This poverty assessment report has three
main objectives: 1) to conduct an in-depth, multi-
dimensional analysis of poverty building on the framework of
the World Bank's World Development Report (WDR) for
2000/2001 using both quantitative and qualitative data; 2)
to examine the impact of government policies and spending on
the poor in key sectors; and 3) to use the empirical
findings to identify options and priorities for poverty

Despite sustained output growth since 1997, low-income Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries (CIS-7) have not experienced growth in employment, a phenomenon observed elsewhere in transitional economies and labeled as "jobless growth." The author addresses the causes of this phenomenon in the CIS-7. He argues that the lack of job creation is explained by a combination of structural factors, including capital-intensive growth, large potential for productivity gains among existing workers, and compartmentalized economies best depicted by a dual labor market framework.

This paper is aimed at providing
guidance on transport issues for those involved in designing
multi-topic household surveys such as the Living Standards
Measurement Studies (LSMS) surveys. The inclusion of a few
key questions can provide critical information for better
designing transport programs and policies aimed at improving
access, affordability and quality services. Questions on
transport access, quality, mode, distance, time, and cost

Since independence in 1966,
Guyana's economy has gone through a state control of
major productive sectors, and financial institutions -
including controls of prices, credit, and foreign exchange -
to a combination of political/social unrest, with terms of
trade deterioration, and slow economic growth. This led
Guyana to become the fourth poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere, despite its rich endowment in mineral resources,

This paper addresses three areas of the rural labor market-employment, labor wages, and agriculture producer incomes. Findings show that the poor allocate a lower share of their labor to farm sectors than the nonpoor do, but still around 70 percent work in agriculture, and the vast majority of rural workers are engaged in the informal sector. When examining nonfarm employment in rural Argentina, findings suggest that key determinants of access to employment and productivity in nonfarm activities are education, skills, land access, location, and gender.

This report represents a snapshot of a
dialogue between the State of Piaui and the World Bank and
focuses on the strategies and actions the State Government
may wish to adopt. Piaui's challenge is to build
institutions that address its weaknesses and exploit its
strengths. Addressing weaknesses implies continuing with
efforts to improve education, raising productivity in
small-scale agriculture, increasing public participation in

The importance of distributional issues in policymaking creates a need for empirical tools to assess the social impact of economic shocks and policies. This paper reviews some of the modeling approaches that are currently in use at the World Bank and other international financial institutions. The specification of these models is dictated by the issues at stake, the knowledge about the nature of the process involved, and the availability and reliability of relevant data. Furthermore, shocks and policies have macroeconomic, structural, and distributional implications.

Despite the impressive performance of
the economy in the last five years, however, poverty in
Albania has remained high, and per capita income, at around
US$1,230 in 2002, has remained one of the lowest among
transition economies. In an effort to adopt policies to
share widely the benefits of growth, and reduce poverty, the
Government outlined a poverty alleviation strategy in the
2000 Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP), and

In 2002, half of Mexico's
population lived in poverty and one fifth in extreme
poverty, slightly lower than before the 1994-1995 crisis.
Mexico has made major progress in some poverty dimensions
-health, nutrition and education outcomes, access to basic
health and education services, electricity, water and (to a
lesser extent) sanitation. Large increases in government
spending enabled key social programs to expand. Programs

A major objective of this report is to provide a deeper, more policy relevant understanding of the welfare impacts of the coffee crisis - including the effects of the crisis on household income, consumption, poverty, as well as on basic human development outcomes, such as education and child nutrition. To do this, the study has generated a body of new empirical evidence, drawing from an unusually rich collection of household survey data from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

This report addresses key structural,
institutional, and sectoral policy impediments to achieving
a higher, and sustained economic growth in the sector, and
poverty reduction in rural areas of Iran. It focuses mainly
on an assessment of agricultural development outcomes, a
discussion of the agricultural policy agenda, and provides
recommendations for future policy dialogue between the Bank,
and the Government of Iran. On examining development

This qualitative assessment of poverty
in Albania seeks to deepen the understanding of poverty in
the country, first, by involving poor Albanians in a process
of exploring the causes, nature, extent of poverty, and how
it affects their livelihoods. Second, it is intended to
support the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(PRSP). Third, it supports preparation of the Country
Assistance Strategy (CAS), and the Living Standards