In this paper, the authors seek to answer three questions about poverty and forests in Malawi: (1) What is the extent of biomass available for meeting the energy needs of the poor in Malawi and how is this distributed? (2) To what extent does fuelwood scarcity affect the welfare of the poor? (3) How do households cope with scarcity? In particular, do households spend more time in fuelwood collection and less time in agriculture in response to scarcity? The authors attempt to answer these questions using household and remote-sensing data.

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 report combines a study undertaken in two phases of the Benin financial sector. Phase 1 of the study, conducted in 2003, provided a diagnostic of the financial system and focused on the state and performance of commercial banks, microfinance institutions, insurance companies and the pension fund system. Phase 2 of the study, conducted in the first half of 2004, focused on analyzing the access to finance issue identified during the diagnostic study. The lack of access to financial services by the majority of the population in Benin was the main issue revealed by the study.

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

This is a draft edition of the Poverty Environment Nexus (PEN) report for Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. The purpose of this conference edition is to present the findings from the studies that have been undertaken in each country over the last three years as well as to obtain relevant comments and feedback from the conference participants that could be included in the final edition of the report. The material presented in this report is based upon comprehensive case studies as well as national analytical work performed in each country.

The paper examines the ways in which recent economic growth has been uneven in China and India and what this has meant for inequality and poverty. Drawing on analyses based on existing household survey data and aggregate data from official sources, the authors show that growth has indeed been uneven-geographically, sectorally, and at the household level-and that this has meant uneven progress against poverty, less poverty reduction than might have been achieved had growth been more balanced, and an increase in income inequality.

In this paper, the authors examine the
impact of reductions in barriers to migration on the
consumption of rural households in China. The authors find
that increased migration from rural villages leads to
significant increases in consumption per capita, and that
this effect is stronger for poorer households within
villages. Household income per capita and non-durable
consumption per capita both increase with out-migration, and

Throughout the 20th century, the debate on women's rights and their role in Afghan society has been closely interlinked with the national destiny. Women not only carry the burden of symbolizing the honor of the family, but often are seen as embodying the national honor as well. Gender has thus been one of the most politicized issues in Afghanistan over the past 100 years, and attempts at reform have been denounced by opponents as un-Islamic and a challenge to the sanctity of the faith and family.

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

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.

This paper provides an institutional
record of the implementation experiences of all the four
World Bank-assisted National Emergency Employment Program
(NEEP)/National Rural Access Program (NRAP) projects and
evaluates the impact on community members of the improved
rural access that the projects have provided. It is based on
desk reviews of project documentation, supervision mission
notes, field visits to communities in rural areas, and

In 1993, in response to persistent
unemployment, and rising poverty and social unrest, the
government of Albania introduced an anti-poverty program,
namely Ndihma Ekonomike; in 1995 it was extended to all poor
households. This paper estimates the separate effects of
participation in this income support program and the old-age
pension program on objective and subjective measures of
household poverty. The analysis uses the nationally