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Strengthening Environmental Institutions and Governance : What Should be the Role of the World Bank Group?

March, 2013

In order to inform the 2010 Strategy,
and suggest what role the World Bank Group (WBG) can
realistically play in strengthening environmental
institutions and governance, this paper takes stock of WBG
operations in this area since the 2001 Strategy. Looking
across the spectrum of lending and nonlending operations,
the first task is to identify the approaches which have been
used to engage with clients. The analysis then evaluates

The Impacts of Climate Variability on Welfare in Rural Mexico

March, 2012

This paper examines the impacts of
weather shocks, defined as rainfall or growing degree days
more than a standard deviation from their respective
long-run means, on household consumption per capita and
child height-for-age. The results reveal that the current
risk-coping mechanisms are not effective in protecting these
two dimensions of welfare from erratic weather patterns.
These findings imply that the change in the patterns of

Guyana : Agricultural Insurance Component Pre-feasibility Study Report

April, 2013

The objective of the Agricultural
Insurance pre-feasibility study is to identify the
institutional, operational, technical and financial
challenges for the development of agricultural risk transfer
solutions and insurance for rice, fruit and vegetables,
livestock, and the aquaculture sector in Guyana. The
specific objectives of the study include: (i) to identify
the production systems, constraints and risks faced by

The Impact of Climate Change on Hurricane Damages in the United States

March, 2012

This paper quantifies hurricane damage
caused by climate change across the US. A damage function is
estimated from historic hurricane data to measure the
impacts at each location given the storm's strength.
The minimum barometric pressure of each storm turns out to
be a better indicator of damages than the traditional
measure of maximum wind speed. A hurricane generator in the
Atlantic Ocean is then used to create 5000 storms with and

World Bank for Results 2011

September, 2013

This first World Bank for Results report
provides the Bank's shareholders, partners, and
external stakeholders with an integrated view of results and
performance in recent years. It serves as a companion to the
World Bank Corporate Scorecard. Aggregating results that
countries have achieved with Bank support against the
backdrop of global development results, the report also
assesses operational and organizational performance at the

Natural Disasters and Household Welfare : Evidence from Vietnam

March, 2012

As natural disasters hit with increasing
frequency, especially in coastal areas, it is imperative to
better understand how much natural disasters affect
economies and their people. This requires disaggregated
measures of natural disasters that can be reliably linked to
households, the first challenge this paper tackles. In
particular, a methodology is illustrated to create natural
disaster and hazard maps from first hand, geo-referenced

World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic
Update 2010, Volume 1 : Emerging Stronger from the Crisis

March, 2012

East Asia has recovered from the
economic and financial crisis. Largely thanks to China, the
region's output, exports and employment have mostly
returned to the levels before the crisis. Leading the global
economy, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in
developing East Asia is poised to rise to 8.7 percent in
2010 after slowing from 8.5 percent in 2008 to 7.0 percent
in 2009. This report also identifies two common regional

Climate Resilient Cities : A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters

December, 2012

Climate resilient cities a primer on reducing vulnerabilities to disasters is prepared as a guide for local governments in the East Asia Region to better understand the concepts and consequences of climate change; how climate change consequences contribute to urban vulnerabilities; and what is being done by city governments in East Asia and around the world to actively engage in learning, capacity building, and capital investment programs for building sustainable, resilient communities.

Low-Carbon Development : Latin
American Responses to Climate Change

March, 2012

Climate change is already a reality.
This is evidenced by the acceleration of global temperature
increases, the melting of ice and snow covers, and rising
sea levels. Latin America and the Caribbean region (LCR) are
not exempt from these trends, as illustrated by the changes
in precipitation patterns that are already being reported in
the region, as well as by observations of rising
temperatures, the rapid melting of Andean tropical glaciers,

Azerbaijan : Country Environmental Analysis

February, 2013

The Country Environmental Analysis,
presents a review of environmental priorities, public
environmental expenditures and the supporting institutional
framework and makes recommendations to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of public environmental
expenditure in Azerbaijan. The focus is to identify areas
for improvement and changes to ensure that the process of
establishing environment-related priorities is sufficiently

Solomon Islands Growth Prospects : Constraints and Policy Priorities - Discussion Note

March, 2012

Economic growth in Solomon Islands since
the end of civil conflict in 2003 has been driven by rapid
expansion of the forestry sector and large increases in
international aid flows. Stocks of natural forest logs are
nearing exhaustion and, as the security situation improves,
aid flows are likely to flatten off. The Solomon Islands
Government asked the World Bank to investigate future growth
prospects. This note summarizes the findings and presents a

Forced Displacement : Overview of the World Bank Portfolio

August, 2012

For the purposes of this note, forced
displacement refers to the situation of persons who are
forced to leave or flee their homes due to conflict,
violence, or persecution. Those displaced can either be
refugees outside their country of nationality or be people
displaced inside their country of nationality (IDPs). This
notwithstanding, the portfolio review of Bank activities
addressing displacement indicates a need for systematically