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The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has advanced in all socioeconomic strata, especially in developing countries. The use of ICT has had a significant impact on the participation of civilians, both citizens and refugees in the context of politics. In addition, ICTs have enabled innovative forms of participation, both in terms of participation channels and the outcomes of participatory processes. However, studies on the impact of electronic participation on the livelihoods of vulnerable and marginalized groups, and public service providers are limited. This study investigated the role of e-participation implementation on improving and sustaining of refugees' livelihoods in developing countries, precisely the Gaza Strip in Palestine. This study used a mixed-method approach of qualitative and quantitative research. The quantitative approach was utilized to examine the perspectives of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, using a survey conducted to collect statistical information. 281 questionnaires were collected from Palestinian refugees over the age of 18. Furthermore, qualitative approach was carried out in an inductive approach by means of individual in-depth semi-structured interviews with public service providers in the Gaza Strip, such as of water supply, electricity, housing and infrastructure in their daily lives. Seven organizations with 19 interviews, including four municipalities, two nongovernmental organizations and one international organization, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the near east (UNRWA), participated. The literature and findings of this study provided a more comprehensive insight from the perspective of public services providers and refugees related to antecedents and consequences of e-participation influencing the sustainable livelihoods of refugees in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. This study therefore diverts some the attention of around the political context to an ICT-based participation phenomenon in developing countries' livelihoods. In conclusion, this research was intended to provide theoretical and practical contributions. In theoretical terms and the context of e-participation between service providers and vulnerable groups such as refugees, the conceptual research framework can serve as basis for Information Systems researchers. In practical terms, this research study has tangible implications for understanding the contributions of using electronic participation channels to improve livelihoods of other similar groups inside or outside Palestine.

The article discusses ways to reduce the negative factors leading to poverty in Uzbekistan, and reduce negative factors by improving the system and developing various sectors of the economy.

Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable cost to socially deprived and low-income segments of society. The present article seeks to review of thefinancial inclusion in India and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana(PMJDY). For the sustainable economic development of the Indian economy, the Government of India launches Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on 28th August 2014. PMJDY is a National Mission on Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, Banking accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in affordable manner. Financial Inclusion concept includes integrated approach to bring about complete financial inclusion of all the households in the country. It is an innovative idea which empowers the alternative techniques to encourage the banking traditions and acts as an enabler in reducing the poverty. A total of 19.28 crores accounts have been opened in rural areas by public sector bank, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Private sector bank by 10th Dec 2018. Thus, 38.50 crores accounts have been opened in rural and urban areas. An amount of Rs.84534.89 crores were in amounts deposited which were opened under PMJDY. So, we can say that PMJDY scheme is playing a significant role in creating a universal platform for financial services for every citizen of India. This effort will certainly go a long way in promoting economic growth and reducing poverty, while mitigating systematic risk and maintaining financial stability. The present article endeavors toreview of financial inclusion in India with special reference to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), highlighting its key areas and suggests strategies to ensure maximum financial inclusion for the underprivileged and unbanked areas and groups of India.

The HDI of Indonesian society is still low. The establishment of Presidential Instruction No. 3 of 2010 has opened up new horizons that poverty reduction is prioritized by family empowerment. Field of the action is designed to touch the whole family, whether they still have a toddler, teenager, or an adult, elderly, or have a disabled family. Mentoring is done to move these families. These assistance functions are expected to someday make these families independent. The trick is to lift the mutual help and care for others by family empowerment, namely the family that is able to help other families who are poor. It is a main program in improving the welfare of society. Similarly, what are done by students who follow KKN-PPM as Posdaya mentors are intended to arouse public awareness of mutual caring. Although still seen limping but it seems people have started to be able to do. They participate in planning, implementing, evaluating, and then learning again, and it seems attractive to people who are in 3 Posdaya assisted by students. The three Posdaya are Ngudi Rahayu, Lestari and Sukamaju, all of which located in the Sambi village, Samba district, Boyolali regency.

This paper presents a model to assess the socioeconomic resilience to natural disasters of an economy, defined as its capacity to mitigate the impact of disaster-related asset losses on welfare, and a tool to help decision makers identify the most promising policy options to reduce welfare losses due to floods. Calibrated with household surveys, the model suggests that welfare losses from the July 2005 floods in Mumbai were almost double the asset losses, because losses were concentrated on poor and vulnerable populations. Applied to river floods in 90 countries, the model provides estimates of country-level socioeconomic resilience. Because floods disproportionally affect poor people, each $1 of global flood asset loss is equivalent to a $1.6 reduction in the affected country's national income, on average. The model also assesses and ranks policy levers to reduce flood losses in each country. It shows that considering asset losses is insufficient to assess disaster risk management policies. The same reduction in asset losses results in different welfare gains depending on who benefits. And some policies, such as adaptive social protection, do not reduce asset losses, but still reduce welfare losses. Asset and welfare losses can even move in opposite directions: increasing by one percentage point the share of income of the bottom 20 percent in the 90 countries would increase asset losses by 0.6 percent, since more wealth would be at risk. But it would also reduce the impact of income losses on wellbeing, and ultimately reduce welfare losses by 3.4 percent.

