The Africa Gas Initiative (AGI) has been
established by the Oil and Gas Division of the World Bank,
to promote the utilization of natural gas in Sub-Saharan
Africa. The study focuses on coastal countries - Angola,
Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gabon - along the
West African coastline, and the Gulf of Guinea, where most
of the region's gas reserves are located, and where
significant proportions of the gas produced, is being wasted

This report is a pocket edition of the
"World Development Indicators (report no. 22099)."
It is intended as a quick reference for users of the World
Development Indicators 2001" book and CD-ROM, and of
the World Bank Atlas, which between them cover more than 600
indicators spanning more than 30 years. The 207 country
pages in this report present the latest available data for
World Bank members and other economies with populations of

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

This book is based on the World
Development Indicators 2001 and its accompanying CD-ROM.
Under the headings of agriculture, forests, biodiversity,
energy, emissions and pollution, water and sanitation, and
'greener' national accounts, it presents key
indicators of the environment and its relationship to people
for more than 200 countries. The data in this book are for
the most recent year available between 1997 and 2000, unless

In this exploration of urban and regional dynamics in Poland after the transition, the authors find that the degree of urbanization, and primacy remains low in Poland. The largest cities are not growing at the rate that would be expected if post-transition adjustments were operating freely. As a result, Poland is not fully realizing external economies from urban agglomeration. Internal migration decreased significantly in the 1990s, with rural-to-urban migration declining dramatically.

This report focuses on understanding key
issues related to poverty, vulnerability and social policy
in the context of a changing Uruguayan economy. Because the
country is highly urbanized (90 percent), and data on rural
areas are scant, most of the analysis in this study focuses
on urban areas. Chapter 1 presents a profile of poverty and
its trends in the nineties using household survey data.
Chapter 2 looks at changes in the structure of the economy

This report is intended as an input into
the Philippine Government's poverty eradication
strategy. The report aims to update our understanding of the
nature of poverty and the recent progress in poverty
reduction in the Philippines. It examines the extent to
which growth in the nineties has translated into poverty
reduction and analyzes how well publicly-provided social
services reach the poor and whether redistributive policies

This note on social protection has as
its objective establishing an exhaustive analysis/diagnosis
of the existing social protection framework and of preparing
an integrated approach through developing better social
protection priorities and plans of actions. It a) identifies
the social risks which the Moroccan people face generally;
b) examines current social protection initiatives (public,
private, and civil society-sponsored) set up to reduce

The present study describes, and
quantifies the provision of basic urban services to the
poor, in three Central American cities in El Salvador,
Honduras, and, Panama. It also identifies priority areas for
government intervention, using specialized household surveys
to quantify current deficits, and to rank households from
poor to rich, using aggregate consumption as the measure of
welfare. The urban poverty profile is examined in each city,

The study aims to contribute towards a
national urban strategy, in an effort to maximize
Mexico's cities competitiveness, and livelihoods, in
the urban economists' terms - to maximize agglomeration
economies, while minimizing congestions costs. The country
is in a good position for this challenge: it has relatively
a mature urban system, implying an overall urban population
growth, and, a reasonably balanced system of cities.

Although the State of Ceara, in Brazil,
is a model of good economic, and fiscal performance given
its poverty status, recent analysis show poverty remains
severe, in spite of significant reductions over the last
decade. The combination of good governance, and sound fiscal
management, industrial promotion, and public investments
have been successful, but the report questions whether
different policies, could have led to higher growth, and

The study reviews the living standards
in Turkmenistan, shaped by the Soviet legacy - whose income
levels in 1989 were below the socially acceptable minimum -;
by the economic decline throughout the 1990s, until recent
economic resumption; and, by current approaches, and
government policies. In an attempt to ensure good living
standards, the country maintained one of the highest levels
of subsidization of basic goods: water, gas, fuel, and