In countries ravaged by a history of
civil war and genocide, the overarching goal for local
government and international donors alike is to promote
social cohesion, stability and community reconstruction. In
Sierra Leone, reconstruction programs emphasize a
decentralized approach to: (i) rapidly build market
institutions; (ii) enhance community decision making; and
(iii) strengthen intra and inter-community tolerance and

Despite rapid economic growth, gender
disparities in women's economic participation have
remained deep and persistent in India. What explains these
gender disparities? Is it poor infrastructure, limited
education, or the composition of the labor force and
industries? Or is it deficiencies in social and business
networks and a low share of incumbent female entrepreneurs?
This note analyzes the spatial determinants of female

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim discussed the priorities for the
World Bank under his new leadership, including the immediate
priority to help developing countries maintain growth and

This background paper attempts to expand our understanding of the gender-differentiated impact of shocks on assets through a literature review on shocks and gendered asset dynamics and an analysis of new panel data (2007 and 2009) from Uganda and Bangladesh looking at the impact of negative shocks and positive events on men's and women's assets. We take advantage of detailed assets and shocks modules to disaggregate the type of shock between covariate and idiosyncratic shocks and types of assets according to ownership (joint, husband's, and wife's assets).

Parts of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), the
northeastern most administrative region of Pakistan, have
been undergoing a dramatic transformation over the last
three decades. Given the challenging environment, GB's
development outcomes are impressive, built on the
time-tempered resilience of the people of GB and facilitated
by high levels of social capital. GB has also benefitted
from the attentions of the national Government of Pakistan

Under the Vanuatu constitution, the
'rules of custom shall form the basis of ownership and
use of land.' Implementing this principle after decades
of land alienation, however, has proved to be challenging.
While the leasing arrangement was originally intended to
restore investor confidence and maintain agricultural
development in newly independent Vanuatu, it soon evolved
into the method of acquiring new leases over previously

Lesotho began a structural economic
transformation in the early 1990s. The transformation has
brought higher, more secure incomes to households while the
government succeeded in dramatically improving access to
services such as education, health, water, and
transportation. Yet today, Lesotho faces a number of serious
development challenges, including a high rate of chronic
poverty, entrenched income inequality, and most troubling

Over 70 percent of the farm workers in
Tajikistan are women. Most face difficult working conditions
and are paid in agricultural outputs such as oil, rather
than in cash. When the South Tajikistan Cotton Lending
Project started in early 2007, IFC and its donor, the
Canadian International Development Agency, decided to
develop a Gender Equality Plan to address gender issues a
high priority for both organizations. The challenge was to

The World Bank group, among the
world's largest development institutions, is a major
source of financial and technical assistance to developing
countries around the world. In fiscal 2009, the World Bank
group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of
$58.8 billion, distributed in credits, loans, grants, and
guarantees. This fiscal year's funding marks a 54
percent increase over the previous fiscal year and a record

The main objective of the Senegal
Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to reinforce the
ongoing dialogue on environmental issues between the World
Bank and the Government of Senegal. The CEA also aims to
support the ongoing Government implementation of a strategic
results-based planning process at the Environment Ministry
(MEPNBRLA). The main goal is to enable Senegal to have the
necessary tools to attain the Millennium Development Goals

The demand for verifiable evidence of
results and impacts of development agricultural programs and
projects is growing. However, most of the indicators that
development practitioners have traditionally used in
tracking progress toward achieving projects' objectives
focus on the workings of the development operation itself.
These performance indicators relate mainly to lower-level
inputs and outputs and are used to populate management

Despite the popularity and unique nature
of women's self-help groups in India, evidence of their
economic impacts is scant. Based on two rounds of a 2,400
household panel, the authors use double differences,
propensity score matching, and pipeline comparison to assess
economic impacts of longer (2.5-3 years) exposure of a
program that promoted and strengthened self-help programs in
Andhra Pradesh in India. The analysis finds that longer