This report demonstrates that financial cooperatives can be sustainable providers of financial services in rural areas and development assistance needs to consider supporting them as a means to enhance access to rural finance. It does not suggest that financial cooperatives are the only providers or the preferred channel in all circumstances. For financial cooperatives to function as sustainable institutions, governments need to provide an enabling environment, not exercise excessive control that restricts growth and consolidation, and not use them as channels to provide subsidized credit.
The Chile Country gender assessments (CGAs) identify gender-responsive policies and actions are strategic for poverty reduction, economic growth, human well-being, and development effectiveness. The report proposes priority policy objectives: increase female labor force participation, especially for low-income households, and reduce discontinuity in women's work experience. The report focus on the gender equality in the labor markets; improve access to financial services; expand access to business networks, business development services, and technology for women entrepreneurs.
This report tells the story of a gender pilot that was carried out in water users' organizations for irrigated agriculture in the Peruvian highlands or Sierra region. It was designed upon the request of Peru's ministry of agriculture, with the objective to strengthen the role of women in water management and to improve their condition as agricultural producers. At first, a gender diagnostic was carried out to better understand the different barriers that hinder the attendance and thus equality of participation of women in trainings and meetings.
This report summarizes the findings of the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa (CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and growth in African agriculture through the identification of products and production systems that can underpin rapid development of a competitive commercial agriculture.
The World Bank has a long relationship with Uruguay's agricultural sector, expanding over a period of more than 60 years in which several projects and various analytical and advisory assistance initiatives have been implemented.
This report summarizes and consolidates the findings of three Bank studies on poverty issues in Mexico, written as part of the second phase of this work: Urban Poverty, Rural Poverty, and Social Protection. It also expands on how Mexico will seek to use social protection policy as a vehicle for redistribution. Discussed in Chapter 1, the state has a clear role in providing risk-pooling mechanisms where private insurance markets fail (e.g., old age and health insurance), but the role of social protection policy in promoting redistribution is more an issue of national choice.
The report builds on the 'towards a vision for agricultural innovation in Chile in 2030' report and is further based on a series of background papers and a consultation process that took place between December 2010 and May 2011. The current study is the third in a series of three that were agreed between the Government of Chile and the World Bank to support the development of a long-term agricultural innovation strategy. The first paper reviewed the functioning of the three main public technological institutes and recommended how their performance can be improved.
This paper aims to develop a vision statement for the agricultural sector that may then guide the future investments in Chile's agricultural innovation system, A joint and shared perspective on how the sector might look and what role agricultural innovation should play in getting there is a prerequisite for any effective strategy. But developing such a vision is not only a function of what the country wants: it also depends on the context in which Chile's agricultural sector will find itself.
Agriculture remains fundamental for Nicaragua from both a macroeconomic and social view. It is the largest sector of the Nicaraguan economy, and it remains the single biggest employer with around 30 percent of the labor force and including processed foods, like meat and sugar, agriculture accounts for around 40 percent of total exports value. Nicaragua appears to be gradually losing competitive edge of some of its key agricultural exports within the most important export markets.
This country note briefly summarizes information relevant to both climate change and agriculture in Bolivia, with focus on policy developments (including action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like most countries in Latin America, Bolivia has submitted one national communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a second one under preparation. Land use change and forestry, coupled with agriculture, are by far the largest contributors to green house gas (GHG) emissions in the country.