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This report attempts to fill that gap for two of the most important water-related issues facing the effects of climate variability and the steady degradation of the nation's water resources. The study reported here concluded that the El Niño-La Niña episode from 1997-2000 cost the country Ksh 290 billion (about 14 percent of GDP during that period). During El Niño-induced floods, this cost primarily arises from destruction of infrastructure such as roads, water supply infrastructure, and pipe networks. The largest costs incurred during the La Niña droughts (1998-2000) were from loss of industrial production and other costs arising from reduced hydropower generation, as well as from crop and livestock losses. These costs are felt throughout Kenyan society.

Watershed management has come to be recognized as a critical issue in the Nile Basin. Upstream land use can cause degradation and soil erosion, resulting in lower agricultural yields locally and causing sedimentation downstream. The increased sediment load causes economic problems by reducing water quality, and irrigation and hydropower potential, as well as increasing flooding. This note shows how, through Basin-wide cooperation, the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) has led efforts to address these problems, developing successful projects to deliver real results to restore the Nile.

This basic Agriculture Public Expenditure Review (AgPER) documents and analyzes information on the volume and structure of Liberia's past public expenditure on the agriculture sector and draws conclusions that can provide an orientation for future policies in view of the effectiveness of spending. The AgPER's focus is on the sectors of agriculture, including crops, fisheries, and forestry, in line with the New Partnership for African Development's (NEPAD) definition of the sectors of focus. This is in accordance with the Maputo Declaration and its target that governments devote ten percent of public expenditure for agricultural development with an aim towards realizing food security and poverty reduction.

This OED report finds that the Bank has made progress on the environment, and notes that its commitments were not accompanied by precise goals and performance monitoring. It advances explanations of why things have turned out this way. It offers recommendations which focus on how to restore the environment to its proper role in the Bank's holistic, long-term development agenda.

Based on analysis of recent data on the evolution of global temperatures, snow and ice covers, and sea level rise, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently declared that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal." Global surface temperatures, in particular, have increased during the past 50 years at twice the speed observed during the first half of the 20th century. The IPCC has also concluded that with 95 percent certainty the main drivers of the observed changes in the global climate have been anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases (GHG). While the greenhouse effect is a natural process without which the planet would probably be too cold to support life, most of the increase in the overall concentration of GHGs observed since the industrial revolution has been the result of human activities, namely the burning of fossil fuels, changes in land use (conversion of forests into agricultural land), and agriculture (the use of nitrogen fertilizers and live stock related methane emissions).

In addition to some of the most acclaimed beaches in the world, the Indian ocean islands offer one of the planet's greatest concentrations of biodiversity and stunning landscapes that include active volcanoes, sculpted canyons, and verdant seaside cliffs. Yet, despite its many attributes and accolades, the region is not very well known within the global tourism marketplace. This note is an analysis aimed at assessing opportunities for tourism integration among the four Indian ocean island nations of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles. To inform this regional analysis and recommendations, the four reviews were conducted to provide a basis for understanding each country's tourism sector in terms of its development and current performance, contribution to the economy, and principal challenges. As a basis for analysis of the prospect of regional integration, the current state of tourism in each of the countries is considered within a regional context and recommendations for specific regional tourism integration initiatives are provided as guidance for the way forward. The tourism sector reviews were completed through a combination of desk research and country visits that involved consultations with a range of stakeholders from the public sector, private sector, civil society, and donor community. Each country review also contains a set of recommendations for addressing the identified challenges. Included in the key issues identified for each country's tourism sector are those issues that have regional implications. This report is organized as follows: section one gives introduction to the regional integration study; section two gives regional integration: the promises and the reality; section three presents overview of four countries' tourism sectors; section four presents regional tourism integration overview; section five gives key issues for regional integration; section six gives recommendations; section seven gives way forward; and section eight gives conclusion.

