Policy makers and development
practitioners who are responsible for developing investment
strategies to promote economic growth find many challenges
in the changing face of agriculture in the twenty-first
century. In addition to its productive role of providing
food, clothing, fuel, and housing for a growing world
population, agriculture assumes other roles, the importance
of which has more recently been recognized. In addition to

This paper analyzes the impact of large-scale expansion of biofuels on the global income distribution and poverty. A global computable general equilibrium model is used to simulate the effects of the expansion of biofuels on resource allocation, commodity prices, factor prices and household income. A second model based on world-wide household surveys uses these results to calculate the impacts on poverty and global income inequality. The study finds that the large-scale expansion of biofuels leads to an increase in production and prices of agricultural commodities.

Microfinance is often criticized for not
adequately addressing seasonality and hard-core poverty. In
Bangladesh, a program known as PRIME was introduced in 2006
to address both concerns. Unlike regular microfinance, PRIME
introduces a microfinance scheme that offers a flexible
repayment schedule and consumption smoothing, as well as
production, loans. It targets the ultra-poor, many of whom
are also seasonally poor, with a severe inability to smooth

The main conclusion of Country Economic
Memorandum is that the previous model of extensive growth
has now exhausted its potential and must be renewed. Given
the existing population dynamics, low environmental
tolerance due to its Sahelian climate and competition forces
imposed due to its open economy, Burkina Faso is heavily
investing in growth based on increased productivity to
overcome its low level of initial human capital, capacity

Two-thirds of Bangladesh is less than 5
meters above sea level, making it one of the most flood
prone countries in the world. Severe flooding during a
monsoon causes significant damage to crops and property,
with severe adverse impacts on rural livelihoods. Future
climate change seems likely to increase the destructive
power of monsoon floods. This paper examines the potential
cost of offsetting increased flooding risk from climate

The government of Afghanistan has an
opportunity in the coming months to turn the country around.
It is now opportune to improve security, governance, and
development. Unprecedented international military support,
political attention and aid are available to Afghanistan.
The government is inheriting years of good economic
performance, notable progress on social outcomes, and
continuing strong support from the international community.

This book grew out of the Global Issues
seminars and is itself a testament to that two-way dialogue:
the suggestion to compile the speakers' lecture notes
into a book came from the students themselves. Both the
seminars and this book reflect the Bank's conviction
that the seemingly intractable problems of our globalizing
world-from entrenched poverty, to climate change, to new
infectious diseases such as AIDS and avian flu-can be

Agriculture sector growth has made a
powerful contribution to post-war economic recovery in
Tajikistan, accounting for approximately one third of
overall economic growth from 1998 to 2004. Sector output
increased by 65 percent in real terms during this period,
and has now returned to the level extant at independence in
1990. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) has also increased, by
3 percent per year. Despite this progress, there is

There is increasing interest in climate
change issues in Indonesia particularly in the lead-up to
the COP13 or Copenhagen meeting in Bali in December 2007
when there was renewed focus on Indonesia as the third
largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world due
to deforestation, peat-land degradation, and forest fires.
In Indonesia, the agriculture sector employs the largest
share, 45 percent, of Indonesia's labor and contributes

The African Ministers' Council on
Water (AMCOW) commissioned the production of a second round
of Country Status Overviews (CSOs2) to better understands
what underpins progress in water supply and sanitation and
what its member governments can do to accelerate that
progress across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). AMCOW
delegated this task to the World Bank's Water and
Sanitation Program and the African Development Bank (AfDB),

The aim of this study is to assist the
government in this endeavor by focusing on selected
priorities. The overarching objective of this report is to
promote the mainstreaming and integration of climate related
risks in India's development policies and processes,
where this is appropriate. The objectives and scope of work
were developed in close consultation with the Ministry of
Environment and Forests as the primary counterpart, a

This policy note was prepared in
response to a request from the Government of Southern Sudan
(GoSS) for World Bank assistance in developing legislative
and institutional policies and strategies that will take
advantage of the potential of the region's forest
resources to contribute to poverty alleviation, food
security, sustainable agriculture, economic growth, and to
protection of forest-related environmental services such as