This regional study encompasses three
Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
Honduras. The focus of this report is Honduras. The
objective of the study is to understand how broad-based
economic growth can be stimulated and sustained in rural
Central America. The study identifies "drivers" of
sustainable rural growth and poverty reduction. Drivers are
defined as the assets and combinations of assets needed by

Bangladesh has marked considerable
progress since independence in 1971 despite its dire initial
conditions. Real per capita income is about 60percent higher
now than in 1971. The share of population in poverty
currently stands at about 50 percent, compared with over 70
percent in the early 1970s. Even more impressive has been
the progress in improving the social and human dimensions of
poverty. Bangladesh's faster gains in human development

The report provides detailed information
on the geographical distribution of poverty and
vulnerability throughout the country - i.e. regions,
provinces and communes. The information presented is
essential to understand poverty at the local level, and to
address it with appropriate sectoral or cross-sectoral
strategies. Further, when local poverty rates are analyzed
alongside public expenditure data, an initial assessment for

This poverty assessment for Romania
covers the period from 1995 to 2002, since the last World
Bank poverty analysis reviewed the evolution of poverty from
1989 to 1994, the early years of transition from a socialist
to a market economy. This assessment's objective is to
understand how poverty has evolved and how economic growth
and social protection programs, 10 percent of GDP, have
affected poverty, as Romania prepares for accession to the

Following the collapse of the Soviet
Union, Moldova faced the deepest and most prolonged
recession among transition countries, and the resulting
increase in poverty has made it the poorest country in
Europe today. The main objective of this report is to update
and assess poverty in Moldova in its multiple dimensions,
with a view to informing public policies. It focuses on the
period of recession that followed the Russian crisis and the

The goal of this report has been to
assist the Kyrgyz authorities in designing and implementing
their National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS). An interim
report focusing on the relation between growth and poverty,
with detailed analysis o f transmission mechanisms in labor
market and agricultural sector was presented to the
authorities in August 2002. The interim report delivery was
driven by the schedule of NPRS preparation. This final

This report provides public policy
makers with the information necessary to develop a rural
infrastructure strategy, it was not intended to represent a
strategy per se, merely to highlight the issues that need
greater consideration in the definition of a strategy. It
starts with an inventory of existing rural infrastructure
assets and a description of current institutional
arrangements. It follows with a snapshot of local

This regional study encompasses three
Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
Honduras. The focus of this report is Nicaragua. The
objective of the study is to understand how broad-based
economic growth can be stimulated, and sustained in rural
Central America. The study identifies "drivers" of
sustainable rural growth and poverty reduction, where
drivers are defined as the assets and combinations of assets

This regional study encompasses three
Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
Honduras. The focus of this report is Nicaragua. The
objective of the study is to understand how broad-based
economic growth can be stimulated, and sustained in rural
Central America. The study identifies "drivers" of
sustainable rural growth and poverty reduction, where
drivers are defined as the assets and combinations of assets

This report reviews poverty in Armenia
in 2001, and examines the most recent trends covering the
1998/99 to 2001 period. It looks at the determinants of
poverty, and analyzes linkages between economic growth,
sector policies and poverty. The findings are based on two
rounds of the Armenia Integrated Living Conditions Survey
(ILCS), one carried out in 1998/99, and the other in 2001.
The report has contributed to the development of

This regional study encompasses three
Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala and
Honduras. The focus of this report is Guatemala. The study
is motivated by several factors: First is the recognition
that sub-national regions are becoming increasingly
heterogeneous, and economically differentiated as part of
ongoing processes of development and diversification, with
some areas advancing, and others being left behind. Second

Poverty is the central development issue
in Tajikistan. The country is now one of the poorest in the
world. It was made worse by the civil conflict in the early
1990s. This report suggests that there should be four key
pillars to a poverty reduction program strategy: a) the
stimulation of high labor productivity and economic growth;
b) the provision of basic social services; c) the targeting
of assistance to the poorest; and d) the development of a