The challenges facing the water sector in Egypt are enormous and require the mobilization of all resources and the management of these resources in an integrated manner. Changes in the way water resources are currently allocated and managed are inevitable. Accordingly, a National Water Resources Plan for Egypt (NWRP) was launched. The NWRP is a comprehensive document which describes how Egypt will safeguard its water resources in the future, both with respect to quantity and quality, and how it will use these resources in the best way from a socio-economic and environmental point of view.

Seasonal poverty in Bangladesh, locally
known as monga, refers to seasonal deprivation of food
during the pre-harvest season of Aman rice. An analysis of
household income and expenditure survey data shows that
average household income and consumption are much lower
during monga season than in other seasons, and that seasonal
income greatly influences seasonal consumption. However,
lack of income and consumption smoothing is more acute in

Despite the large potential of the
agricultural sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
production is still limited by a lack of technical knowledge
and, in many cases, an unwillingness to change agricultural
practices inherited from Soviet times. The problem has more
than one cause: poor technology, management skills, and
quality of produce prevent farms from joining agribusiness
supply chains. Limited access to financing further prevents

This report reviews China's water
scarcity situation, assesses the policy and institutional
requirements for addressing it, and recommends key areas for
strengthening and reform. It is a synthesis of the main
findings and recommendations from analytical work and case
studies prepared under the World Bank Analytical and
Advisory Assistance (AAA) program entitled 'Addressing
China's Water Scarcity: from Analysis to Action.'

The objective of this paper is to
determine the ability of farmers in Africa to detect climate
change, and to ascertain how they have adapted to whatever
climate change they believe has occurred. The paper also
asks farmers whether they perceive any barriers to
adaptation and attempts to determine the characteristics of
those farmers who, despite claiming to have witnessed
climate change, have not yet responded to it. The study is

The report is part of a broader study,
the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC), which
has two objectives: (a) to develop a global estimate of
adaptation costs for informing international climate
negotiations; and (b) to help decision makers in developing
countries assess the risks posed by climate change and
design national strategies for adapting to it. This paper is
one of a series of country-level studies, where national

This paper evaluates the impact of the
Thailand Village and Urban Revolving Fund on household
expenditure, income, and assets. The revolving fund was
launched in 2001 when the Government of Thailand promised to
provide a million baht (about $22,500) to every village and
urban community in Thailand as working capital for
locally-run rotating credit associations. The money about
$2 billion in total was quickly disbursed to locally-run

Most of the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) cannot meet current water demand. Many countries face
full-blown crises, and the situation is likely to get even
worse. Estimates show that per capita water availability
will be cut in half by 2050, with serious consequences for
aquifers and natural hydrological systems. Demand for water
supplies and irrigation services will change as economies
grow and populations increase, with an attendant need to

One of every two people in Sub-Saharan
Africa survives on less than $1.25 a day. That proportion
has changed little over the past three decades, unlike in
Asia and elsewhere, so the region's share of global
poverty has risen from one-tenth to almost one-third since
1980. About 70 percent of today's 400 million poor
Africans live in rural areas and depend directly or
indirectly on farming for their livelihoods. While that

This paper provides evidence from one of
the poorest countries of the world that the property rights
matter for efficiency, investment, and growth. With all land
state-owned, the threat of land redistribution never appears
far off the agenda. Land rental and leasing have been made
legal, but transfer rights remain restricted and the
perception of continuing tenure insecurity remains quite
strong. Using a unique panel data set, this study

The livelihoods of communities in rural
areas of Peru are predominantly dependent on
climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture. Given their
close connection with the environment, the understanding of
how these communities perceive risks and how they adapt to
and cope with climate hazards is important for identifying
entry points for efforts aimed at building resilience. In
this context, it is assumed that the successful use of

The main purpose of this study is to
assess the changing landscape of agricultural protection and
taxation patterns in the region. The study is based on the
EU-10 sample, plus Turkey, as well as seven countries in the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Kazakhstan, the
Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan (the CIS-7). In
2000-04, these countries accounted for 89 percent of the