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.

The Industrial Development Report is intended to build on development policy experience and contribute to a refinement of the international development agenda. The Report pays special attention to current needs and capabilities in the developing countries in general, and the least developed among them in particular. The 2004 edition addresses the challenges faced by Sub-Saharan African countries in furthering their efforts towards poverty reduction and reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

The Industrial Development Report is intended to build on development policy experience and contribute to a refinement of the international development agenda. The Report pays special attention to current needs and capabilities in the developing countries in general, and the least developed among them in particular. The 2004 edition addresses the challenges faced by Sub-Saharan African countries in furthering their efforts towards poverty reduction and reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

The vigour of global economic expansion has been slowly diminishing in recent years. For many developing countries and economies in transition, per capita income has continued to fall, and poverty remains the single most important concern. Poverty eradication and the revitalization of worldeconomic and industrial growth therefore require a renewed commitment and sense of urgency from policy planners. Industrial Development Global Report 1997 addresses the challenge by focusing on the long-term dynamics of investment and economic growth. It thus emphasizes, as its central message,the crucial importance of economic growth, for which investment is a necessary condition. Part 1 of Global Report 1997 addresses the issues and challenges facing developing countries and economies in transition in their efforts to achieve the levels of investment required to ensure high economic growth. The role of industrial investment is examined from the perspective of globalindustrial change in different regions. The nexus between growth and investment is considered, the factors influencing the levels and efficiency of investment are highlighted and investment and manufacturing trends between 1970 and 1995 are analysed. The links between savings, investment andeconomic growth are investigated to determine the means of financing capital investment at the enterprise level and to find solutions to the problems faced by microenterprises and small enterprises in their efforts to expand. A special feature of Global Report 1997 is the prominence given togovernment policies as an instrument for the promotion of investment, with particular emphasis on the need to tailor such policies to global and national conditions. Part 2 of the Report presents a statistical annex on industrial indicators for 178 countries and territories around the world.

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'.

In the crowded field of climate change reports, 'WDR 2010' uniquely: emphasizes development; takes an integrated look at adaptation and mitigation; highlights opportunities in the changing competitive landscape; and proposes policy solutions grounded in analytic work and in the context of the political economy of reform.