Reducing the footprint of growth
requires a focus on three key issues: a) transforming urban
areas into greener, more efficient, resilient, and socially
inclusive cities, better able to capture the economic
benefits associated with urbanization; b) ensuring sound
management of the brown environmental agenda to provide the
conditions for continued sustainable economic green growth
while preventing and minimizing negative impacts and risks

This volume is an introduction to the
theories and policies that affect economic growth and
poverty. It is a compilation of lecture notes used in
face-to-face and e-learning courses presented by the World
Bank Institute's (WBI) Poverty Program during 2004-08.
The volume is divided into three parts. Part one discusses
basic concepts and measurement issues pertaining to poverty,
national income, and economic growth. Part two deals with

As countries develop, they restructure
away from agriculture and urbanize. But structural
transformation and urbanization patterns differ
substantially, with some countries fostering migration out
of agriculture into rural off farm activities and secondary
towns, and others undergoing rapid agglomeration in mega
cities. Using cross-country panel data for developing
countries spanning 1980-2004, the analysis in this paper

Indonesia's Program Nasional
Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM) is the largest Community
Driven Development (CDD) program in the world covering all
urban wards (PNPM-Urban) and rural villages (PNPM-Rural) in
Indonesia. This policy note summarizes a comprehensive
process evaluation of the PNPM-Urban program which has been
carried by the Research and Development (RAND) corporation
in collaboration with survey meter, as well as a rapid

Poor governance and nearly fifteen years
of brutal conflict have made Liberia one of the poorest
countries in the world. An important objective for the
democratically elected government of post-conflict Liberia
is to reduce poverty. As part of its long-term vision plan,
the Government is preparing a second Poverty Reduction
Strategy (PRS) to set out its medium-term approach to
poverty reduction. The current climate of peace and

Water is a fundamental platform for
economic and social development, and contributes to reducing
multiple dimensions of poverty. It is essential to food and
energy security, industrial growth, and the protection of
ecosystems. Water has been going through unprecedented
pressures as growing populations and economies have
increased demand and at the same degraded supplies. As a
result, water insecurity has become one of the greatest

International migration has profound
implications for human welfare, and African governments have
had only a limited influence on welfare outcomes, for good
or ill. Improved efforts to manage migration will require
information on the nature and impact of migratory patterns.
This book seeks to contribute toward this goal, by reviewing
previous research and providing new analyses (including
surveys and case studies) as well as by formulating policy

The objective of this study was to advance the process of prioritizing water storage investments that
could reduce water stress in economically important areas. The specific objectives of the study were to
(i) outline a comprehensive framework for screening of potential storage sites; (ii) identify important
water stressed areas through an updated water balance; (iii) assess alternative multipurpose water storage
projects through physical, hydrological and economic criteria; and (iv) analyze institutional and financing

After a policy-engineered slowdown in
2012, which saw GDP growth decline to 4.8 percent, the
lowest since 2008, Bhutan's economy is expected to
rebound to 6.5 percent this year, supported by hydropower
construction and higher electricity and food production,
following favorable rains. The tight fiscal stance
introduced in 2012 has been maintained to bring spending in
line with lower non-hydro revenues and a slowdown in foreign

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate
substantially exceeded China's population growth, which
averaged 1.4 percent annually between 1978 and 2009, and
real GDP per capita accordingly grew at 8.6 percent annually
during this period. China's urban population resides
primarily in city districts (shiqu) and town districts
(zhenqu), which constitute the urban core of larger
administrative units called cities (shi) and respectively

Group s gender action plan (GAP) trust
fund has financed a series of programs to promote gender
equality by empowering women to compete in key markets:
land, labor, agriculture, finance and the private sector.
Work and family: Latin American and the Caribbean women in
search of a new balance offer new analysis of how household
decision-making and allocation of resources affects female
labor market outcomes in the region. This project summarizes

The female population deficit in India
has been explained in a number of ways, but the great
heterogeneity in the deficit across districts within India
still remains an open question. This paper argues that
across India, a largely agrarian economy, soil texture
varies exogenously and determines the workability of the
soil and the technology used in land preparation. Deep
tillage, possible only in lighter and looser loamy soils,