This Policy and Strategy Paper
contributes to an ongoing policy debate-within the Bank but
also with its client governments-about the role of tree
crops in various production systems, and as key commodities
in the trade portfolio of various African nations. It
attempts to answer the following questions: a) What is the
role of tree crops in a rural development strategy focused
on smallholders? B) Under what conditions can small-holder

Moldovan GDP growth rose and the poverty
rate fell steeply following the end of the Russian financial
crisis in 1999. Since late 2002, GDP has continued to grow
vigorously, however there has been little progress in
reducing poverty. In short, GDP growth is no longer reducing
poverty. The national poverty rate is broadly stable while
the rural poverty rate is on a modest upward trend. Analysis
of data from the household budget surveys shows that the

This article assesses the impact of the
East Asian financial crisis on farm households in two of the
region's most affected countries, Indonesia and
Thailand, using detailed household level survey data
collected before and after the crisis began. Although the
natures of the shocks in the two countries were similar, the
impact on farmers' income (particularly on
distribution) was quite different. In Thailand, poor farmers

The acute water shortage, and pollution
problems in North China have been exacerbated by the
continued population growth, and the accelerated industrial
expansion over the past half-century, conducive to
increasingly severe freshwater shortages, and catastrophic
consequences for the future. Significant commitments need to
be made to rapidly implement strategies to bring water
resource utilization back into a sustainable balance. The

This sector report on Challenges and
Priorities for Rural Development analyzes why Upper Egypt
has lagged behind the rest of the country and to help the
Government of Egypt and stakeholders to define a framework
for interventions to promote broad-based economic growth and
human development that will reach the poor and improve
welfare in rural Upper Egypt. To achieve this objective, the
strategic framework for intervention proposed here has two

During the 1970s and 1980s in Tanzania,
there was a widespread perception, though a somewhat narrow,
and inaccurate one, that high and accelerating rates of
deforestation in some areas, was primarily being driven by
demand for woodfuel, and construction timber. In order to
take a more comprehensive, and strategic view of the sector,
the government launched the Tanzania Forestry Action Plan,
which covered the period 1990/91-2007/08. The Bank-assisted

This paper analyzes the available
literature about the effects of structural adjustment
programs (SAPs) on the environment and the convincing
evidence for their success or failure. The studies covered
refer to the SAPs by the World Bank as well as to general
government programs that have similar policy implications.
SAPs are designed to reform economies to become more
liberalized and export-oriented while reducing the role of

This study provides a review of the food
and agricultural sector in Ukraine. It assesses the current
status of the food and agricultural sector with special
reference to the agricultural policy regime and the form and
level of government support to the sector. The paper reviews
the sector's readiness to compete on open global
markets for food and agricultural products. Given the
importance and sensitivity of the food and agriculture

If the marginal gains from investment in physical capital depend positively on knowledge, but a household cannot hire skilled labor to compensate for low skills, then even if it has access to credit, the household will achieve lower returns than an educated household. If, as is common, the income-poor are less educated because of failures in the credit market, and because they live in areas where there is less access to schooling, then the poor will also have lower returns on investments. The author tests this argument for the case of irrigation infrastructure in Vietnam.

In Uganda, efforts to decentralize the
management of the extension service and to launch the
village participation in land development exercise have led
to a number of issues, outcomes and expectations. This
overview looks at what can be realistically expected from
the extension service (in terms of contact with farmers),
from decentralization (in terms of management improvement),
and from the village participation exercise (in terms of

Environmental degradation can inflict
serious damage on poor people because their livelihoods
often depend on natural resource use and their living
conditions may offer little protection from air, water, and
soil pollution. At the same time, poverty-constrained
options may induce the poor to deplete resources and degrade
the environment at rates that are incompatible with
long-term sustainability. In such cases, degraded resources

This report reviews poverty in Armenia
in 2001, and examines the most recent trends covering the
1998/99 to 2001 period. It looks at the determinants of
poverty, and analyzes linkages between economic growth,
sector policies and poverty. The findings are based on two
rounds of the Armenia Integrated Living Conditions Survey
(ILCS), one carried out in 1998/99, and the other in 2001.
The report has contributed to the development of