Africa Development Indicators 2008/09 (ADI) provides the most detailed collection of data on Africa available in one volume. It puts together data from different sources, making it an essential tool for policy makers, researchers, and other people interested in Africa. This year s ADI addresses the issue of youth employment. The report shows that success in addressing youth employment in will not be achieved and sustained through fragmented and isolated interventions. Instead it finds that an arching guideline for addressing the youth employment challenge is the need for an integrated strategy for rural development, growth and job creation which covers the demand and the supply sides of the labor market and takes into account the youth mobility from rural to urban areas combined with targeted interventions to help young people overcome disadvantages in entering and remaining in the labor market. This edition includes the Africa Development Indicators 2008/09 Single User CD-ROM and opening articles from leading economists reporting and analyzing key African economic and development issues.

Finding productive employment for the 200 million Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 is surely one of the continent's greatest challenges. Shows, however, that the median young person in Africa is a poor, out-of-school female living in a rural area. Argues that this finding - based on a careful examination of the data - has important implications for policy design, as well as for the politics of youth-sensitive policies : achieving productive employment and work for young people entails long-term action covering a range of economic and social policies focusing on labour demand and supply, and addressing both quantitative and qualitative dimensions of youth employment.

The world's demand for food is expected to double within the next 50 years, while the natural resources that sustain agriculture will become increasingly scarce, degraded, and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In many poor countries, agriculture accounts for at least 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of employment. At the same time, about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. 'World Development Report 2008' seeks to assess where, when, and how agriculture can be an effective instrument for economic development, especially development that favors the poor. It examines several broad questions: How has agriculture changed in developing countries in the past 20 years? What are the important new challenges and opportunities for agriculture? Which new sources of agricultural growth can be captured cost effectively in particular in poor countries with large agricultural sectors as in Africa? How can agricultural growth be made more effective for poverty reduction? How can governments facilitate the transition of large populations out of agriculture, without simply transferring the burden of rural poverty to urban areas? How can the natural resource endowment for agriculture be protected? How can agriculture's negative environmental effects be contained? This year's report marks the 30th year the World Bank has been publishing the 'World Development Report'.

'Africa Development Indicators 2011' (ADI) provides the most detailed collection of data on Africa available. An essential tool for policy makers, researchers, and others interested in Africa's development.

Takes an in-depth look at twenty-six economic and social development successes in Sub-Saharan African countries, and addresses how these countries have overcome major developmental challenges.

Rising densities of human settlements, migration and transport to reduce distances to market, and specialization and trade facilitated by fewer international divisions are central to economic development. The transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are most noticeable in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but countries in Asia and Eastern Europe are changing in ways similar in scope and speed. 'World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography' concludes that these spatial transformations are essential, and should be encouraged. The conclusion is not without controversy. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. Globalization is believed to benefit many, but not the billion people living in lagging areas of developing nations. High poverty and mortality persist among the world's 'bottom billion', while others grow wealthier and live longer lives. Concern for these three billion often comes with the prescription that growth must be made spatially balanced. The WDR has a different message: economic growth is seldom balanced, and efforts to spread it out prematurely will jeopardize progress. The Report: documents how production becomes more concentrated spatially as economies grow. proposes economic integration as the principle for promoting successful spatial transformations. revisits the debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration and shows how today's developers can reshape economic geography.

World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank s premier annual compilation of data about development. This year s print edition and e-book have been redesigned to allow users the convenience of easily linking to the latest data on-line.