In Sub-Sahara Africa, adoption rates of improved crop varieties remain relatively low, which is partly due to farmers’ limited access to information. In smallholder settings, information often spreads through informal networks. Better understanding of such networks could potentially help to...

Natural resource management practices, such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), have been proposed to tackle agricultural challenges such as decreasing productivity growth and environmental degradation. Yet, the benefits of system technologies for farmers are often debated. Impacts seem...

Accurate targeting is key for the success of any development policy. While a number of factors might explain low targeting efficiency such as governance failure, political interference or lack of political will, this paper focuses on improving indicator-based models that identify poor households...

The recent international financial crisis and the steady decrease in development assistance have put many poor countries under increasing pressure to target more accurately their public spendings at the poor and the population in need. However, further progress is hampered by the lack of...

Many development projects seek to reach the poorest in the provision of agricultural inputs, extension, credit, education, and many other services. However, low-cost and reliable methods for assessing whether a project reaches the poor are lacking at present. In this paper, we present an...

For the past two decades, Tunisia has been undertaken important structural reforms, which call in most cases for market and trade liberalization (agricultural structural adjustment program, GATT reforms, free trade area with the European Union). The private-led type of growth strategy with less...

Agriculture in China has experienced a compelling growth in the early 1980s, a buoyant upbeat in the early 1990s, and an extended period of low growth after 1995. Decollectivization, mar-ket reforms, public investments and technology have played a critical role during this overall successful...

Large differences in terms of economic and social development across countries and smaller regions are one of the most important hinders for effective implementations of sustainable development. This paper presents a methodological approach to measure differences of economic and social...

The Italian Industrial Districts (IDs) are now considered in the national and international literature as one of the main factors of the successful and rapid industrial development of Italy after the Second World War. In this paper we outline the general characteristics of the IDs approach and...

New information communication technology is a good opportunity to exchange information and to get feedback from customers shortening the traditional channel of social relationships. In different countries over the time there has been a significant growth of social interactions by social networks...