'Restructuring has produced a definite favorable impact on labor relations and workers behavior in the reorganized farms. Managers of reorganized farm enterprises give a much more positive assessment of the behavioral patterns of their workers than managers of non-reorganized farms.' Agriculture remains the main source of employment and livelihood for the large rural population of many transition countries, especially among the former Soviet republics. Accordingly the World Bank continuously monitors the progress of land reform and farm restructuring in the region because of the potential...

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource for most of the world's citizens. The current trends indicate that the overall situation is likely to deteriorate further, at least for the next decade, unless the water profession eschews 'business as usual' practices, which can only allow incremental changes to occur. Groundwater is the least understood and least appreciated, yet the most important, natural resource available to mankind. Groundwater represents about 97% of the existing fresh water resources, excluding the resources locked in polar ice. More than one and a half billion people...

'Excessive concentration of land ownership, as is feared by many transition governments, has not been a feature of land markets where they have been allowed to function relatively freely and where land has been allocated in kind to households and individuals.' The World Bank has long been active in the Europe and Central Asia region in monitoring and evaluating land reform developments and supporting the development of land markets. Bank efforts to date have made a significant impact in our client countries, and studies produced by the Bank have been used as impartial references on this...

Forests play a vital role in maintaining Nepal's impressive biodiversity, which has global significance: With only 0.1 percent of the world's total area, Nepal contains 2 percent of the planet's flowering plants, 8 percent of its birds, and 4 percent of its mammals. As Nepal develops its forest resources, it needs to minimize the biotic pressures affecting the structure and dynamics of forest plant communities and wildlife populations and thereby reverse the current destructive pressures on the country's biodiversity. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the ways in which...

Water is increasingly recognized as a scarce resource that must be managed more efficiently than in the past. In addition to physical scarcity, the cost of accessing these resources is climbing. This publication explores institutional frameworks in three case studies of long-standing and successful water markets. These cases demonstrate the common features and essential elements of water markets. They also show how to design markets that consider the local institutional, social, and political conditions and how to integrate those markets into existing water resource management arrangements....

'Many countries are undertaking legal and judicial reforms as part of their overall development programs; there is increasing recognition that economic and social progress requires consolidation of democracy as well as respect for the rule of law and human rights; without these development is not sustainable.' Many developing countries find that their judiciaries are inconsistent in conflict resolution and carry a large backlog of cases, thus stifling private-sector growth, eroding individual and property rights, and perhaps even violating human rights. Delays affect both the fairness and the...

'Mining exploration investment in the Latin American and Caribbean region has increased 130 percent in the last five years, a figure which increases to 500 percent, if Chile is excluded.' Governments have revamped mining legislation to enable private investment while becoming more sensitive to environmental factors. In light of this legislation, this report examines the environmental effects of artisanal, small, and medium mines in three Latin American Countries: Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Four of the most important elements to be considered are: * The age of the mine * Management of tailings...

'Modern society has eliminated the inhumane debtors' prisons for handling the insolvent debtor and in their stead have enacted benign modern laws in the area of bankruptcy. Unscrupulous merchants now use these benign laws for fraudulent purposes.' Based on case studies in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela, this is the first publication to provide recommendations about the important legal and institutional issues that are involved in bankruptcy reform in a critical region of the global economy. The authors note that effective bankruptcy policy balances several requirements for the...

This report assesses the changes in social welfare and policy that have taken place in Poland during the economic transition. It tests the main hypotheses concerning changes in the role of the welfare state, workings of the labor market, the distributional consequences of transition, and more generally about the winners and losers in transition. Chapter one examines trends in social expenditure during economic transition. Chapter two focuses on changes in the labor market, including emerging risks and opportunities. Chapter three explores distributional consequences of transition.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the United States represents one of the few successful examples of comprehensive river basin development. Established to guide the development of the resources within the Tennessee River Basin, TVA operates a wide variety of water, power, economic development, and environmental programs within the region. This report presents an overview of TVA's growth and development, its institutions, and its operational programs.