Infrastructure investments are typically
long-term. As a result, observed benefits to households and
communities may vary considerably over time as short-term
outcomes generate or are subsumed by longer-term impacts.
This paper uses a new round of household survey as part of a
local government engineering department's rural road
improvement project financed by the World Bank in Bangladesh
to compare the short-term and long-term effects of rural

At an average above 6.0 percent per year
over the past two decades, Uganda' s growth rate was
impressive by all standards. In parallel, poverty declined
significantly, not only in urban areas, but also to some
extent within the rural areas. This combination was possible
because the key drivers of growth were labor-intensive
services sectors, some of which are agriculture based. In
fact, Uganda's growth process has reduced overall

This report looks beyond the current
global financial crisis to the restoration of dynamic
long-run growth in Serbia. The answer in this report is that
Serbia will need to fundamentally alter its growth model to
compete effectively in world markets. The past model relying
on excessive inflows of capital and credit that, in part,
fuelled a consumption boom has run its course in all
European countries. Serbia must shift to a greater export

This report was prepared to provide
information and analysis of the Samoan livestock sub-sector
for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries through a
technical assistance assignment financed by the World Bank.
The Word Bank contributed technical assistance support to
the Government of Samoa to help identify measures to
strengthen agriculture sector institutions, to improve the
performance of selected commodities - including in the

World development indicators 2011, the
15th edition in its current format, aims to provide
relevant, high-quality, internationally comparable
statistics about development and the quality of
people's lives around the globe. Fifteen years ago,
World development indicators was overhauled and redesigned,
organizing the data to present an integrated view of
development, with the goal of putting these data in the

There is overwhelming consensus amongst
climate scientists that the Earth's warming in recent
decades has been caused primarily by human activities that
have increased the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the
atmosphere. To mitigate the most serious impacts of climate
change a range of different strategies to lower carbon
dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere are required.
Building on outcomes and recommendations from various

They are being hailed as the new Holy
Grail of economic development. The success of special
economic zones (SEZ) in general and specialized ones in
particular (industrial and technology parks) in countries as
diverse as Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland,
Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and
more recently, China; Korea; Taiwan, China; or Mauritius,
has led several African leaders to launch new similar

As donors pledge growing support for
protecting and managing forests to address climate change,
the question of how to pay tropical countries to reduce
their emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
assumes greater urgency. Depending on the detailed
implementation of REDD plus at a national and international
level, forest nations may be able to secure funding from a
range of sources, including donors and multilateral funds (a

Since 1999, Nigeria has made significant
progress in economic reform. Sound macroeconomic policies,
combined with structural reforms aimed at increasing the
supply responsiveness of the economy, ushered in sustained
high growth, driven by the non-oil economy. The goal of this
book is to shed light on the extent to which Nigeria's
much improved economic performance has impacted the labor
market, and to develop a growth strategy that could enhance

Numerous opportunities exist to improve
the performance of Samoa's fresh fruit and vegetable
(F&V) sector. Current per capita consumption appears to
be low by regional and global standards indicating prospects
for future demand growth and a need for increased awareness
of the dietary benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption.
A large share of the existing demand for fruits and
vegetables is being met by imports and there appears to be

The purpose of this paper is to provide
information on how to transform and strengthen pluralistic
agricultural extension and advisory systems in moving toward
the broader goal of increasing farm income and improving
rural livelihoods. The focus of this book is primarily on
the technical knowledge, management skills, and information
services that small-scale farm households will need to
improve their livelihoods in the rapidly changing global

This paper examines the role of social
safety-net programs in Bangladesh run by the government and
nongovernmental organizations to mitigate seasonal
deprivation in the country's highly vulnerable
northwest region. Specifically, the paper explores whether
social safety nets are limited to averting seasonal
deprivation or can also address seasonality of income and
employment more generally. Using a recent survey from the