This document presents the main
governance indicators for the country, as compiled by the
World Bank Institute (WBI), and how are they used by
international institutions in making decisions about
assistance to Nicaragua. Although these indicators have
weaknesses, they can provide a general indication of what
are the priority areas for investigation. Accordingly, the
present review concentrates on a few key areas where the

This report is designed to provide
policymakers with estimates of the likely outcomes of an
array of potential changes in transportation sector policy.
To this end, the report uses a variety of economy-wide
models to simulate alternative cost reductions and
efficiency improvements. A detailed discussion of the
various policies that may yield efficiency gains and cost
reductions, as well as the specifics of their

This report reviews Community Driven
Development (CDD) projects in Lao People's Democratic
Republic (PDR) to determine their effectiveness in
channeling resources to communities for poverty reduction.
The study examines three CDD projects in depth: the Poverty
Reduction Fund, the Village Investment for the Poor (both
supported by the World Bank), and the Government-financed
Village Development Fund. Through close analysis of these

Agricultural and Rural Development (ARD)
is a fundamental component of Ethiopia's economic
growth and poverty reduction strategy. The agricultural
development strategy under Agriculture Development Led
Industrialization (ADLI) and Sustainable Development and
Poverty Reduction Program (SDPRP) focused on enhancing the
productive capacity of smallholder farmers, promoting crop
diversification, shifting to a market based system, ensuring

Balochistan offers some of the best
assets for development. Balochistan is generously bestowed
with natural and locational resources. It possesses the
largest land area of any province of Pakistan, proving vast
rangeland for goats, sheep, buffaloes, cattle, camels and
other livestock. Its southern border makes up about two
thirds of the national coastline, giving access to a large
pool of fishery resources. As a frontier province, it is

Rwanda established targets for Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) growth and poverty reduction, to be
achieved by the year 2020; these were to (i) raise real per
capita income from $230 to $900; and (ii) reduce the poverty
incidence by half. To reach these targets, the Government
projected in its 2002 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(PRSP) that GDP growth will to be in the range of 6 to 7
percent over the medium term. The PRSP focused on six

This report presents policy, market, and
agriculture transition in the Northern Uplands of Lao
People's Democratic Republic aims to contribute to such
a dialogue by providing: (a) a policy-relevant typology of
the structural characteristics and transition patterns of
the principal small-holder agriculture systems in the
Northern Uplands; and (b) recommendations to strengthen
Government's facilitation of a more sustainable and

This report aims to assist the
government in improving implementation of the New Socialist
Countryside (NSC) program, especially in raising the
effectiveness of public expenditures, and the harmonization
of public finance. While this report pays particular
attention to rural aspects of public finance, it addresses
this topic within the overall framework of intergovernmental
finance that impacts both rural and urban areas. Similarly,

The purpose of this book is to
contribute to the debate on how to confront the challenges
that Bolivia faces today. It is composed of a series of
studies on the current reality of Bolivia and has been
developed in conjunction with national and international
public policy experts. The studies present a diagnostic by
sector, a summary of the main challenges, and public policy
recommendations aimed at meeting these challenges. After

Beyond the City evaluates the
contribution of rural development and policies to growth,
poverty alleviation, and environmental degradation in the
rest of the economy, as well as in the rural space. This
title brings together new theoretical and empirical
treatments of the links between rural and national
development. New findings and are combined with existing
literature to enhance our understanding of the how rural

This paper examines different models of
governing structure found in metropolitan areas around the
world. It evaluates how well these models achieve the
coordination of service delivery over the entire
metropolitan area as well as the extent to which they result
in the equitable sharing of costs of services. Based on
theory and case studies from numerous cities in developed
and less developed countries, the paper concludes that there

Indonesian agriculture is at a
crossroads. Supporting the livelihood of millions of
Indonesians, it needs to underpin renewed and robust growth
of the economy; and be a key component of the
Government's poverty alleviation strategy. The
challenge for the future is to reinvigorate productivity
gains among rural producers, and provide the foundation for
long run sustainability of these productivity gains.