Carbon accounting and labeling for
products are new instruments of supply chain management that
may affect developing country export opportunities. Most
instruments in use today are private business management
tools, although the underlying science and methodologies may
spread to issues subject to public regulation. This note
seeks to inform stakeholders involved in the design of
carbon labeling schemes and in the making of carbon emission

Stimulating agricultural growth is
critical to reducing poverty in Africa. Commercial
agriculture, potentially a powerful driver of agricultural
growth, can develop along a number of pathways. Yet many
developing regions have failed to progress very far along
any of these pathways. Particularly in Africa, agriculture
continues to lag. During the past 30 years the
competitiveness of many African export crops has declined,

Most of the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) cannot meet current water demand. Many countries face
full-blown crises, and the situation is likely to get even
worse. Estimates show that per capita water availability
will be cut in half by 2050, with serious consequences for
aquifers and natural hydrological systems. Demand for water
supplies and irrigation services will change as economies
grow and populations increase, with an attendant need to

Western and Central Africa have lengthy
experience with public-private partnerships (PPPs), both for
water supply and for combined power and water supply
utilities. Cote d'Ivoire's successful PPP dates
from 1959, and, over the last two decades, as many as 15 out
of 23 countries in the region have experimented with PPPs.
Eleven PPPs are studied here, and detailed performance
indicators are reported for six large cases-Cote

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

The 2008 World Bank project performance
data shows improvement in achieving development outcomes,
allaying concerns that the weakened 2007 performance could
signal a new downward trend. The decline in performance in
2007 was modest, and it has rebounded in 2008. Bank
performance is rated on a six-point scale, from highly
satisfactory to highly unsatisfactory. The percentage of
satisfactory projects increased in 2008, continuing a steady

Developing countries are most exposed to
the impact of climate change and within these countries, the
poor face the brunt of the burden. Climate change is not a
discrete problem that can be dealt with through isolated
reforms: impacting economic growth, health, and
institutional capacity, it represents a full-frontal
challenge to development. This note traces the
multi-dimensional impacts of climate change, particularly on

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

Carbon accounting and labeling for
products are new instruments of supply chain management that
may affect developing country export opportunities. Most
instruments in use today are private business management
tools, although the underlying science and methodologies may
spread to issues subject to public regulation. This note
seeks to inform stakeholders involved in the design of
carbon labeling schemes and in the making of carbon emission

Poor urban populations in Southern
cities are already experiencing the negative impacts of
changing weather patterns associated with climate change and
climate variability and future projections suggest that
these impacts will get worse. Severe weather patterns,
experienced as prolonged droughts, intense rainfall or wind
speed cause substantial damage to the assets and well-being
of city-dwellers, causing localized flooding, housing

The first of a series on climate change,
this evaluation assesses International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International
Development Association (IDA) experience with key win-win
policies in the energy sector. It focuses on energy price
reform and policies for energy efficiency, both of which
offer potentially large gains at the country level together
with significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The

This report summarize on the burden of
environmental policies within countries. Climate change
policies will have distributional consequences across and
within countries. Most of the current environmental policy
instruments tend to be regressive and impose a higher burden
on the poor. Despite their limitations, more systematic
incidence assessments for climate change (CC) policies are
needed so that adaptation and mitigation policies address