This paper uses a three-round
4,000-household panel from Andhra Pradesh together with
administrative data to explore short and medium-term poverty
and welfare effects of the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme. Triple difference estimates suggest that
participants significantly increase consumption (protein and
energy intake) in the short run and accumulate more
nonfinancial assets in the medium term. Direct benefits

This documented case of climate change
adaptation in Campeche Mexico grapples with a problem that
is fundamental to addressing climate change risks in areas
of high vulnerability, which is how to reach consensus and
take decisions under an uncertain future. The state of
Campeche in Mexico, is used as an example. With its long
coastline, Campeche is highly vulnerable to current and
projected future climate threats. Two different approaches

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

In societies with widespread gender
discrimination, development programs that encourage female
participation in local governance can potentially redress
gender imbalances in economic, political, and social
outcomes. Using a randomized field experiment encompassing
500 Afghan villages, this study finds that a development
program which incorporates mandated female participation
increases female mobility and involvement in income

Despite the widespread tariff reductions
sparked by the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade
Agreement, borders in the region remain thick, with many
hurdles standing in the way of regional trade. Although
anecdotal evidence suggests that nontariff measures raise
trade costs and inhibit trade in the region, little is known
about the magnitude of these economic effects. This paper
uses a newly collected data set to quantify the incidence of

The rural sector, defined here as the
economic sector that falls under the scope of the Ministry
of Agriculture and Water (MAH), the Ministry of Animal
Resources (MRA), and the Ministry of the Environment and
Sustainable Development (MEDD), is one of the pillars of the
Burkina Faso economy. Although its contribution to GDP has
decreased in recent times from 35 percent in 1999 to 30
percent in 2011 due to the development of the other sectors

Much of the rural poor -- who are
growing in number -- are concentrated in ecologically
fragile and remote areas. The key ecological scarcity
problem facing such poor households is a vicious cycle of
declining livelihoods, increased ecological degradation and
loss of resource commons, and declining ecosystem services
on which the poor depend. In addition, developing economies
with high concentrations of their populations on fragile

Agricultural growth rates in the Latin
America and the Caribbean (LAC) region have been much slower
than the rest of the developing world. In the regions of
East Asia, South Asia and Middle East and North Africa, the
annual growth of agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
in 1980-2004 exceeded 3 percent, while growth in Sub-
Saharan Africa averaged almost 3 percent. This paper
attempts to present an overview of the agricultural sector

The design, implementation, and
monitoring and evaluation of livestock sector public and
private sector investments are based on evidence and
information generated by a multitude of data collection
systems, including regular and one-off, or ad-hoc, surveys.
This note reviews the major survey methods that are
regularly implemented by developing country governments,
including: the agricultural and livestock census;

A Country Environmental Analysis (CEA)
is a World Bank analytical tool used to integrate
environmental issues into development assistance strategies,
programs, and projects. To that end, the CEA synthesizes
environmental issues, highlights the environmental and
economic implications of development policies, and evaluates
the country's environmental management capacity. It is
composed of three analytical building blocks: the

A Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) was
undertaken to assess the returns to land management
practices of major land use types, namely forests,
rangelands, and selected crops (rice, maize, cotton, and
millet). Also the public expenditure on SLM was reviewed
and an assessment carried out how the expenditure is aligned
to land policies and how it is targeted to land degradation
hotspots. The results show that, without some form of

The purpose of this policy note is to
contribute to an understanding of the factors that combine
to constrain the development of smallholder agriculture in
Swaziland. It seeks to shed light on why, despite being
well-endowed in land and water resources, and despite having
a climate that is generally favorable for the production of
crops and livestock, Swaziland is obliged to import
substantial amounts of food to feed the population. Also,