The number of people in South Asia's cities rose by 130 million between 2000 and 2011--more than the entire population of Japan. This was linked to an improvement in productivity and a reduction in the incidence of extreme poverty.

This report begins by evaluating Africa’s data landscape to monitor poverty. It maps out and assesses in detail the availability and quality of the data needed to track monetary poverty (expenditures, prices, GDP) and also reflects on the governance and political processes that underpin the current situation.

By 2020, the sales of off-grid solar products in emerging markets are expected to reach $3.1 billion, providing access to improved energy for 99 million households with no access to the grid, according to a new report released by the World Bank Group and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), in collaboration with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Ass

The natural environment of eThekwini, the city also known as Durban, has been put under severe pressure due to rapid urbanization and climate change.

Longstanding development issues are revisited in the light of a newly-constructed data set of poverty measures for India spanning 60 years, including 20 years since reforms began in earnest in 1991. The study finds a downward trend in poverty measures since 1970, with an acceleration post-1991, despite rising inequality.

Sri Lanka has made encouraging progress in reducing poverty to below 7 percent of the population, but pockets of severe poverty remain and future prosperity will depend on addressing chronic revenue shortfalls and fostering a more competitive and inclusive economy, say new research findings announced by the World Bank Group.

Indigenous peoples made significant social progress, experienced a reduction in poverty levels in several countries and gained improved access to basic services during the boom of the first decade of the century, but they did not benefit to the same extent as the rest of Latin Americans, according to a new World Bank study.

The use of irrigation in the agricultural sector, when combined appropriately with other inputs, has been key to increasing the productivity of agricultural production around the world - a vital factor in helping governments to manage the growing demand for food caused by demographic pressures and changing dietary habits.

The use of irrigation in the agricultural sector, when combined appropriately with other inputs, has been key to increasing the productivity of agricultural production around the world - a vital factor in helping governments to manage the growing demand for food caused by demographic pressures and changing dietary habits.

Paralleling the increasing disparities in income and wealth worldwide since the 1980s, cities in developing countries have witnessed the emergence of a growing divergence of lifestyles, particularly within the middle classes, reinforced by the widening gap between the quality of public and private educational and health care institutions, spatia

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