This study provides an overview of Bank investments in Early Childhood Development (ECD) from 2000-2013 within the Education, Health, Nutrition and Population, and Social Protection and Labor practices. The study summarizes trends in operational and analytical investments in early childhood,...

Climate change is a major source of concern in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and migration is often understood as one of several strategies used by households to respond to changes in climate and environmental conditions, including extreme weather events. This study focuses on...

The purpose of this study is to provide in one place a set of papers that were written at various points in time over the last four years on poverty and the response to the recent economic crisis in Liberia. More precisely, the objective of the study is twofold. First it is to provide a basic...

This report consists of a collection of case studies from Latin America combining qualitative and quantitative research methods for the analysis of poverty within a social exclusion framework. The first chapter provides an overview of the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods,...

While consumer utility subsidies are widespread in both the water and electricity sectors, their effectiveness in reaching and distributing resources to the poor is the subject of much debate. This publication brings together empirical evidence on subsidy performance across a wide range of...

The book, public finance for poverty reduction, includes a series of papers that were prepared in the context of a World Bank Institute (WBI) public finance The book, public finance for poverty reduction, includes a series of papers that were prepared in the context of a WBI public finance...

Many observers consider Fe y Alegría a successful organization, but very few rigorous evaluations have been conducted. This volume is devoted to an assessment of the performance and selected aspects of the management and pedagogical practices of Fe y Alegría, a federation of Jesuit schools...

The objective of this volume is to assess the relationships between growth and poverty reduction on the basis of a number of case studies, all but one of which are based on recent household survey data. The first part of the volume presents data on Ghana and Senegal, two countries that have...

The case studies in this book provide useful information on the characteristics of students and the performance of various types of schools that benefit from public-private partnerships. While these case studies are empirically grounded, their results are not necessarily of universal...

This study provides a 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 for food, oil-related products and electricity) as well as targetd programs (such...