The new scenario framework facilitates the coupling of multiple socioeconomic reference pathways with climate model products using the representative concentration pathways. This will allow for improved assessment of climate impacts, adaptation and mitigation. Assumptions about climate policy play a major role in linking socioeconomic futures with forcing and climate outcomes. The paper presents the concept of shared climate policy assumptions as an important element of the new scenario framework.

Multi-taxon surveys were conducted in species-rich, lowland palaeotropical and neotropical forested landscapes in Sumatra, Indonesia and Mato Grosso, Brazil. Gradient-directed transects (gradsects) were sampled across a range of forested land use mosaics, using a uniform protocol to simultaneously record vegetation (vascular plant species, plant functional types (PFTs) and vegetation structure), vertebrates (birds, mammals) and invertebrates (termites), in addition to measuring site and soil properties, including carbon stocks.

GFDRR was established in September 2006
as a global partnership of the World Bank, UN agencies and
bilateral donors, located in World Bank headquarters in
Washington, DC. Its missions are (a) to mainstream disaster
reduction and climate change adaptation (CCA) in country
development strategies, and (b) to foster and strengthen
global and regional cooperation among various stakeholders
under the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

The provention consortium was created in
February 2000 as a formal partnership between the World
Bank, other International Financial Institutions (IFIs),
bilateral donor organizations, the insurance sector, the
academic community, and civil society. Designed as a
think-tank to commission research and to disseminate risk
reduction tools, the provention secretariat was to rotate
from one partner organization to another. Thus, after three

Worldwide urbanization has become a crucial issue in recent years. Bangladesh, one of the poorest and most densely-populated countries in the world, has been facing rapid urbanization. In urban areas, maternal indicators are generally worse in the slums than in the urban non-slum areas. The Manoshi program at BRAC, a non governmental organization, works to improve maternal, newborn, and child health in the urban slums of Bangladesh. This paper describes maternal related beliefs and practices in the urban slums of Dhaka and provides baseline information for the Manoshi program.

This publication is a lobby material to advocate the passage of the National Land Use Act. It shows the adverse effects of the lack of land use planning in coastal communities especially in the advent of  a natural disaster. This publication features the Typhoon Haiyan-affected coastal communities in the Visayas Region of the Philippines as examples. It also recommends how this dismal situation could be lessened in the future.

A BILL for AN ACT of Parliament to provide a framework for the contracting, exploration, development and production of petroleum; cessation of upstream petroleum operations; to give effect to relevant articles of the Constitution in so far as they apply to upstream petroleum operations; and for connected purposes.

The World Bank Group’s investment climate project conducted a survey of foreign investors in the Kyrgyz Republic - both those currently operating and those that have terminated their operations for various reasons. The purpose of the survey was to assess selected aspects of the investment policy and legal environment in place in the Kyrgyz Republic, so as to determine whether the current regulations are investment-conducive or otherwise.

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF)
presents the World Bank Group (WBG) program for Côte
d’Ivoire (CIV) during the period FY16-FY19. The CPF comes at
an opportune moment to accelerate and scale up the WBG
engagement. The program will take advantage of CIV’s current
climate of renewed stability to modernize the economy and
eliminate long-standing disparities aggravated by a decade
of multifaceted crisis, during which the World Bank Group

Costa Rica stands out for being one of
the most politically stable, progressive, and prosperous
nations in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Political
stability and inclusive social policies have contributed to
solid growth rates and the modernization of the country. The
combination of political stability, the social compact and
steady growth, has resulted in one of the lowest poverty
rates in LAC. Costa Rica is also a global leader for its

This program document presents the World
Bank Group (WBG) program and results framework for the
Serbia country partnership framework (CPF) for FY2016-20.
For the first time since 2001, when the transition to a
market economy began accelerating, Serbia has a government
with a solid majority in parliament, enabling it to initiate
and implement the deep reforms necessary to create a
competitive economy and raise the income of the bottom forty

The country partnership framework (CPF)
for Azerbaijan covering the period FY2016-20, sets out the
World Bank Group (WBG) support to the country on its path
toward a sustainable, inclusive, and private sector-led
growth underpinned by a diversified asset base. The
country’s strategic goals are laid out in its development
strategy - Azerbaijan 2020: vision for the future and other
strategic documents that aim at reducing Azerbaijan’s