Brazil entered the 1990s suffering the consequences of a lost decade of high inflation and slow growth. Between 1980 and 1990, per capita income declined in real terms, and the share of the population in extreme poverty rose from 16.5 to 19 percent -and from 36 to 42 percent in the Northeast....

Since 1989 the transition countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) have undertaken massive reforms of their economic systems, transforming institutions, processes, attitudes, and fundamental concepts of individual and organizational behavior. This report uses the benefit of 20/20 hindsight to...

The Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE) 2003, examines the effectiveness of Bank support to borrower countries, in particular, the help to foster reform policies, and institutional frameworks. The Review focuses primarily, although not exclusively, on the years from 1999 through...

This evaluation builds upon OED's earlier work to assess how well the PRS Initiative has helped thus far in putting the CDF principles into action, how relevant it is to countries' quest for sustainable poverty reduction, and how effectively the Bank has supported and aligned its own programs...

The report reviews the Bank's development assistance to Lesotho, a poor country, of predominantly rural populations, landlocked and completely surrounded by, and economically dependent on, South Africa. Not surprisingly, a major development challenge for the country is that half the population...

Despite social, and economic diversity within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, social protection systems share common characteristics. This report develops a framework for a more integrated approach to social protection, and proposes general strategic lines of actions to guide the...

This report builds on the wealth of existing literature on living standards and inequality in Poland and is intended to continue the ongoing debate. The focus is on lack of access to economic opportunities as the most important dimension of poverty in Poland and one that is strongly associated...

This book is designed primarily to help readers broaden their knowledge of global issues, gain insight into their country's situation in a global context, and understand the problems of sustaianble development--both national and global. Because development is a comprehensive process involving...

The objective of the study is to analyze conflict-induced displacement from the point of view of vulnerability, using a multifaceted definition of vulnerability. As many as 10 million people have been displaced by war in the Europe and Central Asia region since 1990. While many people have been...

This publication brings together original sociological research, evaluations of programs, and the first comparative cross-country household survey on ethnicity and poverty. It finds that Roma poverty is multi-faceted and can only be addressed by a comprehensive policy approach that attends to...