Microcredit programs in Bangladesh have
experienced spectacular growth in recent years, with a
growing number of borrowers availing credit from multiple
microcredit agencies. There is a growing concern that if
there are not sufficient returns to borrowing from
microfinance institutions (MFIS), some borrowers might be
taking loans that they will not be able to repay. A
household may be considered over-indebted, for example, if

Development and humanitarian actors
currently engaged in Somalia face the challenge of
delivering assistance in such a way that it is supportive of
peace and state building, addresses the acute vulnerability,
and dependence of large shares of the population while
operating in a still insecure and changing environment.
Forced displacement is a key feature of the current
political economy context of Somalia. The necessity of

The focus of development actors working
in the area of disaster management has shifted substantially
from disaster recovery to disaster risk reduction over the
past decade, coinciding with the decade of the Hyogo
Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015. Amidst this strategic
shift, there is now the need to work towards ensuring that
investments made to reduce disaster risks are cost-effective
and that the benefits reach all members of the population

Agriculture remains fundamental for
Nicaragua from both a macroeconomic and social view. It is
the largest sector of the Nicaraguan economy, and it remains
the single biggest employer with around 30 percent of the
labor force and including processed foods, like meat and
sugar, agriculture accounts for around 40 percent of total
exports value. Nicaragua appears to be gradually losing
competitive edge of some of its key agricultural exports

Mexico needs to broaden and deepen its
financial system without compromising the financial
stability gains of the last decade. Much more private
investment is needed to transform the economy to boost
productivity, and despite improvements in recent years, many
households and firms still lack adequate access to financial
services. Strengthening competition and streamlining key
regulations for firms are key to increasing Mexico's

Donors could assist in clarifying the
role, building the capacity, and potentially helping to
secure funding of key disaster risk management organizations
in Ghana. Engagement in Ghana to develop private sector
property catastrophe risk and agriculture insurance should
be seen as a medium term engagement. Banking penetration is
low, as is insurance and micro-insurance penetration, even
when compared to regional countries. That said, Ghana has

The State of Uttarakhand experienced an
unprecedented high rainfall between June 15 and 17, 2013
that resulted in flash floods and landslides within the
State. The continuous rain disrupted normal life resulting
in a total of 580 human lives being lost, more than 4,000
persons missing and over hundred thousand pilgrims being
stranded. This event has affected over 900,000 people in
Uttarakhand this year. The numerous landslides and toe

Just as development means less poverty
or better access to justice, it also means fewer gaps in
wellbeing between males and females. Women's
empowerment and gender equality are development objectives
in their own right, as embodied in the Millennium
Development Goals. It is espoused as well in the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), ratified by the Philippines in 1981; the

The vision of Pakistan's social
protection strategy to reach the poor and vulnerable (2007)
is 'to develop an integrated and comprehensive social
protection system, covering all the population, but
especially the poorest and the most vulnerable'.
Consistent with this vision, the goals of the strategy are
identified as: 1) to support chronically poor households and
protect them against destitution, food insecurity,

This paper revisits the identification
of the binding constraints to investment and growth in
Pakistan by rigorously applying the growth diagnostic
framework. It has a central finding: Pakistan's
economy faces two major groups of constraints emerging and
structural. The emerging constraints include infrastructure
(energy) deficit, high macro-fiscal risks, and inadequate
international financing (high country risks and low FDI

This paper reviews the literature on the
potential biophysical and economic impacts of climate change
in the Himalayas. Existing observations indicate that the
temperature is rising at a higher rate in Nepal and Chinese
regions of the Himalayas compared with rest of the
Himalayas. A declining trend of monsoon in the western
Indian Himalayas and an increasing trend in the eastern
Indian Himalayas have been observed, whereas increasing

The global extreme poverty rate has
fallen by half since 1990, but progress within the
developing world has been uneven. Extreme poverty remains
widespread in most low-income countries while many
middle-income countries also continue to have substantial
levels with many people there who have escaped extreme
poverty remaining poor and vulnerable. Nor has there been
robust progress in sharing prosperity: in many developing