This paper explores how the ongoing
crisis, the policy responses to it, and the post-crisis
global economy will impact China's medium-term
prospects for growth, poverty reduction, and development.
The paper reviews China's pre-crisis growth experience,
including its relationship to global economic developments.
It discusses the pace, composition, sources, and financing
of growth during 1995-2007, and the impact of key external

This issue of environment matters
celebrates the 2010 international year of biodiversity and
describes some of the challenges and opportunities in
protecting biodiversity for the benefit of humankind. From
the world's highest mountain ranges to the lowland
plains, and from the great oceans and coastal wetlands to
agricultural landscapes, nations and communities rely on the
bounty and services of natural ecosystems. Biological

Cotton is a major source of foreign
exchange earnings in more than 15 countries across all
regions of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) and a crucial source of
cash income for millions of rural people in these countries.
The crop is, therefore, critical in the fight against rural
poverty. The World Bank and other development institutions
have been and are currently assisting many cotton exporting
countries of SSA to improve their cotton sector performance

This report summarizes the findings of
the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa
(CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the
feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and
growth in African agriculture through the identification of
products and production systems that can underpin rapid
development of a competitive commercial agriculture. The
CCAA study focused on the agricultural potential of

The Southeast Asian Tigers feel
threatened. Even though their growth rates have remained
above the average for the world and also above the average
for developing countries, their economic performance falls
short of that in the first half of the 1990s. The underlying
worry is that it presages the beginning of a downward trend,
the harbingers of which are lower rates of investment,
persistently low rates of total factor productivity, and low

Mauritania has undergone massive
economic and political changes. Mauritania is a West African
country located on the western edge of the Sahara desert,
with a population of approximately 3 million people that is
mostly concentrated in the urban areas. Since independence
in the 1960s, Mauritania's economy has been dependent
on natural resources, iron ore first then combined with
fisheries, and presently oil and other minerals. Natural

Based on analysis of recent data on the
evolution of global temperatures, snow and ice covers, and
sea level rise, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) has recently declared that "warming of
the climate system is unequivocal." Global surface
temperatures, in particular, have increased during the past
50 years at twice the speed observed during the first half
of the 20th century. The IPCC has also concluded that with

This mid-term review has been undertaken
to assess progress in the implementation of the Eleventh
Five-Year Plan (11th 5YP) during its first two years and a
half, draw preliminary lessons, and make recommendations for
policy adjustments. The review examines the following
strategic objectives: ensuring the stable operation of the
macro economy and improving living standards; optimizing and
upgrading of industrial structure; increasing energy

The issue of regional differences in
development has moved to the center of the development
debate in Sri Lanka, partly after the release of regional
poverty data. For the past many years, there have been
significant and increasing differences between the Western
province and the rest of the country in terms of per capita
income levels, growth rates of per capita income, poverty
rates, and the structure of provincial economies. The

Ethiopia's rural non-farm sector is
significant and participation is increasing. The sector is
particularly important for women and poorer households.
Non-farm enterprises provide income-earning opportunities to
those lacking alternative options and supplementary income
for farming households. This report is organized into seven
chapters. The first chapter lays the analytical groundwork
for assessing the rural investment climate in Ethiopia and

Sudan is in the 10th year of its longest
and strongest growth episode since independence, benefiting
from the advent of oil in 1999. This report proposes a
growth strategy for Sudan that reduces its dependence on
oil, while building an economic foundation for a
diversified, inclusive and sustainable growth path.
Specifically, Sudan's near term strategy should focus
on: a) developing and maintaining the necessary enabling

While the economic returns to using
chemical fertilizer in Africa can be large, application
rates are low. This study explores whether this is due to
missing and imperfect markets. Results based on a panel
survey of Ethiopian farmers suggest that while fertilizer
markets are not altogether missing in rural Ethiopia, high
transport costs, unfavorable climate, price risk, and
illiteracy present formidable hurdles to farmer