The author looks at the feasibility and potential of instituting small-scale irrigation dams to reduce Ethiopia s dependence on rainfed agriculture and the associated food insecurity. He develops a theoretical framework to assess the welfare implications of irrigation development programs and provides empirical evidence from microdam construction and reforestation projects in northern Ethiopia. The author pays particular attention to health-related costs of establishing small-scale irrigation dams in areas prone to waterborne diseases.

According to Myint's "vent-for-surplus"
theory, development of the economies of Indonesia, the
Philippines, and Thailand from the nineteenth century on
depended on the natural advantage of large tracts of unused
"empty land" with low population density and abundant natural
resources of the type typically found in Southeast Asia and
Africa at the outset of Western colonization. When these
economies were integrated into international trade, hitherto

This Fisheries Sector Approach Paper has
been written in recognition of the mounting challenges that
the World Bank and the developing world face in meeting the
fishery sector-related Millennium Development Goals and the
outcomes of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development. It augments the Bank's Rural Strategy,
Reaching the Rural Poor, which advocates a holistic approach
to rural poverty reduction, and support for equitable

This article, extracted from an
Implementation Completion Report, centers on the Mauritania
Natural Resources Management Project ( Projet de Gestion des
Ressources Naturelles en Zones Pluviales - PGRNP ) (
1998-2003 ), which had two specific objectives : 1)
empowering rural communities, i.e., providing skills to
organize and manage common resources, and obtain access to
financing; and (2) improving the institutional environment

The objective of this study is to analyse the impact of various types of
government spending on growth and poverty reduction, using provincial level data over
the last decade. Government spending reduces poverty through many channels such as
agricultural growth and improved nonfarm employment. We will try to capture all these
different effects in the analysis if the data allow. This paper opens with a review of
Vietnam’s economic reforms and growth over the past decade. We then sketch Vietnam’s

The Mongolian cashmere industry has
experienced a series of booms and busts over the last
decade. Unsatisfactory public sector policies contributed to
this result. External factors such as the unfavorable
economic environment of the early 1990s, the East Asia
crisis, and weather conditions have also affected its
performance. Over 1993-96 cashmere exports doubled from
US$33.5 million to US$71.2 million, as cashmere's share

Poverty and economic stagnation
characterize most rural areas in Peru. National growth has
been slow and uneven since the mid-1970s, benefiting urban
areas rather than rural ones. Between 1985 and 2000, the
number of poor people increased by 71 percent. The incidence
of poverty (67 percent) and extreme poverty (40 percent) is
highest in rural areas, reaching 73 percent (poverty) and 41
percent (extreme poverty) in the sierra. This means that 4.2

Community-based natural resource
management is an important strategy to conserve and
sustainably use biodiversity and wildlife in Namibia. The
authors examine the extent to which conservancies have been
successful in meeting their primary goal of improving the
lives of rural households. They evaluate the benefits of
community conservancies in Namibia by asking three
questions: Do conservancies increase household welfare? Are

This report provides recommendations on
how to better manage ongoing changes in livestock
development. First, it presents an overview of the main
trends that can be expected to drive the sector over the
next decades. Second it discusses the negative or positive
social, environmental, and health repercussions of those
trends, and the institutional, policy, and technical
requirements needed to manage them. It concludes with a

This paper uses a duration analysis
based on adoption data spanning more than 25 years from six
communities in the Central Highlands of Guatemala. The
analysis explores how household characteristics and external
trends play into both the adoption and diffusion processes
of non-traditional exports among smallholders. Adoption was
initially widespread and rapid, which led nontraditional
exports to be hailed as a pro-poor success, reaching all but

This report is part of a strategy to
promotes trade competitiveness within the East Asia and
Pacific Region. It presents an overview of the logistics
issues facing East Asia countries and proposes a development
agenda for them. Based on the recognition that the
countries have basic differences in their level of
development, extent of openness, and composition of trade,
it begins by discussing the benefits of improved logistics.

This book talks about participation,
from the first to the last page. And that is its strength,
for participation is a road leading to democracy. The true
participation it talks about does not rely on hours of
compulsory labor or imposed levies; there is nothing forced
about it. Rather, it is a process in which men and women
engage their will, their sense of responsibility, their
abilities, their dignity. It is a vital participation,