This paper provides an overview of poverty and well-being trends in India since the mid-1990s. Poverty reduction since 2005 has been much faster than the earlier decade, as a result of broad-based growth across most geographic areas. Underlying this is a pattern of high mobility in economic status that has led to an emerging middle class. Still, a vast (and rising) share of the population faces significant risk of slipping back into poverty. India's poor are increasingly concentrated in low-income states with historically lower rates of economic progress. Even as India has reduced poverty faster than the developing world as a whole, the degree of poverty reduction associated with growth has been substantially lower than in some of its middle-income peers. India faces important challenges in nonmonetary dimensions of welfare as well. Despite success on important fronts, such as infant and child mortality and secondary education, progress has been slow in others, such as sanitation and nutrition, and lags behind some other countries that are at a similar stage of development.

This paper studies welfare dynamics, especially changes associated with middle-class status in countries in the Middle East and North Africa, before and after the Arab Spring transitions, using objective and subjective welfare measures. Absent panel data, the analysis employs state-of-the-art synthetic panel techniques using repeated cross sections of expenditure data from household surveys and subjective well-being data from value surveys, which were conducted during the 2000s and the Arab Spring period. The objective welfare dynamics indicate mixed trends. About half the poor in the 2000s moved out of poverty by the end of the decade, but chronic poverty remained high; upward mobility was strong in Syria and Tunisia, but downward mobility was pronounced in Yemen and Egypt. Subjective well-being dynamics suggest negative developments in most countries during the Arab Spring transitions. Low education achievement, informal worker status, and rural residency are positively associated with lower than average chances for upward mobility, and greater than average chances for downward mobility according to both types of welfare measures.

This paper uses panel data to analyze factors that contributed to the rapid decline in poverty in India between 2005 and 2012. The analysis employs a nonparametric decomposition method that measures the relative contributions of different components of household livelihoods to observed changes in poverty. The results show that poverty decline is associated with a significant increase in labor earnings, explained in turn by a steep rise in wages for unskilled labor, and diversification from farm to nonfarm sources of income in rural areas. Transfers, in the form of remittances and social programs, have contributed but are not the primary drivers of poverty decline over this period. The pattern of changes is consistent with processes associated with structural transformation, which add up to a highly pro-poor pattern of income growth over the initial distribution of income and consumption. However, certain social groups (Adivasis and Dalits) are found to be more likely to stay in or fall into poverty and less likely to move out of poverty. And even as poverty has reduced dramatically, the share of vulnerable population has not.

In the agricultural sector, risks are inherent and ubiquitous, posing potentially serious consequences for stakeholders and consumers. Risks disrupt supply chains, causing extensive financial and economic losses. Agricultural risks are also the principal cause of transient food insecurity, creating a poverty trap for millions of households across the developing world that enforces a vicious cycle of shock and recovery. Climate change is exacerbating this cycle by shifting the frequency and intensity of weather related risks and increasing uncertainty. Effective agricultural risk management (ARM) is crucial to increasing economic growth, improving food security, and reducing poverty. Although levels of risk vary within and between countries, lower-income and highly agriculture-dependent countries are more vulnerable to agriculture-related risks. In these countries, there is an urgent need to better assess risks, understand the interconnections between different types of risk, and improve agricultural risk management strategies.

Poverty in Lao PDR declined from 33.5 percent to 23.2 percent over the 10 year period between 2002/3 and 2012/13. The number of poor people declined by about half a million to 1.35 million in 2013 and Lao PDR has met its MDG target of reducing poverty to below 24 percent by 2015. Improvements in welfare are evident in the changes in other socio-economic indicators such as the ownership of televisions and access to electricity, which doubled, and the number of households living in houses built with bricks or concrete, which nearly tripled, while the proportion of those without a toilet halved. Net secondary enrollment increased from 27 percent in 2002/3 to 50 percent in 2012/13 showing significant improvements in education.

