Worldwide, about 1.6 billion people lack
access to electricity services. There are also large
populations without access in the poorer countries of Asia
and Latin America, as well as in the rural and peri-urban
areas of middle income countries. However large-scale
electrification programs that is currently underway in
middle income countries and the poor countries of Asia will
increase household electricity access more rapidly than in

The climate is changing; and the Europe
and Central Asia (ECA) region is vulnerable to the
consequences. Many of the region's countries are facing
warmer temperatures, a changing hydrology and more extremes,
droughts, floods, heat waves, windstorms, and forest fires.
Already the frequency and cost of natural disasters have
risen dramatically in the region. And the concentration of
greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere guarantees that

Lao PDR's economic outlook remains favorable, with continued strong growth. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth remained at above 7 percent in 2007. Output expanded in mining, newly emerging processing industries, agriculture, and new construction of hydropower projects, tourism and other services. Non-resource sectors contributed over 5 percent to this growth, and the resource sector around 2.5 percent.

With favorable geographical location,
macroeconomic stability, debt reduction, progress on
structural reforms, and political stability, Benin will seem
to have the foundations for a dynamic, diversified economy.
Yet the country's economic structure has not evolved,
remaining highly dependent on cotton and transit trade, and
per-capita growth has slowed down in recent years. The
government has requested the World Bank's assistance in

From February 19 to 28, 2009, a World
Bank team undertook a debt management performance assessment
(DeMPA) mission to Honiara, Solomon Islands. The objective
was to undertake a comprehensive assessment of debt
management functions applying the DeMPA tool. The assessment
reveals that the Solomon Islands meets the minimum
requirements for effective debt management performance as
specified by the DeMPA tool on the legal framework,

The analysis of the cost of
environmental degradation conducted as part of the country
environmental analysis (CEA) shows that the most costly
problems associated with environmental degradation are urban
and indoor air pollution; inadequate water supply,
sanitation, and hygiene; natural disasters (such as flooding
and landslides); and land degradation. The burden of these
costs falls most heavily on vulnerable segments of the

Bangladesh represents a success story
among developing countries. Poverty incidence, which was as
high as 57 percent at the beginning of the 1990s, had
declined to 49 percent in 2000. This trend accelerated
subsequently, reducing the poverty headcount rate to 40
percent in 2005. The primary contributing factor was robust
and stable economic growth along with no worsening of
inequality. Respectable GDP growth that started at the

The objective of this study is to
demonstrate how the interaction between sectors can be
improved to increase the effectiveness of sectoral
interventions, and how the interventions in the agricultural
sector and microfinance can be used to improve nutritional
outcomes. The study will examine what has been done to
improve nutrition through interventions in the agriculture
sector and microcredit programmes in Bangladesh and around

This study comprises a review of
government post-disaster safety nets as well as those
provided by the private insurance market in four countries
of Central Europe, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Poland, and Slovakia. The study attempts to establish the
extent of financial vulnerability of governments and
households to natural hazards in four countries of Central
Europe by examining: 1) the fiscal policy of four Central

The Philippines by virtue of its geographic circumstances is highly prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical cyclones and floods, making it one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. This report seeks to document the impacts of natural disasters on the social and economic development of the Philippines; assess the country's current capacity to reduce and manage disaster risk; and identify options for more effective management of that risk.

This is a summary report of the South
Asia Region and the East Asia Pacific regions training
workshop from April 28-30, 2008 on the importance of
disaster risk reduction and risk transfer including major
concepts, models, and various applications of disaster risk
reduction around the globe. This report represents an
analysis and summary of the main presentations made during
the course of the workshop. It provides a comprehensive

The objective of this paper is to review
experience with completed country environmental analysis
(CEAs) to improve the effectiveness of CEAs as a strategic
analytical tool. Through in-depth analysis of the process,
methodologies, costs, and results of completed CEA pilots,
the paper assesses how effective CEAs have been in informing
and providing strategic guidance to the Bank and client
countries on environment-development issues and the extent