The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Bank introduced the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP) process in 1999 to strengthen the poverty
alleviation focus of their assistance to low-income
countries. At the IMF, the introduction of the PRSP was
accompanied by the transformation of the Enhanced Structural
Adjustment Facility (ESAF), the concessional lending window,
into the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), with

This regional study encompasses three
Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
Honduras. The focus of this report is Nicaragua. The
objective of the study is to understand how broad-based
economic growth can be stimulated, and sustained in rural
Central America. The study identifies "drivers" of
sustainable rural growth and poverty reduction, where
drivers are defined as the assets and combinations of assets

This study serves as the preliminary
basis for further rounds of discussions and analyses among
stakeholders to arrive at a strategic vision for the Eritrea
health sector. It incorporates comments received from the
Ministry of Health's central agencies, Zoba (regional)
health teams, external partners working in Eritrea, and the
World Bank Eritrea Country Team. In March 2001, the Ministry
of Health of the Government of Eritrea launched a process to

This report analyzes the experience
of Cambodia with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)
process3. The focus of the report is on evaluating the
performance of the World Bank in supporting the PRSP
initiative, not on appraising the authorities policies.
Given the early stage of the PRS Process, with the document
only formally launched by government in March 2003, the
report focuses on the process of PRSP formulation in

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

The most striking fact about the
economic geography of the world is the uneven spatial
distribution of economic activity, including the coexistence
of economic development and underdevelopment. High-income
regions are almost entirely concentrated in a few temperate
zones, half of the world's GDP is produced by 15
percent of the world's population, and 54 percent of
the world's GDP is produced by countries occupying just

This report evaluates the shortcomings
of current housing policies, and provides a framework for
analysis of alternative policies. Its message is threefold:
First, housing has a significant role in terms of basic
social support, where the housing unit is a source of
capital accumulation, thus a key to expanding Mexico's
middle class, from a minority to a majority. Second, the
country is facing a two-tiered housing market, those that

This paper provides evidence consistent with elite capture of Social Fund investment projects in Ecuador. Exploiting a unique combination of data-sets on village-level income distributions, Social Fund project administration, and province level electoral results, the authors test a simple model of project choice when local political power is unequally distributed. In accordance with the predictions of the model, poorer villages are more likely to receive projects that provide excludable (private) goods to the poor, such as latrines.

This sector report on Challenges and
Priorities for Rural Development analyzes why Upper Egypt
has lagged behind the rest of the country and to help the
Government of Egypt and stakeholders to define a framework
for interventions to promote broad-based economic growth and
human development that will reach the poor and improve
welfare in rural Upper Egypt. To achieve this objective, the
strategic framework for intervention proposed here has two

This Policy and Strategy Paper
contributes to an ongoing policy debate-within the Bank but
also with its client governments-about the role of tree
crops in various production systems, and as key commodities
in the trade portfolio of various African nations. It
attempts to answer the following questions: a) What is the
role of tree crops in a rural development strategy focused
on smallholders? B) Under what conditions can small-holder