The demand for verifiable evidence of
results and impacts of development agricultural programs and
projects is growing. However, most of the indicators that
development practitioners have traditionally used in
tracking progress toward achieving projects' objectives
focus on the workings of the development operation itself.
These performance indicators relate mainly to lower-level
inputs and outputs and are used to populate management

Despite the large potential of the
agricultural sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
production is still limited by a lack of technical knowledge
and, in many cases, an unwillingness to change agricultural
practices inherited from Soviet times. The problem has more
than one cause: poor technology, management skills, and
quality of produce prevent farms from joining agribusiness
supply chains. Limited access to financing further prevents

The recent surge in food and fuel prices
has prompted countries with high dependence on food imports
to try and lock in future food supplies through direct
investment in agricultural production in other countries.
The price surges also led to a wave of proposals to invest
in biofuels investments in agricultural land. While such
investment can provide large benefits, it also carries
considerable risks both to investors and citizens in the

This quick note is to provide the reader
with a perspective on how the World Bank Group has been
challenged by and has responded to recent global crises.
However, at this historical moment, one cannot begin to
write of global or regional issues without noting the
momentous events that are now sweeping across the Arab
World. Every country is different, but common themes are
emerging. The youth's messages are loud and clear: they

A watershed is an area that supplies
water by surface or subsurface flow to a drainage system or
body of water. Watersheds vary from a few hectares to
thousands of square kilometers. Watershed management (WSM)
is the integrated use of land, vegetation, and water in a
specific drainage area with the objective of conserving
hydrologic services and reducing or avoiding damage
downstream or underground. The first generation of WSM

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Guatemala, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like
most countries in Latin America, Guatemala has submitted one
national communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Land use change and
forestry are by far the largest contributors to greenhouse

Reversing Africa's decades-long
decline in soil productivity levels poses a major challenge,
and one that cannot be addressed without increased use of
appropriate fertilizer nutrients. The 2006 World Bank Africa
Fertilizer Strategy Assessment was undertaken to inform
policy makers, providing them with guidelines on measures to
effectively raise fertilizer use. This Note draws upon the
material prepared for the above fertilizer strategy

Communities supported by World Bank
rural development projects often cite support for the
development of income-generating activities (IGAs) as a
critical need. This note identifies some of the core
problems encountered by Bank task teams that attempt to
respond to this need, outlines the issues involved, and
offers suggestions on some of the points that should be kept
in mind when designing grant programs for this purpose.

The Andean region of Puno, known as the
altiplano, is located at 3,830 meters above sea level. The
terrain is prone to flooding, and thus difficult to
cultivate. In order to deal with this situation, Andean
indigenous populations displaced huge amounts of soil in
order to create raised fields that were better adapted to
agricultural use. Raised fields resolved many of the
problems that affect agriculture at high altitude. The

Experience has shown that money
compensation payments to individual citizens are ineffective
when used alone as a means to achieve the Bank's aims
and World Bank for evidence on the Bank's experience].
Instead, the Bank's advice is that compensation
payments should be a part of a wider, coordinated package of
development assistance. It is not the purpose of this Note
to describe how such a package should be developed, or

The Niger River Basin Authority (NBA)
brings together nine countries to promote integrated water
resources management across political borders. The nine -
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire,
Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria have embraced a shared
vision to build institutional capacity, political agreement,
and public support for cooperation. The countries agree that
sustainable management and development of the basin's

The note looks at poverty in Ecuador,
assessing macroeconomic developments through its policies to
maintain stability with fiscal discipline, and increase
economic productivity and competitiveness, in particular,
the 1998/99 crisis, the 2000 dollarization and their effect
on poverty. From 1990 to 2001, national consumption-based
poverty rose from 40 to 45 percent, and the number of poor
people increased from 3.5 to 5.2 million. Poverty increased