Disparity in growth rates between Upper and Lower Egypt has been dramatic. While national per capita income averaged 3 percent growth annually beginning in the mid 1990s, and growth rates in metropolitan areas approached 8 percent -- Upper Egypt experienced negative per capita growth rates...

This note recounts that by the early 2000s, the Government of Mexico and the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform, in particular, had come to see investment in "the more dynamic young segment of the population endowed with more human capital" as the key to revitalizing the moribund rural economy of...

This note explains that given the limited budgets allocated to supervision activities, supervising World Bank projects has long been a serious challenge-particularly in sprawling rural areas with small poor communities spread out over vast distances. Innovative ways of sharing monitoring and...

Reversing Africa's decades-long decline in soil productivity levels poses a major challenge, and one that cannot be addressed without increased use of appropriate fertilizer nutrients. The 2006 World Bank Africa Fertilizer Strategy Assessment was undertaken to inform policy makers, providing...

Communities supported by World Bank rural development projects often cite support for the development of income-generating activities (IGAs) as a critical need. This note identifies some of the core problems encountered by Bank task teams that attempt to respond to this need, outlines the issues...

In Ethiopia the centrality of water is clear. With little water resources infrastructure, relatively weak management institutions and capacity, extreme hydrological variability and seasonality, and a highly vulnerable economy, Ethiopia faces an enormous challenge in building the minimum platform...

Functional foods have been the topic of considerable interest in the food and nutrition industry for years, but the term currently lacks a common definition. A practical definition adopted here includes products, in food or drink form, that influence specific functions in the body and thereby...

Although many developing countries have drafted legislation to address plant variety protection (PVP) requirements, relatively few have begun to implement PVP, and little guidance is available on appropriate strategies. This note looks at some of the key decisions facing agricultural...

This paper addresses the issue of using intellectual property rights (IPRs) in public sector breeding, and the potential impact on breeding strategies and on the costs and benefits. The paper is based on a study on the impact of IPRs in the breeding industry in developing countries. There are...

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) in plant breeding are being introduced or strengthened in developing countries as a result of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization. Although living organisms have traditionally been...