Land is one of the basic elements of the environment and multi-functional versatile resource, which is particularly threatened by natural processes, and actions of human activities. Although it is difficult to assess the extent of land degradation problems, there is no doubt that people around the world feel the consequences of its effects. Loss of productive land has a direct impact on agriculture in rural communities, primarily in the form of reduced yields and revenues are based on this exercise.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region is one of the most water-stressed parts of the world.
In just over 25 years, between 1975 and 2001. Looking to the
future, MENA's freshwater outlook is expected to worsen
because of continued population growth and projected climate
change impacts. The region's population is on the way
to doubling to 700 million by 2050. Projections of climate
change and variability impacts on the region's water

This report investigates Egypt's
regional economic growth, explores the causes for
geographically unbalanced development, and proposes policy
options to make unbalanced growth compatible with inclusive
development. In Egypt, despite rapid progress in most
welfare indicators in lagging regions, there are still
substantial gaps in consumption and opportunities between
growth poles and the rest of the country. This report's

The Lao Government has also made
important commitments to gender equality in both its
national socio-economic development planning and in a number
of international agreements. Through mapping the gender
dimensions of trade in Lao PDR, this report aims to draw out
key inter-linkages between a more open trade policy and
gender. Recent export performance in Lao has been strong and
mostly driven by hydro-electricity and minerals, which

The work described in this report is a
first step to addressing the longer-term issues related to
the competitiveness of South Sudan's farmers in a
regional context. It focuses on the options for increasing
the amount and value of agricultural production in the crop
sector, the potential contribution of rural roads to
increasing crop production and how to sequence and
prioritize rural road investments in a way that maximizes

Over the last several years, the
Government of Togo has made important advances in the area
of social protection. Although Togo has had limited social
insurance and social assistance programs, the economic shock
and natural disasters starting in 2008 brought the need for
better mechanisms of social protection to the fore. The
Government response has focused on measures to address the
needs of the affected populations, while building the

This study examines the major
constraints of rural business entry and performance in
Yemen. The Yemen rural investment climate survey made it
possible to analyze rural investment climate constraints for
rural businesses. The survey was used to investigate both
farm and nonfarm rural enterprises. The rural investment
climate was assessed using a combination of subjective
impressions related by rural entrepreneurs, and a more

This paper draws on an expanded growth
accounting framework to estimate the relative contribution
of women to growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Empirical results
show a consistently positive contribution of women to growth
in gross domestic product in the region, both during
economic downturns and growth spurts. This is despite the
absence of any valuation of home-produced goods and informal
sector production, which accounts for the bulk of womens

The East Asian and Pacific region has
achieved tremendous progress in poverty reduction in recent
years. However, further progress in poverty reduction may be
undermined by the high levels of vulnerability in many
countries across the region. The term vulnerability is
viewed from an economic context, where it is conceived as
the likelihood of suffering from future deteriorations in
standard of living which may result in a state of poverty,

The paper aims to provide an overview of
the gender disparities in three major domains-human capital,
labor market and entrepreneurship. In doing so, it builds on
the framework of the World Bank's regional gender
report opportunities for men and women: emerging Europe and
Central Asia (World Bank, 2011) and the world development
report on gender and development (World Bank, 2011). This
joint gender assessment work has the objectives of analyzing

This report investigates Egypt's
regional economic growth, explores the causes for
geographically unbalanced development, and proposes policy
options to make unbalanced growth compatible with inclusive
development. Regional disparities in income and consumption
may be attributed to differences in natural endowments and
geographical location, but unbalanced growth is mostly due
to economies of scale, spillover effects, and the lower