The hub-periphery development pattern of
the Guangdong economy, to some extent, is a miniature of
that of the Chinese economy. The Pearl River Delta, drawing
from its first-nature comparative advantages in factor
endowments and proximity to Hong Kong SAR, China, and Macau
SAR, China, and the second-nature advantages as first-movers
in the reforms in attracting and retaining domestic and
foreign resources, has developed into a regional economic

In most countries, the private sector
owns the vast majority of the buildings and a considerable
portion of the infrastructure at risk. However, most
investment in disaster risk management is made by the public
sector, with the private sector lagging far behind. The
situation represents missed opportunities for businesses to
capture not only higher levels of the direct benefits of
disaster risk management, but also a broader set of

Costa Rica stands out for being among the most politically stable, progressive, prosperous, and environmentally conscious nations in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Its development model has brought important economic, social, and environmental dividends, with sustained growth, upward mobility for a large share of the population, important gains in social indicators, and significant achievements in reforestation and conservation. However, there are a number of development challenges that need to be addressed to maintain the country’s successful development path.

Afghanistan is a deeply fragile and
conflict affected state. It has been in almost constant
conflict for over 35 years since the Soviet invasion of
1979. Today the country is at a crossroads in its
development with economic growth down sharply and poverty
incidence stubbornly high. Afghanistan faces tremendous
development challenges. Gross domestic product (GDP)
per-capita is among the lowest in the world, poverty is deep

After a destructive civil war and
extreme political instability, Uganda began its
reconstruction process in 1987. Within the enabling
environment of macroeconomic stability, most of the progress
on the twin goals was attributable to higher agricultural
incomes. Poverty reduction among households primarily
engaged in agriculture accounted for 53 percent of the
reduction in poverty from 2006 to 2010 and 77 percent of the

This Systematic County Diagnostics is
organized into six parts. The first part presents a brief
overview of the country’s recent socio-political and
economic context. The second part examines the links between
poverty, income distribution and economic growth, through
the labor market, against the background of large changes in
international capital flows and the unfinished structural
reform agenda. The third part, examines the sustainability

The expansion of international trade has
been essential to development and poverty reduction. Todays
economy is unquestionable global. Trade as a proportion of
global GDP has approximately doubled since 1975. Markets for
goods and services have become increasingly integrated
through a fall in trade barriers, with technology helping
drive trade costs lower. But trade is not an end in itself.
People measure the value of trade by the extent to which it

The city of Kampala has undergone a
period of rapid urbanization that has contributed to the
degradation of the city’s natural environment. The urban
environmental profile for Kampala has been prepared as the
first component of the assignment promoting green urban
development in Africa: enhancing the relationship between
urbanization, environmental assets, and ecosystem services,
a project being conducted under the leadership of the World

The Nile Story is one of immense
challenges and remarkable achievements for the economic
development of the region. It begins in 1999, when the
ministers in charge of water affairs in the Nile countries
agreed to form the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). Between 2003
and 2015, the Nile Basin Trust Fund (NBTF) supported and
coordinated cooperative work in the region, which has been
delivered mainly through the NBI. This book, commissioned by

Women comprise a large proportion of the agricultural labor force in Sub-Saharan

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate several techniques which can be used to evaluate
pathways to sustainable growth in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) via infrastructure
improvement. Decades of conflict and neglect have left the DRC’s transport infrastructure amongst the
sparsest and most dilapidated in the world.

A synchronous growth slowdown has been
underway in emerging markets (EM) since 2010. Growth in
these countries is now markedly slower than, not just the
pre‐crisis average, but also the long‐term average. As a
group, EM growth eased from 7.6 percent in 2010 to 4.5
percent in 2014, and is projected to slow further to below 4
percent in 2015. This moderation has affected all regions
(except South Asia) and is the most severe in Latin America