By Alan Roe. This paper synthesises the preliminary findings, conclusions and recommendations emerging from the first year of AREU’s thematic study on water, opium and livestock in Afghanistan. It examines irrigation methods and water management systems, and draws linkages between water availability, livestock production and opium cultivation.

In many cities of developing countries untreated wastewater and polluted water are used for agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas. Though such practices are a threat to the health of users and consumers, they do provide important livelihoods benefits and perishable food to cities. This paper through a cross country analysis of 53 cities in the developing world, contributes to an understanding of the factors that drive wastewater use. The 53 cities represent a range of settings in arid and hu more...

This is the flagship annual report from the World Bank. Summary: 'World Development Report 2008 calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries.The report warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized.
* While 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries, a mere 4 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture.
more...

Over 7,000 Tanzanians Give Their Opinions on livelihood, education, health, governance, infrastructure, well-being, citizen participation, and more. This report is the largest perception survey conducted in Mainland Tanzania to date. 7,879 Tanzanians, aged from 7 to 90 years, from ten mainland regions, were asked for their opinion on aspects of economic progress, their standard of living, quality of and access to economic and social services, and trends in governance.

Included in this report more...

The environment forms the basis of all global social and economic systems, and the substrate for all development activities. This paper reviews the current state of the global environment. Whilst debates about the limits to growth continue, several inter-related indicators suggest that limits do exist, and are being dangerously exceeded. While all of earth’s inhabitants depend on the environment for survival, poor people often depend very directly on the natural resource base for their livelih more...