The technical workshop on enhancing development benefits to local communities in hydropower projects was held in Washington, D.C., on June 26, 2008. It was hosted by the Social Development Department (SDV) and Water Anchor (ETWWA) of the World Bank. The workshop aimed to provide a platform for a discussion of past and current practices, as well as how to construct development benefits mechanisms within the specific context of hydropower projects. It also provided a forum for sharing knowledge as to how development benefits mechanisms may be applied to Bank-financed projects. The workshop had five sessions and brought together more than 60 experts from different sectors in different regions of the World Bank. Sixteen speakers gave presentations. The workshop had discussions on enhancing development benefits to local communities in hydropower projects and also covered issues pertaining to the broader range of benefit-sharing, including World Bank engagement in hydropower projects, legacy of hydropower, notion evolution, approaches and mechanisms, and good practices in benefit-sharing of hydropower projects. A range of mechanisms are available to enhance and share benefits. Benefit-sharing consists of a combination of monetary and non-monetary mechanisms adapted to specific project contexts. Monetary development benefits are linked largely to economic rent, fair distribution, full compensation, entitlements, national priorities, and optimization of opportunities, and include basically taxation, royalties, preferential rates, revenue sharing, development funds, and joint ownership. The non-monetary development benefits include, for example, allocation of fishing rights in reservoirs; priority hiring of local community members during construction; start-up support for local companies; capacity building; multipurpose infrastructure; rural electrification; and access to improved infrastructure.

Local benefit sharing in hydropower projects can be defined as the systematic efforts by project proponents to sustainably benefit local communities affected by hydropower investments. Benefit sharing is a promising approach for implementing hydropower projects sustainably, and is emerging as a supplement to the requirements of compensation and mitigation. Benefit sharing can provide equitable development, sustainability, and smooth project implementation for hydropower development. For benefit sharing mechanisms to work, the key enabling conditions are government policies, the legal and regulatory framework, corporate social responsibility strategies of development companies, and the capacity of local communities. Stakeholder engagement is essential in initiating and designing benefit sharing programs. This guide provides some advice to task teams on how to design effective local benefit sharing mechanisms in hydropower projects. Benefit sharing arrangements would ensure that local communities have the opportunity to benefit directly from hydropower development, which will make hydropower projects more environmentally and socially sustainable. As a long-term arrangement, benefit sharing can facilitate local development. It can respond to unexpected environmental circumstances in the operation of dams to ensure local communities receive adequate benefits. Arrangements for the equitable sharing of benefits can offer scope for local communities and all other stakeholders to avoid conflicts and focus on creating synergies to maximize local development opportunities.

Petroleum supply reforms could yield huge savings. Training flourishes in the informal sector. Credit is a constraint to enterprise development. cAN Africa pay for its universities. How to double Sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural growth rate. Upgrading farming systems in the Sahel. Agricultural research is being revitalized.

The perception of ocean areas by policy-makers or by people, living or not on the coast, has significantly varied over centuries. Due to its vastness and complexity, the sea has been studied within distinct academic disciplines. However, the current issues related to the sea, such as climate change, marine pollution or coastal tourism, require an integrated vision of the assets and drawbacks in order to meet the challenges arising from human activities both at sea and onshore. In this study, a group of foresight officers from the French network of public research institutes decided to cross-check and compare several science approaches (biology, sociology, economics, etc) about oceans. Thus, 11 sectors of maritime activity (transportation, fisheries, energy, etc.) were cross-tabulated with 9 basic social functions (providing food, housing, learning, etc.). In this matrix, the main challenges and issues projected for 2030 were sought, in the frame of a baseline scenario. Results were clustered through 4 criteria, leading to 9 major challenges, each of them broken down into two important issues for research. The outcomes were used to create a survey, allowing the ranking of the research priorities. Most of the 9 challenges tally with the research and development objectives of great maritime states, except for governance and monitoring, which remain underscored. As a result, maritime powers still show more interest on securing national resources rather than on promoting international cooperation for secure trade and sustainable exploitation of marine resources. But foresight in this field could help changing the mentalities notably because oceans show clearly now to be a vital common good for mankind.