This report reviews two facets of
decentralization currently engaging policy-makers: 1) the
sources of financing under decentralization, and, 2)
cross-cutting processes to strengthen the accountability of
resource use. It does not assess whether decentralization is
justified in the Philippines - it approaches the
arrangements as they exist, and explicitly focuses on
actions that could be feasibly completed within six to nine

This qualitative assessment of poverty
in Albania seeks to deepen the understanding of poverty in
the country, first, by involving poor Albanians in a process
of exploring the causes, nature, extent of poverty, and how
it affects their livelihoods. Second, it is intended to
support the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(PRSP); third, it supports preparation of the Country
Assistance Strategy (CAS), and the Living Standards

(covering the activities of IBRD/IDA), the Operations Evaluation Group (covering IFC), and
the Operations Evaluation Unit (covering MIGA). The purpose of the evaluation is to assess
the effectiveness of the World Bank Group (WBG) in helping its member countries improve
their investment climates, within the context of the WBG’s overall mission of poverty
reduction and sustainable development. Its findings and recommendations provide guidance for
the WBG’s future strategy and activities in this area. The evaluation was conducted in parallel

T his report analyzes natural resource
management and governance in the Philippines, identifying
recent trends, current challenges, and future goals. The
first half of the report summarizes the status of the
country's natural resources, describes sector policies,
institutions, and budget mechanisms, and identifies
impediments to improvements. The second half focuses on
three crucial issues for natural resource governance:

The focus of the report, combined with
Vietnam's remarkable long-term growth potential,
presents a favorable outlook, suggesting the effects of the
East Asian crisis are over. The country is committed to
socially inclusive development, and, translates a vision of
transition towards a market economy, with socialist
orientation into concrete public actions, emphasizing the
transition should be pro-poor, noting this will require

Tanzania's National Strategy for
Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) sets an ambitious
target of 6 to 8 percent annual economic growth to achieve
rapid reduction in poverty. This report focuses on three
issues that are central to the success of Tanzania's
poverty reduction efforts: 0 what factors explain
Tanzania's recent acceleration in economic growth; has
the accelerated economic growth translated into reduced

What drives growth at the microeconomic
level? The authors divide the factors that determine a
location's growth performance into two groups,
"1st advantage" and "2nd advantage." The
term 1st advantage refers to the conditions that provide the
environment in which new activities can be profitably
developed, including most of the factors on which
traditional theory has focused, such as access to inputs

This review aims to provide the
Government of Madagascar with a situation assessment and
insights and guidance on how to position the rural and
environment sector as an engine for inclusive and
sustainable economic growth. The review has cast the
analytical net quite widely with the aim to come up with a
comprehensive overview of the sector. In view of the
intimate linkages between rural development and the

The asset-based approach considers links between households' productive, social, and locational assets; the policy, institutional, and risk context; household behavior as expressed in livelihood strategies; and well-being outcomes. For sustainable poverty reducing growth, it is critical to examine household asset portfolios and understand how assets interact with the context to influence the selection of livelihood strategies, which in turn determine well-being. Policy reforms can change the context and income-generating potential of assets.

The authors combine measures of urban
form and public transit supply for 114 urbanized areas with
the 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey to
address two questions: (1) How do measures of urban form,
including city shape, road density, the spatial distribution
of population, and jobs-housing balance affect the annual
miles driven and commute mode choices of U.S. households?
(2) How does the supply of public transportation (annual

The major constraints to RNF growth,
according to a large survey of rural entrepreneurs,'
include (1) flood and natural disasters; (2) access to
electricity; (3) road conditions, (4) access to finance and
(5) transportation to markets. Bangladesh's
vulnerability to frequent floods and other natural disasters
severely hampers operations of more than a third of rural
firms. The next most important constraint to RNF growth is

The transition economies of Central and
Eastern Europe, through the reform process of
decentralization, are now seeking the devolution of fiscal
powers, and responsibilities from central, to local
governments, within financially sustainable environments. To
this end, a system of local budgets, and taxes needs to be
devised, over which local governments may have control.
Thus, this report focuses on the tax on immovable real