This Joint Staff Advisory Note discusses the Poverty Reduction Strategy Progress (PRSP) Reports for Serbia and Montenegro. Although the strong economic growth in recent years in Serbia has improved average living standards, the reports note that its impact on poverty reduction remains...

In this paper, the implementation of the activities under the interim poverty reduction strategy and progress toward the elaboration of poverty reduction strategy are described. Institutional framework is strengthened by the creation of the inter-ministerial committee on the implementation of...

This document presents a profile of poverty, and indicates briefly the stakes and challenges involved, using available quantitative and qualitative data to specify the targeted objectives to be reached. Actions to be taken are then positioned within a macroeconomic framework for which short- and...

The Joint Staff Advisory Note (JSAN) reviews the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP)—the new Poverty Reduction Strategy Program of Cambodia. It recommends that the institutional arrangements for NSDP should be strengthened to support its implementation and monitoring. It analyzes...

Oportunidades, Mexico’s conditional cash transfer program, has proved to be an insufficient tool for poverty alleviation in a phase of low and uneven economic growth, and it has failed to achieve its intended goal to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. In this context, what...

Until comparatively recently, most training in most countries has been enterprise-based and has been financed by the employer, by the trainee, or both jointly, normally without money changing hands. As a first approximation, the cost of firm-specific training is absorbed by the employer, and the...

The authors evaluated how Mexico's Labor Retraining Program (PROBECAT) affected unemployment and displaced workers. As part of the World Bank supported Manpower Training project, PROBECAT has provided short-term vocational training to more than 250,000 unemployed people. Their evaluation was...

After 18 years of democracy and 15 years of structural reforms, Bolivia has made important strides in consolidating its institutions and its economic stability. The process of change is not over, however, there is still a need to pursue the efforts toward greater equity that will make it...

The Joint Staff Advisory Note (JSAN) describes the progress of Vietnam over the last two years. It expects that many of the shortfalls experienced in the implementation of the Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy will be addressed by the new Socio-economic Development plan (SEDP)...