Microfinance supports mainly informal
activities that often have a low return and low market
demand. It may therefore be hypothesized that the aggregate
poverty impact of microfinance is modest or even
nonexistent. If true, the poverty impact of microfinance
observed at the participant level represents either income
redistribution or short run income generation from the
microfinance intervention. This article examines the effects

Communities supported by World Bank
rural development projects often cite support for the
development of income-generating activities (IGAs) as a
critical need. This note identifies some of the core
problems encountered by Bank task teams that attempt to
respond to this need, outlines the issues involved, and
offers suggestions on some of the points that should be kept
in mind when designing grant programs for this purpose.

Through an analysis of selected topics,
this study aims to offer inputs for a successful recovery
strategy for the city and the metropolitan region of Sao
Paulo (MSRP) in Brazil. The study first presents an analysis
of the underlying factors of the economic transition in the
MRSP, highlighting the factors behind the recent performance
of the MRSP in terms of job creation and growth. Then, four
inputs that would lead to a 'recovery strategy'

This report assesses Montenegro's
public and external debt sustainability under alternative
scenarios. The baseline scenario assumes continued
implementation of a macroeconomic stabilization and
structural reform program, while the low case scenario
describes the alternative of a sluggish growth environment
due to policy slippage/weak reform. In addition, other
sensitivity tests are conducted in order to highlight the

Tanzania's Pilot Rural Investment
Climate Assessment (RICA) measures the economic environment
of non-farm entrepreneurs. The pilot assessment has three
key objectives: it aims to better understand the rural
non-farm economy in Tanzania, shed light on rural enterprise
dynamics and business constraints, and reflect on areas
where government policies are readily directed to help
promote rural non-farm enterprise activity. The RICA is

There is compelling evidence of the
importance of gender equality for poverty reduction and
sustainable growth. So it should come as no surprise that
most development actors-international agencies, bilateral
donors, and most developing countries, have an official
policy for promoting gender equality. Millennium Development
Goal 3 (MDG3) on gender equality and women's
empowerment is shared global commitment. With only seven

The purpose of this Transport Sector
Note (TSN) is to assist the Palestinian Authority (PA) in
developing a strategy for the sector that can aid in
addressing the immediate constraints and transport issues in
support of the PA's effort to revive the national
economy, improve mobility and reduce poverty. The TSN also
aims to assist the responsible sector ministries prepare a
coherent strategic framework and program for the sector.

It is the purpose of this Investment
Climate Assessment (ICA) to look at what hinders the move of
the Palestinians to new markets and what can be done to
encourage it. The ICA reveals that shrinking market access
and the lack of free movement are the main constraints to
growth for Palestinian enterprises. Relative to other
countries in the region, the Palestinian investment climate
is good: petty corruption is low, the bureaucracy is

It has often been assumed that payments
for watershed services (PWS) would go mostly to poor land
users, thus contributing to poverty reduction, but there has
been little empirical verification to date. This paper uses
data from highland Guatemala to assess the potential for PWS
to reduce poverty by examining whether the recipients of
payments for environmental services are likely to be poor.
The watersheds in which PWS would be feasible due to the

This paper investigates the role of
services in the household response to trade reforms in
Vietnam. The relative response of the households and income
growth after a major trade liberalization in rice are
analyzed aiming to answer the following questions: What type
of households, in which locations, having access to what
type of services, benefited more from the reforms? It
focuses on services that have an impact on transaction costs

The World Bank's revised forest
policy came into being in 2002 and covers all types of
forests. It has the following key objectives: (i) harnessing
the potential of forests to reduce poverty in a sustainable
manner; (ii) integrating forests effectively into
sustainable development; and (iii) protecting vital local
and global environmental services and values. The policy
enables the bank to fully engage in forestry throughout the

Through an analysis of selected topics,
this study aims to offer inputs for a successful recovery
strategy for the city and the metropolitan region of Sao
Paulo (MSRP) in Brazil. The study first presents an analysis
of the underlying factors of the economic transition in the
MRSP, highlighting the factors behind the recent performance
of the MRSP in terms of job creation and growth. Then, four
inputs that would lead to a 'recovery strategy'