Poverty reduction is a central feature of the international development agenda and contemporary poverty reduction strategies increasingly focus on “targeting the poor”, yet poverty and inequality remain intractable foes. The report seeks to explain why people are poor and why inequalities...

Twenty years of rapid economic development in Ghana has done little, if anything, to reduce the historical North, South divide in standards of living. While rural development and urbanization have led to significant poverty reduction in the South, similar dynamics have been largely absent from...

This study, a draft of which was shared with the Government of Ghana in November 2009, provides a basic diagnostic of the benefit incidence and targeting performance of a large number of social programs in Ghana. Both broad-based programs (such as spending for education and health, and subsidies...

This note provides an overview of demographic changes in Azerbaijan and their policy implications. Azerbaijan's population is younger than the populations of most countries in the region. It is estimated that the population in Azerbaijan will increase from about 7.2 million in 1990 to 10.6...

This note provides an overview of demographic changes and their policy implications in Armenia, with particular reference to the poor. Armenia is currently experiencing a significant aging of the population and decrease in the size of the population, these changes have far-reaching implications....

"This report by World Bank economists and Colombian consultants maps out a strategy for poverty reduction in Colombia by concentrating efforts on rural development, social and infrastructural services, and decentralization strengthening. Expenditures would be financed by revenues generated by...

The report is based on analysis of the main facets and dynamics of poverty in Russia since 1997. The analysis was conducted over the past two years by Russian and international experts in the framework of the first stage of the program on "enhancing the measurement, monitoring, and analysis of...