Following the Great East Japan
Earthquake (GEJE), the government of Japan responded
promptly to stabilize markets and ensure a swift recovery.
Economic activity has since started picking up, in part to
domestic demand driven by the massive reconstruction effort.
Uncertainties remain, however, surrounding the restructuring
of power supply and both national and global economic
prospects. The year 2011 will be remembered for the severe

Over the last several years, the
Government of Togo has made important advances in the area
of social protection. Although Togo has had limited social
insurance and social assistance programs, the economic shock
and natural disasters starting in 2008 brought the need for
better mechanisms of social protection to the fore. The
Government response has focused on measures to address the
needs of the affected populations, while building the

This note on making livelihoods and
social protection approaches gender- sensitive is the
seventh in a series of guidance notes on gender issues in
disaster risk management (DRM) in the East Asia and the
Pacific region. Targeting World Bank staff, clients and
development partners, this note gives an overview of the
main reasons for including gender sensitive social
protection and livelihoods approaches in DRM; it identifies

In Bangladesh, growth needs to
accelerate to absorb the burgeoning labor force and continue
making dents in poverty. Such acceleration will require
sustained growth in exports and remittances. It will also
need an increase in investment both public and private.
However, growth acceleration alone will not be enough to
absorb the labor force. This will need an improvement in
employment intensity of growth, and a further improvement in

Tajikistan is highly vulnerable to the
adverse impacts of global climate change, as it already
suffers from low agricultural productivity, water stress,
and high losses from disasters. Public awareness of the
multiple consequences of climate change is high, with
possible impacts on health, natural disasters, and
agriculture of greatest public concern. Climate change can
potentially deepen poverty by lowering agricultural yields,

The East Asian and Pacific region has
achieved tremendous progress in poverty reduction in recent
years. However, further progress in poverty reduction may be
undermined by the high levels of vulnerability in many
countries across the region. The term vulnerability is
viewed from an economic context, where it is conceived as
the likelihood of suffering from future deteriorations in
standard of living which may result in a state of poverty,

This study provides estimates of social
and financial costs of environmental damage in India from
three pollution damage categories: (i) urban air pollution;
(ii) inadequate water supply, poor sanitation, and hygiene;
and (iii) indoor air pollution. It also provides estimates
based on three natural resource damage categories: (i)
agricultural damage from soil salinity, water logging, and
soil erosion; (ii) rangeland degradation; and (iii)

In the years ahead, development efforts
aiming at reducing vulnerability will increasingly have to
factor in climate change, and social protection is no
exception. This paper sets out the case for
climate?responsive social protection and proposes a
framework with principles, design features, and functions
that would help Social Protection (SP) systems evolve in a
climate?responsive direction. The principles comprise

The study includes a conceptual overview
of the link between climate impacts and human rights,
focused on the relevant legal obligations underpinning the
international law frameworks governing both human rights and
climate change. As such it makes a significant contribution
to the global debate on climate change and human rights by
offering a comprehensive analysis of the international legal
dimensions of this intersection. The study helps advance an

GFDRR was established in September 2006
as a global partnership of the World Bank, UN agencies and
bilateral donors, located in World Bank headquarters in
Washington, DC. Its missions are (a) to mainstream disaster
reduction and climate change adaptation (CCA) in country
development strategies, and (b) to foster and strengthen
global and regional cooperation among various stakeholders
under the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

This study aims to strengthen the
understanding of the vulnerability of Kolkata from increased
precipitation caused by climate change effects with a
specific goal to: compile a data base with past weather
related information and damage caused by extreme weather
related episodes; develop hydrological, hydraulic, and storm
drainage models to identify vulnerable areas and determine
physical damage estimates resulting from climate change

As the world recovers only slowly from
the 2008 financial crisis and Europe is facing a looming
debt crisis, concerns have increased that the "new
normal" -- a period of high unemployment, low returns
on investment, high risks, and low growth -- may become
protracted in advanced economies. If growth remains weak,
unemployment rates and debt levels will be slow to recede.
Consequently, the global recovery may continue to be fragile