This paper discusses how catastrophe
crop risk models can be used to assess food security needs
at the sovereign level for the purpose of risk transfer. The
rationale for a system to evaluate food security needs at
the national level is discussed. The role of technology and
remote sensing data availability as an enabler of
catastrophe crop risk models is discussed followed by a
description of the framework of catastrophe crop models for

This paper presents trends in monetary
and nonmonetary dimensions of wellbeing in Ethiopia using
data from the Household Consumption and Expenditure and
Welfare Monitoring surveys implemented in 2000, 2005, and
2011. The paper provides evidence on changes in overlapping
deprivations using a non-index approach to multidimensional
poverty. It assesses the performance of various dimensions
in education, health, and living standards, taking one

Measuring poverty and tracking it over
time is an important prerequisite to national economic
planning. Absence of official data on household expenditure
or poverty line hampered the ability of Iraqi policymakers
to understand the extent of the problem, analyze their
causes, and devise appropriate policies. Iraq household
socioeconomic survey (IHSES) 2006-07 was the first survey of
its kind since 1988 to cover all 18 governorates. The survey

This paper analyzes the socioeconomic,
fiscal, and governance impact of gold mining in Mali. The
analysis finds that, at the national level, mining plays an
important role by contributing to export earnings and
overall government fiscal revenue. In 2013, the mining
sector represented 7 percent of gross domestic product,
contributed 1.5 percent to growth in total gross domestic
product, and accounted for 65 percent of total export

In the 20th Century, Brazil rapidly
urbanized and is now not only an urban nation but a
metropolitan one. Brazils sprawling regioes metropolitanas
(metropolitan regions, or RMs, which are municipal clusters)
are now home to almost 50 million people and much of the
countrys economic vitality. The RM spatial level and its
supporting governmental institutions have thus become
critical to Brazils future development. While challenges

Poland’s economic growth over the last
25 years has been spectacular. In that period, Poland has
more than doubled its income per capita and became a
European growth champion. It was the only EU country to
avoid a recession in 2009. Its current GDP growth rate is
strong. Poland seems to be on the brink of its new ‘golden
age.’ Doing Business in Poland 2015 is the first subnational
report of the Doing Business series in Poland. It measures

The purpose of this note is to provide the monetary cost of various social safety net
targeting schemes that can be deployed to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience. It is
believed that gradually switching to the provision of social safety nets can reduce the chronic
dependency on humanitarian (mainly food) aid. At the same time, it could help to alleviate reliance
on patronage networks and switch a portion of the public spending from unproductive uses (e.g.,

The political and security transition
continues to take a heavy toll on Afghanistan’s economy.
Economic growth is estimated to have fallen further to 2
percent in 2014 from 3.7 percent in 2013 and an average of 9
percent during 2003-12. Political uncertainty combined with
weak reform progress dealt a further blow in 2014 to
investor and consumer confidence, already in a slump from
uncertainty building since 2013. As a result, growth in the

This paper analyzes environmental
reliance, poverty, and climate vulnerability among more than
7,300 households in forest adjacent communities in 24
developing countries. The data are from the detailed,
quarterly income recording done by the Poverty Environment
Network project. Observed income is combined with predicted
income (based on households’ assets and other
characteristics) to create four categories of households:

Georgia has an impressive growth record
but social vulnerabilities persist. It remains a challenge
to tackle social vulnerabilities within a sustained
macroeconomic framework. This programmatic public
expenditure review (PER) assesses the alignment of selected
fiscal programs with the government’s social objectives.
Building on the analysis and recommendations of the 2014
PER, this PER analyzes the impact of recent reforms

Renato and Hecinta are raising six young
children in a rural area of Mozambique’s northern Nampula
Province. On just half a hectare, they grow rice, maize,
beans, cashew, peanuts, cabbage, and tomatoes, selling what
they can and eating the rest. But, like many of the 475
million smallholder household’s worldwide, agricultural
production is just one of their many income-generating
activities. They balance several sources of income, within

This note describes the trends in, and
composition of, absolute poverty based on household
expenditures, and is thus concerned, as a matter of policy
objectives, with access of the population to a particular
minimum standard of living. This should be viewed as
complementary to the companion note on social exclusion
based on Europe 2020 indicators including the relative
at-risk-of-poverty (AROP) rate, focuses on low income in