This aquaculture sector review (with
supply chain mapping) has been implemented within the
framework of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Armenia investment climate reform project implemented by the
World Bank Group trade and competitiveness global practice,
in partnership with Austria’s federal ministry of finance
and Hungarian partnership funding and Hungary Export Import
(EXIM) Bank. This project aims to contribute to improving

The Multi-Donor Trust Fund for
Sustainable Logistics (MDTF-SL) aims at promoting innovative
assistance projects that can break new grounds, test new
ideas, and generate new knowledge for sustainable logistics
that can be replicated in other countries and project. In
November 2013 we were asked to write a position paper that
analyses the state of affairs in Agro-Logistics. It aims to:
(1) review and suggest a conceptual grounding for the

Climate change presents significant
threats to sustainable poverty reduction in Tajikistan. The
primary impacts on rural livelihoods are expected to stem
from reduced water quantity and quality (affecting
agriculture), and increased frequency and severity of
disasters. Options for farming households to autonomously
adapt (and thereby move from climate vulnerability to
resilience) include adoption of on-farm and off-farm

The development and business communities
involved in the African agriculture and agribusiness sectors
have recently experienced a strong resurgence of interest in
promoting value chains as an approach that can help design
interventions geared to add value, lower transaction costs,
diversify rural economies, and contribute to increasing
rural household incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
countries. Enhancing value chain competitiveness is

In a context of rapid urbanization and
energy transition, massive investments will be required to
develop efficient public transport networks. Capturing the
increase in land value caused by transport infrastructure
(for example, through a betterment tax) appears a promising
way to finance public transport. However, it is no trivial
task, as it is difficult to anticipate the rent creation.
This paper uses a simple city model based on urban economic

Rwanda is experiencing its best
growth performance since independence. With average annual
GDP growth rate of 8 percent and 5.2 percent for
agricultural GDP from 1999-2012, Rwanda s recent growth is a
historical record. The poverty headcount fell from 59
percent in 2001 to 45 percent in 2011, and agriculture
continues to be one of the main drivers of growth and
poverty reduction in Rwanda, significantly lifting rural

Improving agricultural productivity and
promoting exports are top priorities for the Government of
the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Given the centrality
of rice to the rejuvenation of agriculture in Myanmar, the
rice sector is of critical importance, especially rice
exports. The government announced ambitious targets of 2
million metric tons (tons)2 of rice exports by 2014/15 and 4
million tons by 2019/20. Recent actual performance is

It is clear that climate change involves changes in temperature and precipitation and, therefore, directly affects land productivity. However, this is not the only channel for climatic change to affect agro-systems. Biodiversity is also subject to climatic change. The present paper illustrates a unique attempt to economically assess the potential effects of climate change induced impacts of biodiversity on the agricultural sector in terms of changes in land productivity, changes in agricultural output and, ultimately, changes in national GDPs.

This study uses household models based
on detailed expenditure and agricultural production data
from 31 developing countries to assess the impacts of
changes in global food prices on poverty in individual
countries and for the world as a whole. The analysis finds
that food price increases unrelated to productivity changes
in developing countries raise poverty in the short run in
all but a few countries with broadly-distributed

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC)
region has been in many ways successful in increasing
agriculture production and competitiveness, as well as
tackling nutrition. Mainstreaming nutrition considerations
into agriculture operations can increase the availability of
and access to nutritious food, which can improve the
nutrition status of individuals. The challenge is how to
bridge the gap that exists in region between being an

Economists have either avoided or
struggled with the concept of culture and its role in
economic development. Although a few theoretical works --
and even fewer empirical studies -- have appeared in the
past decades, this paper tries to build on a
multidisciplinary approach to review the evidence on whether
and how culture matters for development. First, the paper
reviews available definitions of culture and illustrates

This paper seeks to provide evidence on
the extent of household vulnerability to exogenous economic
shocks in the Pacific region and consider policy options
that help to manage this risk. Characteristics of the region
such as remoteness, small size, dispersion, and urbanizing
populations lead to pronounced vulnerabilities. The paper
presents macroeconomic and distributional analysis and
complements it with results of a micro-simulation model