Brazil has developed a community-led,
market-based approach to land reform in which poor rural
laborers and farmers, either landless or with insufficient
land for subsistence, form beneficiary associations through
which to obtain financing to buy agricultural properties,
for which they negotiate directly with willing sellers. The
financing package includes complementary funds for
investments to enhance land productivity (water,

In India, as in many developing
countries, land continues to have enormous economic, social,
and symbolic relevance. How access to land can be obtained,
and how ownership of land can be documented, are questions
essential to the livelihoods of the large majority of the
poor, especially in rural and tribal areas. Answers to these
questions will determine to what extent India's
increasingly scarce natural resources are managed. Moreover,

Rural areas in Cote d'Ivoire
account for 55 percent of the total population. Rural people
rely heavily on export- and food-crop production as their
primary source of livelihood. However, 71 percent of the
rural population live below the poverty line. The government
and the Bank agree that access to land and natural resource
management are critical factors in coping with the rural
crisis. The government invited the Bank to help meet the

Tajikistan is highly vulnerable to the
adverse impacts of global climate change, as it already
suffers from low agricultural productivity, water stress,
and high losses from disasters. Public awareness of the
multiple consequences of climate change is high, with
possible impacts on health, natural disasters, and
agriculture of greatest public concern. Climate change can
potentially deepen poverty by lowering agricultural yields,

Gender-poverty-environment links: a
focus on the links between gender disparity, poverty and
environmental degradation is increasingly recognized as a
key strategy for improving the lives of poor women and men.
Acknowledging the ways in which relationships between the
environment, society and the economy are gendered opens
space for new approaches to poverty reduction, environmental
conservation and gender equality. The Social Development

Over the last century, the world has
seen a sustained decline in the proportion of people living
in poverty. However, there is an increasing concern that
climate change could slow or possibly even reverse poverty
reduction progress. Given the complexities involved in
analyzing climate change impacts on poverty, different
approaches can be helpful; this note surveys the results of
recent research on climate change impacts on poverty.

This briefing note examines
intergenerational aspects of community involvement, trust,
and authority, and dispute participation/resolution in
Timor-Leste, using findings from the justice module included
in an extension of the 2007 Timor-Leste Survey of Living
Standards (TLSLS2) and a review of relevant social-science
literature. It is hoped that this report will be a valuable
resource for civil servants, civil society organizations,

Poverty in Pakistan is overwhelmingly
rural. Some two-thirds of Pakistan's population, and
over 60 percent of the country's poor, live in rural
areas. In 2005, average per capita expenditures in rural
areas were 31 percent lower than in urban areas. This
inequality between urban and rural areas is re-enforced by
inequality within and between rural areas. Owing to uneven
access to land and useable water, most of the increased

This note presents relevant
interventions that have aimed to stimulate rural economies a
natural disaster based on case studies from the Philippines,
Turkey, and Pakistan. Introducing new, untested
infrastructure methods or designs involves careful analysis
and may delay reconstruction. If this level of analysis is
not completed, the reconstructed infrastructure may not meet
expectations. For example, in Turkey, the Erzincan

This briefing note examines perspectives
on trust, authority, and responsibility for decision making
in Timor-Leste, using findings from the justice module
included in an extension of the 2007 Timor-Leste Survey of
Living Standards (TLSLS2) and a review of relevant
social-science literature. It is hoped that this report will
be a valuable resource for civil servants, civil society,
and donor agencies working in Timor-Leste. This note

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, or persecution. Those displaced can either be
refugees outside their country of nationality or be people
displaced inside their country of nationality (IDPs). This
notwithstanding, the portfolio review of Bank activities
addressing displacement indicates a need for systematically

Tourism is one of Latin America's
fastest growing industries, outranking remittances and even
drugs in many countries as a source of foreign exchange. But
the impact of tourism on the poor and on the environment
remains under debate. Certainly many suspect that tourism
does more harm than good, damaging the environment and
leaving the poor worse off while shipping profits overseas.
But few have actually analyzed the impact of tourism on the