This book illustrates the decade-long transformation of the Hungarian sub-national system with a focus on sub-national finance. It shows the rocky path of transition from central command to decentralized local self-governments. Hungary has decentralized and refurbished the state administration,...

Lifting people out of poverty is one of the great challenges facing the international community today. It has become still more daunting in the context of the global financial crisis, which has severe implications for the poorest people in the world. Almost 1.4 billion people in developing...

In the Middle East and North Africa Region, forest resources are generally limited, as is their contribution to GDP, and it is for this reason their importance is often overlooked. However, forestry's contribution to natural resource and environmental management, is significant, which should not...

This report examines the reforms and policy changes necessary in the rural section of the ten countries that have started the accession process for eventual membership in the European Union (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia)....

The report contributes to the debate surrounding land use in the Brazilian Amazon. It sets the context by reviewing the evidence concerning the deleterious effect of increasing levels of rainfall on agricultural settlement, and productivity. Next, it compares the economic future of an Amazonian...

Isolation contributes to rural poverty. Without a minimum of reliable and efficient access to locations of basic social and economic activities, rural life stagnates and local development prospects remain limited. Providing and maintaining a minimum level of access, referred to in this paper as...