The authors present evidence that in
Burkina Faso, certain high-performing local institutions
contribute to equitable economic development. They link
reduced levels of poverty, and inequality to a high degree
of internal village organization. The structure of these
high-performing local organizations means they can exist in
a number of African countries, because they depend more on
internal participation, rather than on nay one

This note focuses on the economic
evaluation of more conventional infrastructure investments,
and specifically on two types of projects which may result
in significant economic restructuring - relocation of
economic activities, generation of new activities, or
changes in the way that current activities are undertaken.
The two examples used: new urban rail lines and major new
barrier crossings serve simply as examples of a much wider

Vietnam's ethnic minorities, who tend to
live mostly in remote rural areas, typically have lower
living standards than the ethnic majority. How much is this
because of differences in economic characteristics (such as
education levels and land) rather than low returns to
characteristics? Is there a self-reinforcing culture of
poverty in the minority groups, reflecting patterns of past
discrimination? The authors find that differences in levels

Economic development has brought about,
the decline in contribution of the agricultural sector to
the economy of Sri Lanka, and, consistent with this economic
transformation, the structure of employment also changed.
Thus, as labor migrates away from agriculture, the
productivity, for those who remain in the land, needs to
increase significantly. This report examines the constraints
to promoting more rapid agricultural, and rural non-farm

This case study is one of six
evaluations of the implementation of the World Bank's
1991 Forest Strategy. This and the other cases (Brazil,
Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, and India) complement a review
of the entire set of lending and nonlending activities of
the World Bank Group and the Global Environment Facility. A
review of World Bank assistance to Indonesia in the forest
sector since 1991 faces two challenges. The first is

The report reviews the macroeconomic
perspectives of Uruguay, focused on its rural development
and natural resources intensive sectors, to form the basis
for expanding agricultural production, and increasing
productivity. It reviews the country's sectoral
composition, exports of natural resource intensive products,
and labor and capital use, as well as the tax burden.
Although agriculture represents less than ten percent of the

Central control of forests takes
management responsibility away from the communities most
dependent on them, inevitably resulting in tensions. Like
many African countries, Tanzania--which has forest or
woodland cover over 30-40 percent of its land--established
central forestry institutions at a time when there was
little need for active management and protection because
population pressures were low. But in the face of scarce

The book examines the impacts of medium-
and large-scale mines on local communities, through six case
studies, analyzing both the socioeconomic and cultural
effects, as well as environmental impacts of mining
operations on the communities. From a multidimensional
perspective, studies investigate mining operations costs,
and benefits, with an emphasis on the sustainability of
benefits, and the outcomes of the legal, and consultative

This review aims to provide the
Government of Madagascar with a situation assessment and
insights and guidance on how to position the rural and
environment sector as an engine for inclusive and
sustainable economic growth. The review has cast the
analytical net quite widely with the aim to come up with a
comprehensive overview of the sector. In view of the
intimate linkages between rural development and the

Using household survey data for 1998, the authors assess the distributional impact of the recent economic crisis in the Philippines. The results suggest that the impact of the crisis was modest, leading to a five percent reduction in average living standards, and a nine percent increase in the incidence of poverty - with larger increases indicated for the depth, and severity of poverty. The greater shock came from El Nino, rather than through the labor market. The labor market shock was progressive (reducing inequality) while El Nino shock was regressive (increasing inequality).

Despite its healthy economic growth, due
to good macroeconomic management, and progress in trade
liberalization, Sri Lanka's development is perceived to
be well below its potential. Certainly, the civil conflict
has taken a heavy social, and economic toll on the
country's performance, but also governance, and public
institutions have weakened, though maintaining a dominance
on the financial sector, and utilities, which further

The performance of the East Asian
transition economies in export and income growth has been
strikingly better than that of countries in Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet Union. The East Asian economies have
achieved remarkably high growth rates in outputs and exports
without the often large declines in output and exports
observed in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. East
Asian reformers have successfully made many of the parallel