The states in the Brazilian Amazon have
made progress in reducing poverty and improving social
indicators in the last decade. Despite this progress, the
poverty rate in the Amazon is among the highest in Brazil.
As of 2000, rural poverty is the greatest challenge. In
Par?, not only is the headcount poverty rate of 58.4 percent
in rural areas more than 55 percent higher than headcount
poverty in urban areas, but also poverty is much deeper in

This report examines poverty issues in the Kyrgyz Republic, focusing on three areas. First, it provides a summary of the trends in poverty over the period 2000-2003 by drawing upon comparable data from the Household Budget Surveys from those years. Second, based upon the Kyrgyz Integrated Household Survey (KIHS ) it presents the new estimates of absolute and extreme poverty by applying updated poverty analysis methodology.

The unifying theme of the public
expenditure review is the growth and poverty focus of public
expenditures, evolving around the question of how effective
public expenditures are in addressing Maldives'
overriding objective of reducing regional disparities and
income poverty, particularly in the outer atolls. Since
macroeconomic stability is a key prerequisite for sustained
high economic growth and poverty reduction, the soundness of

Household fuel choice in the past, has
often been analyzed and understood through the lens of the
energy ladder model. This model places relatively heavy
emphasis on household fuel switching in response to rising
incomes. This report views energy use through a household
economics framework. The household economics framework
clarifies that, in addition to income and market prices, the
opportunity costs of firewood collection also need to be

In conformity with its objective of
functioning as a local Government, Kathmandu Metropolitan
City (KMC) sought the assistance of the World Bank for the
preparation of a City Development Strategy (CDS) for
Kathmandu. The various sectoral as well as integrated
strategies presented in this document seem to be an
overwhelming demand on KMC with its limited manpower and
money. However, a CDS is essential if KMC is to focus its

This report summarizes the proceedings
from a workshop, the first in the region designed to foster
a multi-sectoral approach to development energy services for
poverty reduction, held at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, October 23-25, 2002. It was co-organized by the
World Bank-UNDP sponsored Energy Sector Management
Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the World Bank Africa Energy
Unit, and others. The report focuses on the key issues

This Public Expenditure Review (PER) for
FY00, provided support to the Government of Tanzania in the
preparation of its budget, and Medium Term Expenditure
Framework (MTEF), and performed as well an external
evaluation of the country's budget performance. The
report contains two volumes, the Main Report (v. I) first
describes the main features of the PER process, to then
present the main findings emerging from a review of fiscal

This report finalized in March 2001
constitutes a step toward the objective of designing an
integrated strategy for rural poverty reduction in Brazil,
The report contains an updated and more detailed profile of
the rural poor in the northeast (NE) and southeast (SE) of
Brazil; identifies key determinants of rural poverty in
these regions; and proposes a five-pronged strategic
framework in which to couch a set of integrated policies

The report provides a synthesis of the
main results obtained on the evolution of poverty, and other
indicators of well being over the 1990s, and is intended to
facilitate debate on strategy options for poverty reduction
in Madagascar. Section I provides the setting for study, and
presents a synthesis of macroeconomic trends in the country
during the last decade. Section II looks at the evolution of
poverty, inequality, and other indicators over the 1993-1999

This report is part of an ongoing
project to understand poverty, growth, and human development
in Pakistan. It argues that if the country does not close
its social gap, its long-term ability to grow economically,
alleviate poverty, and sustain its debt will be
fundamentally compromised. Spanning social, economic, and
fiscal difficulties, the country's current predicament
is not rooted in a discrete set of policies amenable to

Environmental degradation can inflict
serious damage on poor people because their livelihoods
often depend on natural resource use and their living
conditions may offer little protection from air, water, and
soil pollution. At the same time, poverty-constrained
options may induce the poor to deplete resources and degrade
the environment at rates that are incompatible with
long-term sustainability. In such cases, degraded resources

In conformity with its objective of
functioning as a local Government, Kathmandu Metropolitan
City (KMC) sought the assistance of the World Bank for the
preparation of a City Development Strategy (CDS) for
Kathmandu. The various sectoral as well as integrated
strategies presented in this document seem to be an
overwhelming demand on KMC with its limited manpower and
money. However, a CDS is essential if KMC is to focus its