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

The report documents poverty in Zamia
along a number of dimensions, including material
deprivation, human deprivation, vulnerability, destitution,
and social stigmatization. The report identified a number of
basic actions to facilitate growth in the rural sector;
these include (1) a (revived) system of regular manual
maintenance of rural roads; (2) simple systems of animal
disease control; animal movement control; health inspection

This article focuses mainly on the five
primary case study countries. For forest impacts, the
concentration is on forest conversion to other land uses and
deforestation, defined as a (temporary or permanent) removal
of trees to less than 10 percent crown cover, which is
similar to the Food and Agricultural Organization's
(FAO's) definition. Selective logging is thus not
deforestation but may degrade forests and enable conversion.

The 2005 Tanzania poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA) on local government tax reform was designed to examine the intended and unintended consequences on poverty reduction and growth in Tanzania of the tax reforms implemented in June 2003 and 2004. The main elements of the reform were the abolition of the flat rate development levy in 2003 along with nuisance taxes, and the abolition of business license fees for enterprises below a certain size and capping of those fees for larger enterprises in 2004.

The report looks at Lesotho, a
predominantly mountainous, land-locked, poor country with a
small population, limited natural resources, and a very
fragile ecology. It has low gross national income, and a
significant poverty level. To ameliorate this condition, the
government has embarked on a pro-poor, growth strategy that
includes public, and private investment in infrastructure.
It explores the level of private participation at this phase

The Country Framework Report (CFR) for
Angola is one of a series of country reviews aimed at
improving the environment for private sector involvement in
infrastructure. The report seeks to assist the Government of
Angola in developing policies, and a framework to promote
private participation in the rebuilding, and development of
the country's infrastructure. Following the years of
conflict, and the resulting damage to the country's

This report provides an assessment of
damages and needs resulting from the earthquake that struck
India on the 8m of October 2005. It provides a preliminary
estimate of the total cost of damage identifies the needs
for reconstruction and discusses strategies and guiding
principles for the implementation for a program of
reconstruction, the whole based on a need to mitigate future
impact of natural disasters through the strengthening of

This report analyzes some key aspects of
food security, namely production, trade, markets and food
aid at the national level, and consumption at the household
level. In doing so it aspires to make a contribution to the
on-going work in Afghanistan regarding the attainment of the
poverty and hunger Millennium Development Goal. The major
findings of the report can be summarized as follows: Food
security (at the national level) does not necessarily

Over the medium time horizon, skill upgrading, differentials in sectoral technological progress, and migration of labor out of farming activities are some of the major structural adjustment factors shaping the evolution of an economy and its connected poverty trends. The main focus of the authors is understanding, for the case of Brazil, how a trade shock interacts with these structural forces and ascertaining whether it enhances or hinders medium-term poverty reduction.

This study explores the international
development community's understanding of poverty and
illustrates how it is related to environmental degradation.
the study relies on three sources: a comprehensive general
literature review, a review of past donor interventions in
Nigeria, and original empirical evidence. The linkages found
between poverty and environmental degradation are based on
240 household surveys analyzed by income quintiles

This report attempts to fill that gap
for two of the most important water-related issues facing
the effects of climate variability and the steady
degradation of the nation's water resources. The study
reported here concluded that the El Niño-La Niña episode
from 1997-2000 cost the country Ksh 290 billion (about 14
percent of GDP during that period). During El Niño-induced
floods, this cost primarily arises from destruction of

This report summarizes the findings of
Investment Climate Assessments (ICAs) carried out for all
countries in the South Asia region. It compares South Asian
countries to countries in other regions, analyzes
similarities and differences within the region, and
identifies the way forward in improving the investment
climate. The first volume analyzes similarities and
differences within the region and between South Asia and the