. The report is structured as follows: the

Pakistan's rebound from the global
financial crisis has been slow and fragile, and unless the
economy changes course swiftly, it could face its second
balance of payments crisis in five years. Its recovery from
the 2008-09 global financial crisis has been the weakest in
South Asia, with a double dip pattern. This report
identifies conditions for a sustainable job-enhancing growth
agenda for Pakistan. Policy must target both goals as they

Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction
Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as
annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on
four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b)
expanding access to social services for the poor; c)
increasing employment and income-generating activities for
the poor; and d) promoting good governance. Increased public
expenditure and targeted social service provision also led

Using a panel survey, this paper
investigates how the increase in food prices in Pakistan in
2008-2010 affected children's school enrollment and
labor. The causal identification relies on geographical
variations in the price of food (wheat). The results show
that the negative impacts of food price increase on school
enrollment differ by gender, economic status, and the
presence of siblings. The negative effects on school do not

The objective of this study is to help
the government to decide what role safety net and transfer
programs should play in the coming 5 to 10 years. It seeks
to answer following three questions: (i) can increased
spending on transfers accelerate poverty reduction in the
medium to long term?; (ii) which groups and aspects of
poverty will it make sense to target with transfers?; and
(iii) which programs will have the greatest impact at an

The unprecedented damage caused by the
Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) affected multiple
locations, posing severe challenges for local governments.
Based on advice from an independent council, the government
acted quickly and issued a basic policy and regulation
framework within four months, laying the foundation for an
inclusive process of recovery and reconstruction. This note
documents the interactive process of reconstruction

Transitional shelter can play a crucial
role in housing reconstruction following a mega disaster.
Reconstruction of permanent housing cannot move forward
until a number of complex issues are settled, such as
relocation planning and removal of debris. Even after plans
are agreed on and reconstruction begins, it may take several
years for permanent housing to be completed. In this
context, affected people may need to rely on transitional

Globally, over 40 million people have
been forced to leave or flee their homes due to conflict,
violence, and human rights violations either as refugees
outside their country of origin or Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs). A substantial number live in protracted
displacement where return has not been possible.Forced
displacement is a humanitarian crisis: but it also produces
developmental impacts - short and longer term, negative and

Household enterprises -- usually
one-person-operated tiny informal enterprises -- are a
rapidly growing source of employment in Sub-Saharan Africa,
especially in lower-income countries. Household enterprises
tend to operate with limited interest or support from
governments. This is the case in Mozambique, where neither
the poverty reduction strategy nor small and medium
enterprise development policies include household

In the past dozen years, a literature
has developed arguing that urbanization has unfolded
differently in post-independence Sub-Saharan Africa than in
the rest of the developing world, with implications for
African economic growth overall. While African countries are
more urbanized than other countries at comparable levels of
income, it is well-recognized that total and sector gross
domestic product data are of very low quality, especially in