Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

AcknowledgmentsWorld Resources 2008 is the 12th volume in a series that datesfrom 1986. It has evolved from its initial objective as the comprehensiveassessment of environment and development trends to abook that provides serious policy analysis of the critical issuesarising from human dependence and impact on the environment.The World Resources Report is the work of a unique and continuingpartnership between the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),The World Bank, and the World Resources Institute.For this 12th edition in the World Resources series, we would liketo express our gratitude to the Netherlands Ministry of ForeignAffairs, the Swedish International Development CooperationAgency (SIDA), the Office of International Development Assistanceof the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Danida),and the United States Agency for International Development(USAID). They have been constant, concerned and engagedsupporters of the World Resources Report and of efforts to meetthe challenges of profound poverty.We continue to be thankful for our colleagues in Norway atUNEP/GRID-Arendal for their ongoing involvement in thiswork, both through their direct contributions of materials, and fortheir support of outreach efforts to ensure that the findings of thereport reach broad and appropriate audiences.Though we expressed our gratitude in the previous edition ofWorld Resources, we wish to acknowledge again the intellectualcontribution of Jon Anderson, formerly at USAID, and hiscolleagues and their publication Nature, Wealth and Power,and the members of the Poverty Environment Partnership andtheir publication Linking Poverty Reduction and EnvironmentalManagement. Their thinking about poverty remains relevantand important.In particular, we want to acknowledge the contribution ofCrispino Lobo, Executive Director of the Watershed OrganisationTrust of India, to our work. His wisdom, practical experience, anddocumented successes in community-led watershed regenerationhave inspired us and informed our theory and writing.Individual ContributionsThe development of World Resources 2008 had more fits andstarts than normal. The patience, goodwill, and understanding ofour partners is appreciated well beyond what mere thanks canconvey. Peter Gilruth of UNEP, Kirk Hamilton of the WorldBank, Charles McNeill of UNDP and Marianne Fernagut ofGRID-Arendal have all brought a new dimension to the wordpartnership, and we do thank them.We have been equally fortunate with reviewers and advisors whohave fielded innumerable requests coupled with demandingschedules without complaint. In particular, we would like tothank Bill Aalbersberg, José Roman Carerra, Darrell Deppert,Elspeth Halverson, David Hughell, Erin Hughes, Brian Jones,Azharul Mazumder, Steve McCarthy, Greg Minnick, Chris Reij,Tony Rinaudo, Rony Rozario, Gretchen Ruethling, ClaudioSaito, Sean Southey, Paul Steele, Bhishma Subedi, AliferetiTawake, Paul Thompson, Gaby Tobler, Henry Tschinkel, MarkWentling, and Bob Winterbottom.The staff at World Resources Institute has been equally generousof their time and expertise in helping bring this report toconclusion, under somewhat difficult circumstances. To them weare so grateful: Steve Barker, Hyacinth Billings, Amy Cassara,Emily Cooper, Crystal Davis, Norbert Henninger, GeorgiaMoyka, Robin Murphy, Jesse Ribot, Jon Talbot, Dan Tunstall,Peter Veit, and Elsie Vélez-Whited. Lauren Withey has wornmore than one hat on our staff and Stephanie Hanson, likewise,has taken on a number of duties.We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge those who startedwith this volume but had to move on: Alex Acs and Ethan Arpidid early research and writing and Jen Lesar gave us organizationand discipline. Dena Leibman laid the early groundwork forthis report.In addition to Greg Mock, our principal writer, we have beenfortunate to be able to draw on a small team committed to theproject, adaptable to the unpredictability of our schedule, andpossessed of good editorial judgment: we owe much to PollyGhazi and Karen Holmes.This report began with modest goals and anticipated a lengthshorter than previous volumes. Thanks to the informed andunstinting engagement of Manish Bapna, with the dedication ofDan Tunstall, Emily Cooper, and Greg Mock, we have produceda much expanded report whose length, we hope, is justified byits value.That has made the task of our reviewers that much moredemanding—more to read under an unconscionably tight timeframe.Their generosity of time and their detailed and thoughtfulcomments and advice have greatly improved this work. Weacknowledge their valuable contributions in the following section,listing each of them by chapter.Despite all the good advice, careful reviews, and valuable contributionsof others, at the end, the WRR staff has to accept finalresponsibility for the content of this report…and we do.222