Brazil entered the 1990s suffering the
consequences of a lost decade of high inflation and slow
growth. Between 1980 and 1990, per capita income declined in
real terms, and the share of the population in extreme
poverty rose from 16.5 to 19 percent -and from 36 to 42
percent in the Northeast. Income distribution worsened. Key
social indicators improved little, particularly in the
Northeast. These adverse conditions persisted in the early

In July 2001, the extractive industries
review (EIR) was initiated with the appointment of Dr. Emil
Salim, former Minister of the Environment for Indonesia, as
eminent person to the review. The EIR was designed to engage
all stakeholders-governments, nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), indigenous peoples' organizations, affected
communities and community-based organizations, labor unions,
industry, academia, international organizations, and the

India's transport
system--especially surface transport--is seriously
deficient, and its services are highly inefficient by
international standards. The economic losses from congestion
and poor roads are estimated at 120 to 300 billion rupees a
year. This report takes a critical assessment of the key
policy and institutional issues that continue to contribute
to the poor performance of the transport sector in India.

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

In Uganda, efforts to decentralize the
management of the extension service and to launch the
village participation in land development exercise have led
to a number of issues, outcomes and expectations. This
overview looks at what can be realistically expected from
the extension service (in terms of contact with farmers),
from decentralization (in terms of management improvement),
and from the village participation exercise (in terms of

India's environmental problems
are deep-rooted and severe. Estimates of annual
environmental damage range from 4.5 percent to 8 percent of
gross domestic product (GDP), in line with annual economic
growth. Since 1990 the World Bank has lent India 1.94
billion dollars for 19 projects to mitigate environmental
damage and another 97 million dollars was granted under
global environmental facility (GEF) and Montreal protocol

The purpose of the Sofia City Strategy
(SCS) is to combat poverty and provide the basis for
sustainable development of the local economy and the welfare
of city residents. SCS is driven by the need to reevaluate
the increased role of Bulgarian local authorities that
resulted from the country's transition from socialism
to a market economy. Launching a long-term strategy for
Sofia will provide the municipality with an opportunity to

This report highlights the discussion,
processes, lessons learned in examining innovative options
for participation by all stakeholders in seeking new social
and economic contracts between civil society and urban
governments. The improvement in relationships is geared
towards providing better services for urban poor and
directly contributing to urban poverty alleviation. The
report attempts to capture the new wave of enthusiasm and