Linking growth and poverty is a crucial element for evaluating the effectiveness of government policies under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process. Burkina Faso has benefited from more than 3 percent growth in per-capita incomes since the devaluation in 1994, while the steady increase in incomes, albeit from a very low level, should over time have lifted some Burkinabe above the poverty line, and led to a reduction in poverty rates. Growth during 1998-2003 was driven by a large expansion of the primary sector, following the 1997-98 drought.

This report examines the implications of
spatial heterogeneity - the uneven distribution of poverty,
growth, and environmental assets - for policy. Its goal is
to inform a wide set of policies that are either explicitly
spatially targeted or may have unanticipated spatial
implications. These include poverty alleviation policies
targeted on poor municipios; demand-driven poverty
alleviation policies; territorial development policies aimed

Recovering from three decades of conflict, over this last decade, Cambodia has undergone dramatic economic, political, and social transitions. Cambodia experienced rapid institutional changes as it restored peace, moved from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy, and moved from isolation to regional and global integration. Cambodia has achieved political and macroeconomic stability, and has initiated key structural reforms. Nevertheless, Cambodia's economy remains vulnerable, and economic growth has not translated into widespread poverty reduction.

The Government of Kenya adopted in 2004
an Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment
Creation (ERSWEC), which recognizes three main pillars for
economy recovery namely: (i) strengthening economic growth;
(ii) enhancing equity and reducing poverty; and (iii)
improving governance. The ERSWEC reiterates that the
achievement of the three pillars is dependent on adequate
and reliable access to least-cost energy. Since agriculture

A decade and a half of relative peace and political stability, broad economic reforms, and far-reaching political decentralization have brought Ethiopia back from one of its lowest levels of income per capita to one of its highest levels over the past forty years. At the same time, Gross Domestic Product per capita today is still only slightly above the levels reached in the early 1970 underscoring the deep-rooted and complex nature of poverty in Ethiopia.

This paper addresses labor markets in
Haiti, including farm and nonfarm employment and income
generation. The analyses are based on the first Living
Conditions Survey of 7,186 households covering the whole
country and representative at the regional level. The
findings suggest that four key determinants of employment
and productivity in nonfarm activities are education,
gender, location, and migration status. This is emphasized

This regional study encompasses three
Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
Honduras. The focus of this report is Honduras. The
objective of the study is to understand how broad-based
economic growth can be stimulated and sustained in rural
Central America. The study identifies "drivers" of
sustainable rural growth and poverty reduction. Drivers are
defined as the assets and combinations of assets needed by

This Poverty report is aimed at improving the understanding of poverty in Ukraine, and providing linkages between growth, the evolution of economic sectors, and poverty. The main findings can be summed up as follows: An absolute poverty line and a revised consumption aggregate -- jointly developed with Ukraine experts -- indicate that around 19 percent of the population lived in poverty by 2003. While in 1999 Ukraine had a poverty incidence higher than Poland, Russia, Lithuania, or Bulgaria, by 2003 it was the lowest compared with these countries.

Tanzania's National Strategy for
Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) sets an ambitious
target of 6 to 8 percent annual economic growth to achieve
rapid reduction in poverty. This report focuses on three
issues that are central to the success of Tanzania's
poverty reduction efforts: 0 what factors explain
Tanzania's recent acceleration in economic growth; has
the accelerated economic growth translated into reduced

This paper analyzes the distributional impacts of trade reforms in rural areas of Bangladesh. The liberalization of trade in irrigation equipment and fertilizer markets during the early 1990s has led to structural changes in the agricultural sector and a significant increase in rice productivity. A resulting increase in output has been associated with a decline in producer and consumer rice prices of approximately 25 percent.

Using cross-country and panel regressions, the authors show that financial sector development significantly reduces undernourishment (hunger), largely through gaining farmers and others access to productivity-enhancing equipment, translating into beneficial income and general effects. They show specifically that a deeper financial sector leads to higher agricultural productivity, including higher cereal yields, through increased fertilizer and tractor use. Higher productivity in turn leads to lower undernourishment.

The 2006 edition of the little green
data book coincides with a wave of renewed attention to the
energy sector coming out of the group of eight summit at
Gleneagles, Scotland. While energy demand is rising along
with gross domestic product (GDP) in the developing world,
many poor countries still lack the basic infrastructure that
sustains everyday needs. Electric power consumption per
capita is 25 times lower in low-income countries than in