"We examine access to, use of, and participation in decisions on improved water supply in the Volta basin of Ghana, one of the first countries to introduce a community-based approach to rural water supply on a large scale. While 71 percent of the households interviewed have access to improved...

At a time in history when conflict erupts daily in far-flung corners of the world, ending severe deprivation may be critical to global peace and stability. Yet we are far from reaching the goal of reducing hunger by 2025. The authors of this book bring good news: hunger can be banished in our...

Drawing on a household survey collected in eight woredas in seven Ethiopian regions in 2009, as well as on qualitative fieldwork in four of the eight woredas, this paper provides analysis of agricultural extension delivery in Ethiopia. While overall extension services are relatively accessible...

Ethiopia enjoyed remarkable economic growth from 2004/05 to 2008/09, in large part due to increases in foreign transfers and capital inflows combined with expanded domestic credit to fund major increases in private and public investments in infrastructure and housing. However, this rapid growth...

Common-pool resource management is a critical element in the interlocked challenges of food security, nutrition, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability. This paper examines strategic policy choices and governance challenges facing Cambodia's forests and fisheries, the most...

Large-scale social safety net programs such as Indias National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) are difficult to implement due to governance challenges related to elite capture, leakages, and corruption. The ability to identify how the governance challenges of program implementation can be...

The Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) entered its second phase of implementation in 2008. The creation of a free trade area is expected to affect its participants—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—very differently given their diversity in...