This paper uses Ethiopian data to
explore credit rationing in semi-formal credit markets and
its effects on farmers' resource allocation and crop
productivity. Credit rationing -- both voluntarily and
involuntarily -- is found to be widespread in the sampled
rural villages, largely because of risk-related factors.
Political and social networks emerge as key determinants of
access to credit among smallholder, peasant farmers.

This paper quantifies the contributions
to distributional changes observed in Pakistan over the last
decade. In contrast to methods that focus on aggregate
summary statistics, the method adopted in this paper
generates entire counterfactual distributions to account for
the contributions of demographics, labor and non-labor
incomes in explaining poverty reduction. The results show
that the most important contributor was the growth in

The Living Standards Measurement Study
(LSMS) surveys which have collected information on many
dimensions of household well-being for over 36 countries
since 1980 are one of the most important data sources for
informing policy making on development. The LSMS surveys
have been used to assess household welfare, to understand
household behavior, and to evaluate the welfare impact of
various government policies. These surveys, however, lack

Tajikistan is highly vulnerable to the
adverse impacts of global climate change, as it already
suffers from low agricultural productivity, water stress,
and high losses from disasters. Public awareness of the
multiple consequences of climate change is high, with
possible impacts on health, natural disasters, and
agriculture of greatest public concern. Climate change can
potentially deepen poverty by lowering agricultural yields,

Linking farmers to markets is widely
viewed as a milestone towards promoting economic growth and
poverty reduction. However, market and institutional
imperfections along the supply chain thwart perfect vertical
and spatial price transmission and prevent farmers and
market actors from getting access to information,
identifying business opportunities and allocating their
resources efficiently. This acts as a barrier to market-led

The Kingdom of Lesotho is a land-locked
nation located in the Drakensberg mountain range in Southern
Africa. The country has a total area of 30355 km² and in
2009 had an estimated population of nearly 2.1 million, with
nominal per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$ 1080
(in 2010). About 75 percent live in rural areas, often in
scattered mountain villages, while most of the urban
population lives in and around the capital Maseru and the

The World Bank, with the financial
support of the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF), is
implementing the Alternative Indigenous and Afro-Descendants
and Agroforestry Project (COCOA-RAAN) in the indigenous and
Afro-descended (Miskito) regions of Nicaragua. The
implementing agency, the Agro-forestry coordinating
association of indigenous peoples and farmers, is a regional
Non government Organization (NGO) 'focused on seeking

This country note for Georgia is part of
a series of country briefs that summarize information
relevant to climate change and agriculture for three
countries in the Southern Caucasus Region, with a particular
focus on climate and crop projections, adaptation options,
policy development and institutional involvement. The note
series has been developed to provide a baseline of knowledge
on climate change and agriculture for the countries

This report presents the impact and
lessons learned from the Andhra Pradesh Drought Adaptation
Initiative (APDAI). The APDAI was implemented as a package
of pilot activities in two dryland districts in Andhra
Pradesh (Anantapur and Mahbubnagar) with the aim of
developing and testing approaches for natural resource-based
economic activities to better respond to current climate
variability and long-term consequences of climate change.

Cote d'Ivoire was an economic
success story in the first twenty years of independence, but
a sharp reversal began in 1980 and by 1993 per capita
incomes was back to the level of 1960. Devaluation of the
African Financial Community (CFA) franc triggered an
economic rebound, but this was soon undermined by the
political crisis beginning in 1999. Just as the economy was
starting to move forward, a new crisis struck in early 2011,

As the world begins to feel the effects
of climate change, the frequency of droughts is increasing
in the Horn of Africa. In Kenya, the drought and food crisis
affect welfare through two main channels. The first channel
is the increased mortality of livestock in drought-affected
areas, which are home to 10 percent of the country's
population. The second channel is by exacerbating increases
in food prices, which are largely driven by worldwide price

Economic growth in West Bank and Gaza
(WB&G) slowed in the first quarter (Q1) of 2012. The
real growth rate is estimated to have reached 5.6 percent,
more than three percentage points lower than the Q1 2011
growth figure and almost one percent lower than the growth
forecast contained in the Palestinian Authority's
(PA's) budget. This decline is attributed to a major
slowdown in Gaza, where real growth decreased from 21.3