This report aims to assist the
government in improving implementation of the New Socialist
Countryside (NSC) program, especially in raising the
effectiveness of public expenditures, and the harmonization
of public finance. While this report pays particular
attention to rural aspects of public finance, it addresses
this topic within the overall framework of intergovernmental
finance that impacts both rural and urban areas. Similarly,

This paper develops and tests a proposed
methodology that puts forward a new integrated method for
evaluating the performance of development finance
institutions. This methodology applies assessment criteria
that take into account both the social objective that the
development finance institution addresses and the subsidies
it received in order to achieve such an objective. This
methodology is applied to two pilot case studies-Banadesa

Nicaragua is a small, open economy that
is vulnerable to external and natural shocks. With an
estimated Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of US$1000
in 2006, and a total population of 5.2 million, it is one of
the poorest countries in Latin America. Forty six percent of
the population lived below the poverty line in 2005 (while
15 percent lived in extreme poverty), and the incidence of
poverty is more than twice as high in rural areas (68

This paper uses data from Guatemala to
map areas that are important for the provision of indirect
ecosystem services, services whose benefits are enjoyed at
some distance from the ecosystem that provides them, such as
watershed services (enjoyed downstream) or biodiversity
conservation (enjoyed globally). These services are usually
externalities from the perspective of land users, and so
tend to be under-provided. Mapping the areas that supply

This paper uses a computable general
equilibrium model to assess the welfare impact of commodity
price inflation in Tanzania and possible tax policy
responses in the short, medium, and long term. The results
suggest that global commodity inflation since 2006 may have
had a significantly negative impact on all Tanzanian
households. Most of the negative impact comes from the rise
in the price of oil. In contrast, food price spikes are

The overall objective of the
Comprehensive Assessment of the Agricultural Sector (CAAS)
is to provide an evidence base to enable appropriate
strategic policy responses by the Government of Liberia
(GoL) and its development partners in order to maximize the
contribution of the agriculture sector to the
Government's overarching policy objectives. Given the
strong relationship between growth in agricultural

Water policy is an important topic on
the agenda of the international community, and efficiency
and equity in the allocation of water have emerged as
important factors to be considered. Water pricing can be
used to mitigate both the quantity and quality dimensions of
water scarcity. This paper reviews partial equilibrium
models and general equilibrium models that are relevant to
irrigation water management issues. The most widely

Mozambique's continuous efforts to
sustain economic growth and reduce poverty face a number of
constraints including its economic and political history,
and its geography and climatic conditions. It is widely
accepted that future economic growth of the country will
continue to rely on its natural resources base and,
specifically, on sustainable use of land and water
resources. Mozambique has plentiful land and water resources

Despite positive, relatively broad-based
and stable growth record in recent years and immense
untapped potential in agriculture, mining and services,
Zambia's poverty rates have not declined significantly
and remain high. Income growth is limited by coordination
failures such as poor access to domestic and international
markets, inputs, extension services and information. High
indirect costs - most of which attributable to

China has been the most rapidly growing
economy in the world over the past 25 years. This growth has
fueled a remarkable increase in per capita income and a
decline in the poverty rate from 64 percent at the beginning
of reform to 10 percent in 2004. At the same time, however,
different kinds of disparities have increased. Income
inequality has risen, propelled by the rural-urban income
gap and by the growing disparity between highly educated

Indonesia stands at the threshold of a new era and at an important juncture of its history. After the historic economic, political and social upheavals at the end of the 1990s, Indonesia has started to regain its footing. The country has largely recovered from the economic and financial crisis that threw millions of its citizens back into poverty in 1998 and saw it regress to a low-income status. Recently, it has once again crossed the threshold, making it one of the world's emergent middle-income countries.

This paper examines the determinants of
remittance behavior for Vietnam using data from the 2004
Vietnam Migration Survey on internal migrants. It considers
how, among other things, the vulnerability of a
migrant's life at the destination, their link to
relatives back home, and the time spent at the destination
affect remittances. The paper finds that migrants act as
risk-averse economic agents and send remittances back to the