This study explores the international
development community's understanding of poverty and
illustrates how it is related to environmental degradation.
the study relies on three sources: a comprehensive general
literature review, a review of past donor interventions in
Nigeria, and original empirical evidence. The linkages found
between poverty and environmental degradation are based on
240 household surveys analyzed by income quintiles

Since independence in 1966,
Guyana's economy has gone through a state control of
major productive sectors, and financial institutions -
including controls of prices, credit, and foreign exchange -
to a combination of political/social unrest, with terms of
trade deterioration, and slow economic growth. This led
Guyana to become the fourth poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere, despite its rich endowment in mineral resources,

This report represents a snapshot of a
dialogue between the State of Piaui and the World Bank and
focuses on the strategies and actions the State Government
may wish to adopt. Piaui's challenge is to build
institutions that address its weaknesses and exploit its
strengths. Addressing weaknesses implies continuing with
efforts to improve education, raising productivity in
small-scale agriculture, increasing public participation in

Despite the impressive performance of
the economy in the last five years, however, poverty in
Albania has remained high, and per capita income, at around
US$1,230 in 2002, has remained one of the lowest among
transition economies. In an effort to adopt policies to
share widely the benefits of growth, and reduce poverty, the
Government outlined a poverty alleviation strategy in the
2000 Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP), and

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

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 Country Economic Memorandum is the
first economic report in a decade. It gives priority to
updating knowledge about the evolution of social and
economic developments during the 1990s. It reviewareas of
progress in macroeconomic reforms and the lack of success in
governance and institutional reforms. Substantial reforms
were undertaken in this period , but the civil war continued
to have a serious negative impact on Sudan's people and

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

Progress in Vietnam has been substantial
when other dimensions of poverty, apart from expenditures,
are considered. The broader Vietnam Development Goals
(VDGs), which are a localized version of the Millennium
Development Goals, show a consistent improvement of social
indicators, from education enrollment to infant mortality.
While some regions and some population groups gained more
than others, Vietnam continues to reduce poverty

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

Timor-Leste has achieved enormous
progress in rehabilitating its economy, reconstructing its
infrastructure, reintegrating its refugees and building the
key elements of a sustainable political process in an
environment of internal peace. It now faces many challenges
of nation-building and of overcoming the deprivation
affecting the lives of the poor. This report written in two
volumes lays out the challenge of poverty reduction in

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