The latest economic brief highlights that Zambia's rising macroeconomic imbalances, high debt and associated costs of debt service are crowding out private sector growth. The economy is expected to expand by 3.3 percent in 2018 in 2018 compared to 3.4 percent in 2017. Agricultures offers Zambia...

This report examines the role of infrastructure in explaining why the region lags so far behind the rest of the country. More importantly, it looks at how improved infrastructure may help the region catch up. Infrastructure is examined here through its impact on social as well as economic...

This report begins with an Executive Summary, which introduces the territorial development approach and the rationale for applying it in Lesotho's development context before going on to summarize key takeaways and recommendations. It is followed by four chapters: chapter 1, Introduction, lays...

This technical paper is a review of eight intensified systems of land use on unirrigated farms in developing countries. The study proposes three complementary sets of conditions necessary for farming systems to be sustainable in the long run: public sector policies and investments; private...

This paper summarizes the World Bank assistance strategy for rural development in the ECA region. The rural sector includes the people; economic; development activities; institutional, economic, and social infrastructure; and natural resources in rural areas and is thus not confined to agriculture....

The World Bank has been supporting range livestock development since the 1960s, gaining experience that currently contributes to best practices in natural resource management (NRM) in pastoral areas. This report focuses on NRM in the arid rangelands used by pastoralists in Africa and the Middle...

The agricultural and food production sector plays a key role in fighting poverty and food insecurity in Moldova, but is facing critical challenges to modernize and integrate into the international market. This paper focuses on smallholder farms, which make up 95 percent of all farms, and...

The Mozambique urbanization review aimed at contributing to the country's policy and institutional reform agenda on how to harness the full potential of urbanization to promote economic growth and poverty reduction. The study carried out in-depth analyses of the urbanization process, uncovering...

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of poverty and inequality in Tanzania and identifies some priority actions if poverty is to be reduced. The analysis is contained in two parts. The first part is based on the results of the Household Budget Surveys (HBSs) for 2017-18, 2007, and...