This report is the final product of a country case study prepared in the framework of the comparative analysis of organization and performance of cotton sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, a study published by the World Bank in 2008.

In 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA, 2005) provided the first comprehensive report on global ecosystems, the dependence of human societies on the services provided, current state, and likely future trajectory. The MA identified the failure to value ecosystem services as a major contributing cause. The 2001 environment strategy did not explicitly address environmental valuation, although the focus on poverty and environment implies a need for valuing natural resources and environmental services.

This report on Sudan's Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) provides a baseline assessment of challenges to productivity, diversification and inclusion. Chapter 1 describes some of the questions underlying the three issues of competitiveness, diversification and broad-based growth. Chapter 2 analyzes firm performance and competitiveness. Chapter 3 discusses markets and trust. Chapter 4 describes the role of the financial sector. Chapter 5 analyses the informal sector. Chapter 6 discusses the conflict-affected private sector development.

The climate change (CC) caused by increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 and other Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), can be addressed through adaptation and mitigation strategies. Adaptation consists of strategies which minimize vulnerability to CC. The objective is to increase resilience of the ecosystems and communities through adoption of specific sustainable land management (SLM) techniques that have adaptive benefits. On the other hand, the goal of mitigation strategies is to enhance soil and vegetation (land) sinks for absorbing atmospheric CO2 and to minimize net emissions.

Coffee is an ecologically and economically significant crop for Haiti. It is not only the main source of income for more than 100,000 farmers, but the coffee ecosystem also sustains a large part of the remaining tree cover (currently at less than 1.5 percent of land) of the country. This report does not aim to detail the structural constraints impacting upon the Haitian coffee sub-sector.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has always mattered in agriculture. Ever since people have grown crops, raised livestock, and caught fish, they have sought information from one another. Today, ICT represents a tremendous opportunity for rural populations to improve productivity, to enhance food and nutrition security, to access markets, and to find employment opportunities in a revitalized sector. ICT has unleashed incredible potential to improve agriculture, and it has found a foothold even in poor smallholder farms.

This study of 23 leases over land on the island of Epi is the first of the Jastis Blong Evriwan (JBE) research activities to examine land and natural resource management (L&NRM) and access to justice on particular Vanuatu islands. The research will be repeated on the island of Tanna. To inform the broader context of land leasing in Vanuatu, JBE, in collaboration with the government of Vanuatu, has begun collecting and analyzing government land-leasing data.

A 'bottom up' regional Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE) model for Vietnam is constructed for 28 commodities and 8 regions (using a GSO input-output table for 2005). The model is used to analyze the recent dramatic increases in the world price of rice on the regional economy of Vietnam, and the Vietnamese policy response to limit exports.

The tsunami that originated from the Indian Ocean in 2004 wreaked massive destruction, killing more than 130,000 people and displacing half a million individuals in Aceh, Indonesia. More than 800 kilometers of coastline was affected, and close to 53,795 land parcels were destroyed. The land administration system sustained significant damage because documentation of land ownership was washed away along with people's houses and other possessions in the affected communities. Physical boundary markers, including trees and fences, also disappeared.

Biologically diverse ecosystems in countries served by the World Bank provide an array of valuable economic services. While the benefits of conserving ecosystems frequently outweigh the costs, conversion of these ecosystems to other uses occurs anyway, because many ecosystem benefits are of a public good nature, without markets that would reflect their real value.

The present study focuses on gender while analyzing the effects of the Rural Poverty Reduction Project (RPRP) on the use of time and income generation as well as on cultural and social capital aspects. The study was based on a pilot project in Rio Grande do Norte designed to reinforce actions of the RPRP's focus on gender. The study should be viewed only as an exploratory evaluation that can be indicative of project effects, since the sample used was small and the time span between the subproject's implementation and the collection of impact data was short (only one year).

Botswana represents one of the few development success stories in Sub-Saharan Africa. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaged almost 9 percent between 1960 and 2005, far above the Sub-Saharan Africa average. Real GDP per capita grew even faster, averaging more than 10 percent a year -- the most rapid economic growth of any country in the world. The crucial question is: Why has Botswana grown the way it has done, and what lessons does it offer?