This issues paper discusses a gender
assessment exercise carried out in April-June 2005. It
provides the government of Mali and its partners with
proposals aimed at improving policies and activities that
promote gender equity and equality (GEE). The study is
divided into four sections: Section 1 presents the national
context within which the study falls; Section 2 deals with
the gender profile in Mali; Section 3 addresses the

Over the past five years in Turkey, the
agricultural and rural sector has seen substantial change in
transfer policies which now place greater emphasis on
improved equity and investment. These have been summarized
in the earlier World Bank "Review of the Impact of the
Reform of Agricultural Sector Subsidization (2004), and
"Policy and Investment Priorities for Agricultural and
Rural Development" (2005). Currently, the structural

The Government of Vanuatu requested
assistance from the World Bank to strengthen utility
regulation. The government wants a regulatory system which
will ensure that water, electricity and telecommunications
services are provided efficiently, to a good quality
standard, at reasonable prices. The public private
infrastructure advisory facility provided funding for
Castalia and network strategies to carry out an initial

Jharkhand, India's youngest and
28th state came into existence in November 2000 pursuant to
the reorganization of the erstwhile State of Bihar by the
Bihar State Reorganization Act, 2000. More than 77 percent
of the population of the state resides in rural areas and
depends on agriculture for sustenance. Jharkhand is one of
the richest states in the country in terms of mineral
resources. Close to half of the gross domestic product

The land challenge is central to the broader youth dynamics of migration, employment, livelihoods and belonging. The more than 1.8 billion youth living worldwide represent not only a land challenge, but an untapped potential in moving the tenure security agenda forward. Recognizing this, the Global Land Tool Network has partnered with UN-Habitat to develop youth responsive land tools through the Youth-led Action Research on Land program. Five action research projects will be undertaken by youth organizations in Brazil, Kenya, Nepal, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

The present study reports on the
Government of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau's efforts
to develop a comprehensive strategy for enhancing land
rights security and achieving social and economic
development objectives. This report is divided into two main
parts. The first part summarizes the current state of
development of the government s land policy, as well as the
legal and traditional framework existing for land tenure

The primary objective of this report is
to provide a coherent and comprehensive review on integrated
urban water management (IUWM) approach to assist public
authorities to identify and address the future challenges of
urban water supply, sanitation and flood management in
African cities. This report presents the existing and future
challenges in Africa, the possible options for innovative
technologies and approaches for their breakthrough and a way

Many key development outcomes depend on
women's ability to negotiate favorable intrahousehold
allocations of resources. Yet it has been difficult to
clearly identify which policies can increase women's
bargaining power and result in better outcomes. This paper
reviews both the analytical frameworks and the empirical
evidence on the importance of women's bargaining power.
It argues that there is sufficient evidence from rigorous

This study responds to the need for
information and analysis on the urban sector in Sudan, to
inform the Bank's policy dialogue with the Government
of Sudan (GoS) on urban and local government issues, and to
inform the design of future Bank assistance. The first phase
of this analytical exercise, which is the focus of this
report, develops an overview of the urban landscape. The
report is structured as follows: section two describes the

This report responds to a request by the
Government of Malaysia to examine how Malaysia can move up
the value chain in the solar and medical device industries.
Through the lens of long-term development, the overall
growth performance of the Malaysian economy has been a
resounding success story. The Commission on growth and
development listed Malaysia as one of only 13 countries that
registered sustained growth of 7 percent or more for a

The objective of this analysis is to
assess the state of progress of risk management in Colombia
and propose recommendations to help the Government set
public policy in the short-and long-term. For this reason,
the study sought to: (i) establish the risk and impact of
disasters in recent decades, (ii) identify legal,
institutional and conceptual themes in the country, (iii)
review the state and evolution of investment in risk

This study attempts to quantify the
benefits that could be obtained for the country of
Afghanistan from the developments of the Aynak copper and
Hajigak iron ore deposits and to discuss policies and
programs-based on the experience of other countries-that
will tend to maximize the benefits from these and other
mines. In this study, the potential economic benefits to
Afghanistan of its mining sector will be analyzed, focusing