This review of the active portfolio of
World Bank projects aimed at improving urban environmental
quality was carried out during 2002-03 in order to assess
the level of commitment of the institution to urban
sustainability. The review focuses on the contributions of
key sectors to urban environmental improvements, in
particular on those belonging to the Infrastructure
Vice-Presidency, and on how projects are contributing to

Twenty-two of India's 31 states are
regarded as particularly prone to natural disasters: 55% of
its land is vulnerable to earthquake, 8% is vulnerable to
cyclone, and 5% is vulnerable to flood. In light of
India's vulnerability to growing losses due to natural
disasters and escalating fiscal pressures at the central and
state levels, the World Bank undertook a detailed review of
India's catastrophe exposures. The goal of this project

This Policy Note is based on the Final
Report of the Environmental Energy Review (EER), prepared
over two years, with the full collaboration of the
Government of Iran, and the assistance of international, and
national consultants. The EER report comprises: an analysis
of the current situation with regards to energy generation,
and use; an evaluation of the growth prospects with regard
to energy generation, and use; the identification of the

Over the past dozen years, policymakers
have largely abandoned long-standing popular approaches for
addressing risk in agriculture without fully resolving the
question of how best to manage the negative consequences of
volatile agricultural markets. The article reviews the
transition from past policies and describes current
approaches that distinguish between the trade-related fiscal
consequences of commodity market volatility and the

The provention consortium was created in
February 2000 as a formal partnership between the World
Bank, other International Financial Institutions (IFIs),
bilateral donor organizations, the insurance sector, the
academic community, and civil society. Designed as a
think-tank to commission research and to disseminate risk
reduction tools, the provention secretariat was to rotate
from one partner organization to another. Thus, after three

This report is a summary of research work coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) China in 2003-2005, to prepare Implementation Guidelines for Poverty and Environment Work (IGPEW) in China. This report describes the research in two provinces, Yunnan and Sichuan, relating to the government's on-going Village-Based Integrated Poverty Reduction Plan for Poorer Western Regions. In addition, an English version of the implementation guidelines for poverty and environment work, and of the checklist, has been prepared by combining the documents produced in the two provinces.

These guidelines have three sections.
Section one provides food for thought, regarding poverty and
environment, and how the two are linked. Section two
provides practical tools to incorporate the environment into
a village-level action plan for the environment. Section
three provides ideas for innovative activities relating to
the environment in poverty reduction programs. Finally two
practical checklists are provided: one for poverty reduction

This report summarizes and consolidates the findings of three Bank studies on poverty issues in Mexico, written as part of the second phase of this work: Urban Poverty, Rural Poverty, and Social Protection. It also expands on how Mexico will seek to use social protection policy as a vehicle for redistribution. Discussed in Chapter 1, the state has a clear role in providing risk-pooling mechanisms where private insurance markets fail (e.g., old age and health insurance), but the role of social protection policy in promoting redistribution is more an issue of national choice.

The objective of this study is to raise awareness and understanding of exposure and vulnerability to drought in Central Asian countries and the Caucasus and to introduce a strategic, pro-active framework of mitigation and prevention. The audiences of the report are the governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia. The report will further be of interest to NGOs and civil society, as well as donors.

The exercise was to conduct a
preliminary assessment of the damage caused by the cyclone
and floods, in close coordination with the government,
development partners, civil society, and other stakeholders
active in the affected area,. The damage and needs
assessment (DNA) also estimates the related economic
implications and indirect losses incurred due to wide scale
flood damages in Sindh and Balochistan, and the associated

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Bank introduced the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper (PRSP) process in 1999 to strengthen the poverty
alleviation focus of their assistance to low-income
countries. This report reviews Tajikistan s experience with
the PRSP process, focusing on the effectiveness of IMF and
World Bank support to the process and the extent to which
the two institutions lending and non-lending activities in

This report examines poverty issues in the Kyrgyz Republic, focusing on three areas. First, it provides a summary of the trends in poverty over the period 2000-2003 by drawing upon comparable data from the Household Budget Surveys from those years. Second, based upon the Kyrgyz Integrated Household Survey (KIHS ) it presents the new estimates of absolute and extreme poverty by applying updated poverty analysis methodology.