'Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) first came to prominence in the UK around ten years ago as means of providing loans to people and enterprises excluded from mainstream finance.
The report, Reconsidering UK community development finance, released the 2007 annual conference of the Community Development Finance Association - the umbrella body for CDFIs - finds that the future of CDFIs is uncertain as government and policy-makers have begun to question whether CDFIs have meas more...

'Education is at the crossroads for the future of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It plays a crucial role in promoting poverty alleviation and economic growth, both at national and at household levels.
Education is also a strategic priority for the World Bank in the MENA region and worldwide. The preparation of this report has benefited from the experience accumulated from Bank collaboration with the region in education—a relationship that has lasted for more than 40 years. This rep more...

'The evaluation plan included the following activities: (i) an overview of the global progress in Practical Approach to Lung Health (PAL) development and implementation; (ii)collection of data through an evaluation survey questionnaire in countries with some PAL activities; (iii) field evaluation visits to the four countries which have reached the most advanced stage in PAL implementation, namely El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and South Africa.'

This report highlights the key trends taking place in Latin American and Carribean countries in relation to the world economy as a whole.

'This flagship publication of ECLAC, which Alberto Hirschman once described as the 'Latin American manifest,' is one of the most frequently quoted reports of its kind in the region. As the sixtieth anniversary of the Economic Survey for Latin America and the Caribbean approaches, it has been restructured with a view to making it even more useful for its readers.'

This article analyses the phenomenon of pluriactivity in family farming in the south of Brazil, based on a research project funded by the Brazilian National Council for Research and Development. The methodology used compares farms whose families live exclusively from agriculture, with those whose social reproduction depends also on non-farm activities or who practise 'pluriactivity'.

'This article examines trends in public spending in Latin America from the mid-1990s to 2006. It also examines key policy issues, including the cyclicality of spending, public investment, public employment and social spending, finding that primary expenditures as a share of gross domestic product have trended upward for the past ten years, driven by increases in current spending, in particular for social expenditures.'

'Credit rating agencies (CRAs) play a key role in financial markets by helping to reduce the informative asymmetry between lenders and investors, on one side, and issuers on the other side, about the creditworthiness of companies or countries. CRAs' role has expanded with financial globalization and has received an additional boost from Basel II which incorporates the ratings of CRAs into the rules for setting weights for credit risk. Ratings tend to be sticky, lagging markets, and overreact whe more...

Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) is the analysis of the distributional impact of policy reforms on the well-being or welfare of different stakeholder groups, with particular focus on the poor and vulnerable. PSIA has an important role in the elaboration and implementation of poverty reduction strategies in developing countries. This World Bank website was conceived as a forum for interaction and a tool for disseminating experience. It contains a variety of material, including links and more...

The TIPS sourcebook, produced by the Social Development Department of the World Bank, provides practical guidance how to conduct social analysis in the context of Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA). PSIA is an appraoch promoted by the World Bank to analyze distributional impacts of policy reforms on the well-being or welfare of different stakeholder groups in developing nations. 'The TIPS Sourcebook
* introduces how to apply social, institutional and political analysis in a sys more...