Social protection can help build people’s social and economic resilience against disasters in Myanmar. Regular cash transfers, including public works programs, can help smooth consumption,build and maintain assets, and develop human capital to better cope with natural hazards. Disaster risk management (DRM) systems can be linked to social protection programs to trigger a safetynet response in times of emergencies. Community-driven development (CDD) programs could provide a useful platform for social protection programming to respond to disasters and build long termresilience in Myanmar.

This paper presents an overview of the structure of probabilistic catastrophe risk models, discusses their importance for appraising sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance instruments and strategy, and puts forward a model and a process for improving decision making on the linked disaster risk management strategy and sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance strategy. The paper discusses governments use of probabilistic catastrophe models to inform sovereign disaster risk financing decision making and describes the ex ante and ex post financing instruments available for responding to extreme natural events. It also discusses the challenge of appraising sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance instruments, including a review of the multiple dimensions of disaster risks and the value that probabilistic catastrophe risk models provide. The decision making framework for sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance put forward by the paper includes the use of a decision model (an influence diagram) as a rigorous representation of the relationships between the decisions, uncertain events, and consequences relevant to sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance decision making. The framework also includes a process for generating high-quality customized components for the decision model, and a tool for designing coherent sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance strategies. The paper ends with suggestions for improving catastrophe risk models to facilitate sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance decision making.

This report examines Armenia’s experience in reducing poverty and raising the welfare of the least well-off in the country in the years since 2009. What households spend on consumption is an indicator of their welfare. As the economy recovered from crisis, the least well-off enjoyed some growth in consumption spending, but not as much as in the years up to 2009. Moreover, growth has become less pro-poor in relative terms because the less well-off enjoyed lower growth in consumption than the better-off. As a result, although consumption did translate into a reduction in poverty, inequality is now higher than before 2009. In 2013, 32 percent of Armenia’s population lived below the national poverty line, a poverty rate higher than in pre-crisis years but down from the high of 35.8 percent in 2010. In fact, between 2012 and 2013, poverty reduction seems to have stalled. This report looks at the micro and macro aspects of Armenia’s poverty reduction experience to: (a) describe the key features of post-crisis poverty, inequality, and consumption growth; (b) examine the drivers of poverty reduction in this period; and (c) explore reasons why future growth might not be as pro-poor as in the past.

This paper proposes a new measure of growth in shared prosperity, based on shifts in population shares of different income groups over time. This measure complements the definition of shared prosperity recently proposed by the World Bank in which income growth of the bottom 40 percent is examined. The new measure’s strengths arise from its close ties to countries’ national poverty lines and poverty measures, its focus on inclusion of the vulnerable population, and its identification of a population segment that is neither poor nor at significant risk of falling into poverty. The paper also offers a typology of scenarios for tracking shared prosperity under this measure. It provides illustrative examples using survey data from India, the United States, and Vietnam for the mid-to-late 2000s. Estimation results comparing the two approaches with measuring the evolution of shared prosperity are qualitatively consistent, and suggest that during this period, Vietnam enjoyed the greatest expansion in shared prosperity, followed by India and then the United States.

Recent National Sample Surveys point to significant poverty reduction in India since 2004/05, with a marked acceleration between 2009/10 and 2011/12. This paper enquires into important aspects of income mobility between 2004/05 and 2011/12, based on new statistical methods to convert the three pertinent National Sample Survey rounds into synthetic panels. The analysis draws on the synthetic panels to derive a vulnerability line for India that can be used to separate out a population subgroup comprising non-poor households facing a heightened risk of falling into poverty. The paper documents a strong pattern of upward mobility out of poverty and vulnerability into the middle class, with a noticeable acceleration between 2009/10 and 2011/12. The paper further undertakes a careful investigation into the comparability of the survey rounds, prompted by the observation that fairly significant modifications had been made to survey questionnaires. The findings suggest that changes in questionnaire design have not compromised the comparability of the data.

The paper investigates the structure and dynamics of consumption inequality and inequality of opportunity in Tanzania. The analysis covers the period 2001 to 2012. It reveals moderate and declining levels of consumption inequality at the national level, but increasing inequalities between geographic regions. Spatial inequalities are mainly driven by the disparities of households’ characteristics and endowments across geographic locations. An important part of these endowments results from intergenerational transmission of parental background. Father’s education appears as the most important background variable affecting consumption and income in Tanzania. Without appropriate policy actions, there are few chances for the next generations to spring out of the poverty and inequality lived by their parents, engendering risks of poverty and inequality traps in the country.

This note presents 9 stylized facts that emerge related to the evolution of poverty and inequality over the 2002 to 2012 period, especially from 2008 to 2012, as well as some insights into the drivers of poverty changes. It complements existing work on monitoring and understanding shared prosperity – the second corporate goal of the World Bank along with reducing poverty - in Albania and the Western Balkans. Albania poverty estimates are based on the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS). The LSMS is conducted by the Albania Statistics Office (INSTAT) with donor funding and has been carried out in 2002, 2005, 2008 and recently in 2012.

