The global extreme poverty rate has
fallen by half since 1990, but progress within the
developing world has been uneven. Extreme poverty remains
widespread in most low-income countries while many
middle-income countries also continue to have substantial
levels with many people there who have escaped extreme
poverty remaining poor and vulnerable. Nor has there been
robust progress in sharing prosperity: in many developing

The Sahel region has seen the forcible
displacement of more than million persons as a result of
conflict. Tackling displacement in the Sahel is critical for
both poverty alleviation and stabilization, and only a
development response will be adequate to the task. A
development response to forced displacement in the Sahel
requires a regional approach. Such an approach would have
the benefits of being able to overcome challenges relating

Congo Basin countries rely more on
wood-based biomass to meet their energy needs than most
other countries in the world. Wood fuel production is
increasing in Congo Basin countries. Urbanization often
produces a shift from fuel wood to charcoal consumption,
because charcoal is cheaper and easier to transport and
store. Charcoal is produced mostly using traditional
techniques, with low transformation efficiencies. Under a

This book rental housing lessons from
international experience and policies for emerging market
is an effort to bring rental housing to the forefront of the
housing agenda of countries around the world and to provide
general guidance for policy makers whose actions can have an
effect on where and how people live. It warns of the
challenges they face and provides guidelines on how to
develop or redevelop a sound rental sector. it can enable

Pollution management is at the top of
the development agenda of Bolivia, and this program helps
address it in a cross-sectoral manner. In the context of the
implementation of the program environmental management in
Bolivia: innovations and opportunities which was conducted
from September 2010 until October 2012, the World Bank has
implemented a technical assistance program and supported a
multisectoral analysis in order to help the Bolivian

This review analyzes the profile, trends
and challenges of Georgia's changing urban landscape
since independence in 1991 and provides policy suggestions
to facilitate the economic transition of the country through
its cities. In its analysis and subsequent recommendations
on policy interventions, this report draws on a program of
diagnostics called the 'Urbanization Review' (UR).
The UR diagnostic is based on three main pillars of urban

This paper sheds light on how to harvest
the "youth dividend" in Sub-Saharan Africa by
creating jobs in agriculture. The agriculture that attracts
the youth will have to be profitable, competitive, and
dynamic. These are the same characteristics needed for
agriculture to deliver growth, to improve food security, and
to preserve a fragile natural environment. With higher
priority accorded to implementation of well-designed public

Development and humanitarian actors
currently engaged in Somalia face the challenge of
delivering assistance in such a way that it is supportive of
peace and state building, addresses the acute vulnerability,
and dependence of large shares of the population while
operating in a still insecure and changing environment.
Forced displacement is a key feature of the current
political economy context of Somalia. The necessity of

Just as development means less poverty
or better access to justice, it also means fewer gaps in
wellbeing between males and females. Women's
empowerment and gender equality are development objectives
in their own right, as embodied in the Millennium
Development Goals. It is espoused as well in the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), ratified by the Philippines in 1981; the

The Congo Basin represents 70 percent of
the African continent's forest cover and constitutes a
large portion of Africa's biodiversity. Agricultural
development is a central lever to help people out of
poverty, as well as a key driver of deforestation.
Forest-friendly agricultural development is a challenge for
the region. This report describes some ways forest-friendly
agricultural development can materialize in the Congo Basin.

Benin has made substantial progress over
the past decade in reinforcing macroeconomic stability,
which has laid the foundation for modest but accelerating
growth. After averaging less than 3.7 percent from
2007-2011, GDP growth rose to 5.4 percent in 2012 and
reached 5.6 percent in 2013. Growth is expected to remain
strong at 5.5 percent in 2014. Benin s enhanced growth
performance has been supported by ongoing efficiency

Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction
Strategies (PRS) of the 2000s, which were implemented as
annually rolled-over Priority Action Programs, focused on
four pillars: a) accelerating broad based growth; b)
expanding access to social services for the poor; c)
increasing employment and income-generating activities for
the poor; and d) promoting good governance. Increased public
expenditure and targeted social service provision also led