This study assesses the development
effectiveness of World Bank assistance in addressing
constraints to agricultural development in Africa over the
period of fiscal years 1991-2006. This Independent
Evaluation Group (IEG) review of World Bank assistance to
agriculture in Africa has a twofold purpose. First, it is a
pilot for the proposed IEG study on Bank-wide assistance in
agriculture scheduled for fiscal year 2009. Second, the

Beyond the City evaluates the
contribution of rural development and policies to growth,
poverty alleviation, and environmental degradation in the
rest of the economy, as well as in the rural space. This
title brings together new theoretical and empirical
treatments of the links between rural and national
development. New findings and are combined with existing
literature to enhance our understanding of the how rural

Despite significant changes in poverty
overall in Latin America, the proportion of indigenous
peoples living in poverty did not change much from the early
1990s to the present. While earlier work focused on human
development, much less has been done on the distribution and
returns to income-generating assets and the effect these
have on income generation strategies. The authors show that
low income and low assets are mutually reinforcing. For

The 1997 Indonesian financial crisis
resulted in severe economic dislocation and political
upheaval, and the detrimental consequences for economic
welfare, physical health, and child education have been
previously established in numerous studies. We also find the
crisis adversely impacted population psychological
well-being. We document substantial increases in several
different dimensions of psychological distress among male

This paper analyzes the effect of
facilities and infrastructure available at the market place
on a farmer's decision to sell at the market using a
comprehensive survey of farmers, markets and villages
conducted in Tamil Nadu, India in 2005. The econometric
estimation shows that the likelihood of sales at the market
increases significantly with an improvement in market
facilities and a decrease in travel time from the village to

The importance of the tertiary road
sector in contributing to economic development and poverty
alleviation efforts cannot be understated. In Albania,
forty-nine percent of rural producers have stated that a
lack of adequate transportation, primarily good roads, was
their biggest marketing problem. In Bosnia and Herzegovina,
there is discontent about the quality of the regional and
tertiary roads, with complaints about the low quality of

Yemen is the second poorest country in
the Middle East and North Africa region, with 42 percent of
its population counted as poor in 1998. GDP has stagnated at
around US$530 per capita in real terms since 2002.
Unemployment, estimated at 11.5 percent in 1999, is expected
to have worsened as the population has climbed at 3 percent
a year and the labor force has burgeoned. Extreme gender
inequalities persist. Malnutrition is so severe that Yemeni

The report analyses the contribution to
date of agricultural water management to poverty reduction
and growth in the in sub-Saharan Africa region, the reasons
for its slow expansion and apparently poor track record, as
well as the ways in which increased investment in
agricultural water management could make a sustainable
contribution to further poverty reduction and growth. The
first chapter places agricultural water management in the

From what was historically known as
'Arabia Felix', a land of prosperity and
happiness, Yemen has become the most impoverished among the
Arab countries. The government of the united Yemen, formed
in 1990, has launched so far three five-year economic reform
plans with the goal of restoring Yemen's prosperity.
Have these efforts succeeded? What policies are needed to
further reduce poverty? The poverty assessment report aims

Indonesian agriculture is at a
crossroads. Supporting the livelihood of millions of
Indonesians, it needs to underpin renewed and robust growth
of the economy; and be a key component of the
Government's poverty alleviation strategy. The
challenge for the future is to reinvigorate productivity
gains among rural producers, and provide the foundation for
long run sustainability of these productivity gains.

This report focuses on the potential and
opportunities for smallholder commercialization in Zambia.
The paper discusses the framework for Zambia's
smallholder commercialization strategy, the current state of
smallholder agriculture in Zambia, key issues, support from
agribusiness to smallholders, and development of potential
and opportunities for smallholder commercialization. The
paper concludes with three strategy areas: how to strengthen

This report, which has been prepared by
the World Bank in cooperation with the National Statistical
Committee, provides an assessment of poverty in the Kyrgyz
Republic using the most recent data available. The objective
of this report is to understand to what extent economic
growth has reduced poverty and led to improved living
conditions for the population during 2000-2005. The report
also attempts to answer three questions about the Kyrgyz