The Country Opinion Survey in Guinea-Bissau assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Guinea-Bissau perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Guinea-Bissau on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Guinea-Bissau; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Guinea-Bissau; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Guinea-Bissau; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Guinea-Bissau.

What happened to poverty in India in the 1990s has been fiercely debated, both politically and statistically. The debate has run parallel to the wider debate about globalization and poverty in the 1990s and is also an important part of that debate. The economic reforms of the early 1990s in India were followed by rates of economic growth that were high by historical standards. The effects on poverty remain controversial, however. The official numbers published by the government of India, showing acceleration in the rate of poverty reduction from 36 percent of the population in 1993 to 1994 to 26 percent in 1999 to 2000, have been challenged for showing both too little and too much poverty reduction. The various claims have often been frankly political, but there are also many important statistical issues. The debate, reviewed in this article, provides an excellent example of how politics and statistics interact in an important, largely domestic debate. Although there is no consensus on what happened to poverty in India in the 1990s, there is good evidence both that poverty fell and that the official estimates of poverty reduction are too optimistic, particularly for rural India. The issues covered in this article, although concerned with the measurement of poverty in India, have wide international relevance discrepancies between surveys and national accounts, the effects of questionnaire design, reporting periods, survey nonresponse, repair of imperfect data, choice of poverty lines, and interplay between statistics and politics.

The article assesses the impact of Argentina's main social policy response to the severe economic crisis of 2002. The program was intended to provide direct income support for families with dependent sand whose head had become unemployed because of the crisis. Counter factual comparisons are based on a matched subset of applicants not yet receiving program assistance. Panel data spanning the crisis are also used. The program reduced aggregate unemployment, though it attracted as many people into the workforce from inactivity as it did people who otherwise would have been unemployed. Although there was substantial leakage to formally ineligible families and incomplete coverage of those who were eligible, the program did partially compensate many losers from the crisis and reduced extreme poverty.

This article reviews trends in poverty, economic policies, and growth in a sample of African countries during the 1990s, drawing on the better household data now available. Experiences have varied. Some countries have seen sharp drops in income poverty, whereas others have witnessed marked increases. In some countries overall economic growth has been pro-poor and in others not. But the aggregate numbers hide systematic distributional effects. Taking both macro and micro perspectives of growth and poverty in Africa, the article draws four key conclusions. First, economic policy reforms (improving macroeconomic balances and liberalizing markets) appear conducive to reducing poverty. Second, market connectedness is crucial to enable participation in the gains from economic growth. Some regions and households by virtue of their remoteness were left behind when growth picked up. Third, education and access to land emerge as key private endowments to help households benefit from new economic opportunities. Finally, rainfall variations and ill health have profound effects on poverty outcomes, underscoring the significance of social risk management in poverty reduction strategies in Africa.

The Country Opinion Survey in Madagascar assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Madagascar perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Madagascar on: 1) their views regarding the general environment in Madagascar; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Madagascar; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Madagascar; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Madagascar.

The Country Opinion Survey in Bosnia and Herzegovina assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Bosnia and Herzegovina; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This report summarizes the knowledge shared and issues raised during a conference convened by the World Bank on the above topic held on November 3-5, 2014 in Manila, Philippines. Building on earlier conferences on this topic, the conference aimed to raise awareness about, and share good practice on, building a social protection system that integrates disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. It brought together 17 country delegations from Asia and Pacific region comprised of officials from the ministries managing social protection, disaster risk management, and financing and insurance.2 As such, it was both cross-global practice and cross-regional in focus. The conference offered a range of learning opportunities, including presentations from technical experts from the World Bank, country case studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America, roundtable discussions, and group work sessions. The conference was conducted in collaboration with the Government of the Philippines and was financed by the Rapid Social Response Fund and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has seen a decade of remarkable growth and income convergence. Growth has been a key driver for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. It has been debated how much of this decade of growth has been driven by policy reforms and how much was due to the favorable external conditions. While external factors were supportive and relevant, the effect of domestic policies was just as relevant for explaining LAC's recent growth performance. The emphasis of domestic policy has shifted from stabilization policies to structural policies. In addition, a benchmarking exercise reveals which policy gaps will lead to the highest potential growth-payoffs for each country and helps identify potential trade-offs. The authors analyze growth in LAC using descriptive statistics and growth econometrics. The authors use these results for explaining the pattern of growth in LAC over the last decade, for looking ahead, and to identify potential policy gaps.

