This policy paper focuses on the
incentive framework for Pakistani agriculture, with emphasis
on trade and price policies. It first presents a synthesis
of major trends in the performance of the sector and
analyzes Pakistan's extraordinarily complex, opaque and
discretionary, and continually-changing trade regime. It
presents a disaggregated analysis of the border measures for
the selected products (trade and price interventions vary by

Small area estimates of poverty have
become useful tool in targeting poverty reduction by
geographic areas. For Nepal, this is the second poverty map
produced after a gap of seven years in collaboration with
the Central Bureau of statistics, Nepal. This report
presents 2010/11 small-area estimates and maps for Nepal at
the 75 district, 967 ilaka and 2344 'target area'
level, of poverty incidence, poverty gap, and poverty

The impacts of climate change on
agriculture are projected to be significant in coming
decades, so response strategies, and their likely costs,
should be evaluated now. That is why this study produced an
open-access, crop-climate-economic impact modeling platform
for Latin America and the Caribbean, that can be extended to
other regions, then modified and improved by users as new
crop, climate, and economic datasets become available. The

This report presents the outcome of the
World Bank's analytical and advisory work to assess the
status of water resources development and the key water
issues and challenges facing the country. The Bank has also
reviewed its history of cooperation with the Government of
China in recent decades, and notes the remarkable
achievements China has made in developing the water sector.
The report proposes solutions for tackling the enormous

This report assesses the challenges and
opportunities for the development of the Khatlon oblast in
Tajikistan. The report argues that the rise in the strategic
significance of Khatlon must be matched by responses in
public policy and a strong upturn in private investment to
strengthen economic prospects. The report identifies four
key reform imperatives for stimulating growth in the oblast.
These are: (i) promoting cities and internal connectivity to

Niger, owing to its climatic,
institutional, livelihood, economic, and environmental
context, is one of the most vulnerable countries of the
world. Poverty is pervasive in Niger and it ranks low on
almost all the human development indicators. Agriculture is
the most important sector of Niger's economy and
accounts for over 40 percent of national gross domestic
product (GDP) and is the principle source of livelihood for

This report argues that the practice of
disaster risk management (DRM) is a defining characteristic
of resilient societies, and should therefore be integrated,
or 'mainstreamed', into all aspects of
development. The report will inform the Development
Committee at the annual meetings 2012, and support
discussion at the Sendai dialogue, a special event
co-organized by the Government of Japan and the World Bank

The objective of this study is to help
the government to decide what role safety net and transfer
programs should play in the coming 5 to 10 years. It seeks
to answer following three questions: (i) can increased
spending on transfers accelerate poverty reduction in the
medium to long term?; (ii) which groups and aspects of
poverty will it make sense to target with transfers?; and
(iii) which programs will have the greatest impact at an

The agricultural and food sector is an
ideal case for investigating the political economy of public
policies. Many of the policy developments in this sector
since the 1950s have been sudden and transformational, while
others have been gradual but persistent. This paper reviews
and synthesizes the literature on trends and fluctuations in
market distortions and the political-economy explanations
that have been advanced. Based on a rich global data set

This workbook is intended to help policy
makers in developing countries plan for a safer future in
urban areas in the face of natural disasters and the
consequences of climate change. It is based on the
experiences of three cities in Vietnam, Can Tho, Dong Hoi,
and Hanoi, that worked with international and local experts
under World Bank supervision to develop local resilience
action plans (LRAPs) in 2009-10. An LRAP is a detailed

The global dialogue surrounding the
United Nations framework convention for climate change has
focused on two strategies for addressing challenges
associated with climate change: (1) mitigation (reducing the
accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere);
and (2) adaptation (reducing the vulnerability of societies
and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change). Forests
feature in both of these strategies. The role of forests as

This paper presents an assessment of the
first phase (2008?2009) of Sierra Leone's cash for work
program based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis
examining program design features, main processes and
impact. The assessment highlights that while cash for work
was an appropriate crisis response, the challenge of
achieving good targeting should not be underestimated.
Findings from the assessment point to high inclusion errors