Le commerce est essentiel a la croissance economique et la reduction de la pauvrete. En Afrique subsaharienne, ou les trois quarts de la population vit en milieu rural, promouvoir une croissance soutenue generatrice de revenus et d'emplois est d'une importance capitale pour les strategies de reduction de la pauvrete. Or, de nombreuses economies Africaines continuent a dependre lourdement de la production et des exportations de produits agricoles traditionnels (cafe, cacao, coton), dont les prix reels n ont cesse de diminuer au cours des trois dernieres decennies. Ceci a entraine une...

The report, based on a complex analytical methodology, provides a clear economic rationale for investing in improved water resources development and management in Kenya. It is part of the World Bank's policy dialogue on water resources management reforms and investment planning in Kenya. It focuses on the economic implications of two key factors that make the economy and people of Kenya highly vulnerable the effects of climate variability and the steady degradation of the nation's water resources. The 1997-2000 El Nino-La Nina episodes cost the country Ksh 290 billion, about 14 percent of GDP...

Relying on contributions from the International Movement ATD Fourth World, this book deals with questions such as: What does it mean to live in poverty, and especially in extreme poverty? How can very poor people be reached through development projects? How can we assess whether projects succeed in changing the lives of the poorest individuals? In answering these questions, the emphasis is on exploring what type of knowledge is needed to fight extreme poverty. A key argument is that apart from academic knowledge, a concerted effort is needed to listen to the knowledge of poor people...

This volume provides a set of six case studies from West Africa. These assess the benefits of growth (or the costs of a lack of growth) in terms of poverty reduction in those countries. The first part of this book describes the experience of two countries (Ghana and Senegal) that achieved high levels of growth in the 1990s, and that also experienced important reductions in poverty, even though growth was not strictly pro-poor. The second part describes the experience of two other countries (Burkina Faso and Cape Verde) that also achieved high levels of growth in the 1990s, but where there was...

The prospect of European integration presents huge opportunities and challenges for the development of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Ukraine. By most measures, the development of the NBFI sector in Ukraine lags far behind that of recent accession countries in Central Europe. To address the main impediments facing the development of the sector, the Ukranian authorities need to implement a strategy based on six main pillars: strengthen the capacity, independence, funding, and accountability of the NBFI regulators; develop money markets, government bond markets, and municipal bond...

This study reviews the recent developments in capital markets and institutional investors in Russia, and examines the policy challenges ahead for the development of the sector. The analysis covers key impediments for further development and policy challenges for securities markets, in particular legal and regulatory framework, market infrastructure, government bonds, sub-sovereign bonds, corporate bonds, and equities. The analysis also covers key impediments for furhter development and policy challenges for mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies.

This study investigates the relationship between financial sector development and progress in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It assesses the contribution of countries' financial sector development to achieving the MDGs. The focus is on the relationships between financial development and economic welfare and growth, and the following four MDG-themes: Poverty, Education, Health, and Gender Equality. In doing so, the book reviews the theoretical channels, surveys existing empirical evidence both cross country and case study evidence, and provides new evidence. 'Financial...

Accurate data on household energy use, combined with other data on household well-being (including consumption, income, health, and education), is essential to monitor progress in the household energy transition from traditional biomass fuels to modern fuels and electricity and to evaluate the effect of government energy policies on living conditions. Multi-topic socioeconomic household surveys, such as the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), can provide data with which to make these measurements. Designers of LSMS and other multi-topic household surveys can use these...

In the past fifteen years, most countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have shifted from predominantly collective to more individualized agriculture. These years also have witnessed the largest fall in agricultural production, yields, and rural employment on record, while the deterioration and dissolution of collective and state farms have been accompanied by a significant drop in rural public services. 'Land Reform and Farm Restructuring in Transition Countries' provides a structured and comparative review of important aspects of land reform and...

'Recruiting, Retaining and Retraining Secondary School Teachers and Principals in Sub-Saharan Africa' is based on country studies in Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda and an extensive literature review. In many parts of Africa, the demand for secondary teachers substantially exceeds the supply due to factors such as secondary teacher attrition, bottlenecks in the teacher preparation system, and perceived unattractive conditions of service. Few countries have strong policies, strategies, and programs for recruiting able secondary leavers to secondary teaching. The paper...