The Country Opinion Survey in Mozambique assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Mozambique perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Mozambique on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Mozambique; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Mozambique; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Mozambique; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Mozambique.

The Country Opinion Survey in Liberia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Liberia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Liberia on: 1) their views regarding the general environment in Liberia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Liberia; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Liberia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Liberia.

The Country Opinion Survey in Uruguay assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Uruguay perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Uruguay on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Uruguay; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Uruguay; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Uruguay; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Uruguay.

Myanmar is going through a critical transformation in its development path - from isolation and fragmentation to openness and integration; and from pervasive state control, exclusion, and individual disengagement, to inclusion, participation, and empowerment. This dual shift is happening against a backdrop of broader political reforms that started in 2011 when a new administration took office. The country’s transition after the planned elections in 2015 will be a major test of the progress on political reforms. There remain risks of political instability, policy discontinuity, and stalled reforms due to vested interests.

The Country Opinion Survey in Russia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Russia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Russia on: 1) their views regarding the general environment in Russia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Russia; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Russia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Russia.

The Country Opinion Survey in Timor-Leste assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Timor-Leste perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Timor-Leste on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Timor-Leste; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Timor-Leste; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Timor-Leste; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Timor-Leste.

The Country Opinion Survey in Bolivia assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Bolivia perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Bolivia on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Bolivia; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Bolivia; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Bolivia; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Bolivia.

The ability to accurately monitor poverty trends is crucial to ensure the adoption of effective antipoverty policies and to assess progress toward the achievement of national development goals. In Niger, efforts to assess poverty dynamics between 2005 and 2011 are complicated by methodological differences in the three household surveys conducted over the period, in 2005, 2007-08 and 2011. While Niger’s overall poverty rate has dropped significantly between 2005 and 2011, changes in the poverty incidence are highly uneven across location types. Among the major causes of persistent poverty are the country’s minimal economic diversification and extremely limited agricultural infrastructure, which leave the majority of Nigerien households dependent on highly vulnerable farming and livestock production. In addition, the country’s extremely high rate of population growth presents a serious obstacle to sustainable poverty reduction. Not only does Niger have one of the highest population growth rates in the world, but fertility correlates inversely with income level. In other words, the fastest-growing segments of the population are also the poorest, and as a result, the declining trend in the national poverty rate is continuously offset by a steady increase in the absolute number of Nigeriens living in poverty. In addition, the relationship between population growth and rural-urban migration has important implications for poverty trends. Urban fertility rates are lower than rural rates and have been declining over time, while rural fertility rates remain both extremely high and relatively stable. Over the long run urbanization may have the added benefit of slowing nationwide population growth. However, this dynamic will be greatly accelerated by an independent improvement in conditions associated with lower birth rates in rural areas, including sustained increases in household incomes, broad improvements in education indicators, especially among women, and expanded access to healthcare facilities and family planning services.

The Country Opinion Survey in Albania assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Albania perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Albania on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Albania; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Albania; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Albania; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Albania.

The Country Opinion Survey in Swaziland assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Swaziland perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Swaziland on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Swaziland; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Swaziland; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Swaziland; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Swaziland.

The Country Opinion Survey in Haiti assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Haiti perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Haiti on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Haiti; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Haiti; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Haiti; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Haiti.

The Country Opinion Survey in Tanzania assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Tanzania perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Tanzania on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Tanzania; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Tanzania; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Tanzania; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Tanzania.

The Country Opinion Survey in Costa Rica assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Costa Rica perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Costa Rica on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Costa Rica; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Costa Rica; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Costa Rica; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Costa Rica.

The Country Opinion Survey in El Salvador assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in El Salvador perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in El Salvador on 1) their views regarding the general environment in El Salvador; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in El Salvador; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in El Salvador; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in El Salvador.

The Country Opinion Survey in Papua New Guinea assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Papua New Guinea perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Papua New Guinea on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Papua New Guinea; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Papua New Guinea; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Papua New Guinea; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Papua New Guinea.

The Country Opinion Survey in Yemen assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Yemen perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Yemen on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Yemen; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Yemen; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Yemen; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Yemen.

The Country Opinion Survey in Kazakhstan assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Kazakhstan perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Kazakhstan on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Kazakhstan; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Kazakhstan; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Kazakhstan; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Kazakhstan.

The Country Opinion Survey in Côte d’Ivoire assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Côte d’Ivoire perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Côte d’Ivoire on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Côte d’Ivoire; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Côte d’Ivoire; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Côte d’Ivoire; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Côte d’Ivoire.