Russian economy has been growing at an
average nominal rate of 6 percent annually for the past
decade. Among the most important factors contributing to its
expansion has been the skyrocketing cost of oil and gas. In
2000, when Vladimir Putin took office, the cost of oil was
approximately $20 a barrel; at the end of his term, it was
five times higher. Meanwhile, the competitiveness of Russian
enterprises has become increasingly fragile because of the

Driven by population growth,
urbanization, and increased income, the demand for
animal-source food products in developing countries is
rapidly increasing. Livestock, which already constitutes 30
percent of the agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in
the developing world, and about 40 percent of the global
agricultural GDP, is one of the fastest-growing subsectors
in agriculture. Growing demand presents real opportunities

The objective of this study, requested
by the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development,
is to assist the government of Egypt in: formulating a
coherent national affordable housing strategy which puts in
place an effective institutional and regulatory framework
that creates the necessary conditions for an efficiently
functioning housing market, devises the incentive structure
needed to promote increased private sector participation in

The objective of this study is to
accompany Malagasy authorities in their transition towards
economic emergence. If the contribution of foreign capital
and the abundance of natural resources should help the
Malagasy economy escape from the poverty trap by increasing
its domestic savings and investment capacities, as well as
its technological capacities. International experience
reminds us that this transition is far from being automatic.

The newly elected government takes
office at a time of stark economic challenges. The outfall
of the global economic crisis threatens to undo many of the
achievements of the recent past, derail convergence with the
European Union (EU), and heighten social vulnerability. The
election of a strong government offers a timely opportunity
to restore and broaden the economic reform agenda which had
been initiated before EU accession and but lost some

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was
selected as a case study because it is one of the countries
in the region that has had rapid success in scaling up
infrastructure in a relatively short period of time. Also,
the Government of Pakistan (GoP) is seeking to attract
participation of investors from the UAE into domestic
infrastructure projects. The study also briefly considers
the potential impact of the infrastructure development boom

The workshop brings diverse perspectives
from outside the World Bank, providing a forum in which to
exchange ideas and debate in the course of developing the
World Development Report (WDR). Participants at the 2006
Berlin Workshop gathered to discuss challenges and successes
pertaining to agriculture and development. Agriculture is
the major sector contributing to economic development in
many poor countries. Three out of every four poor people in

This paper discusses the social impacts
of Costa Rica's Payments for Environmental Services
(PSA) program and their effect on rural poverty. Although
the analysis is hampered by significant information gaps, we
believe that the PSA Program has probably managed to have an
impact on the poor. This impact is almost certainly positive
on the poor who were able to participate, but is difficult
to quantify. However, except for very few cases, it seems

The global monitoring report 2008 comes
at an important time. This year marks the halfway point in
the effort to achieve the millennium development goals
(MDGs) by 2015. This is also an important year to work
toward a consensus on how the world is going to respond to
the challenge of climate change, building on the foundation
laid at the conference in Bali in December 2007.
Successfully meeting this challenge will be essential for

This book argues that Peru faces an
unprecedented opportunity to become the next success story
in Latin America. In the coming five years, policy making
could put the country on a development path similar to the
one that, say, Chile, Costa Rica, or Spain have followed
over the last two decades. This book includes 32
sector-specific chapters and 2 historical perspectives that
precede them. The beginning chapter, a synthesis, builds a

The name Tanzania is a portmanteau of
Tanganyika, the mainland, and Zanzibar, the nearby
archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The two united to become
the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964. With a surface area
of 947,300 square kilometers, Tanzania is comparable in size
to Nigeria and is slightly more than twice the size of the
U.S. state of California. Tanzania's population of
approximately 40.4 million (as of 2007) is the second

This paper provides the results of an
international survey of practitioners with experience in
facilitating the participation of African smallholder
farmers in supply chains for higher-value and/or
differentiated agricultural products. It explores their
perceptions about the constraints inhibiting and the impacts
associated with this supply chain participation. It also
examines their perceptions about the factors affecting the