This book was prepared as part of an international project under the World Bank Institute's Development Education Program (DEP). The objective was to create a template text about the global issues of sustainable development- social, economic, and environmental- that could then be customized for various countries by teams of local educators and published in their respective national languages. Work on these national adaptations has already begun.

The first national adaptation of this international template was The World and Russia student book, published in Russian, which was officially approved by the Russian Ministry of General and Professional Education for students in the 10th and 11th grades studying economics, social studies, geography, and environmental studies. The authors of the Russian adaptation represent several leading research and educational institutions in Moscow. Those of you who might be interested in seeing how the adaptation was performed but cannot read Russian will find its English translation on the Development Education Program's Web site at www.worldbank.org/depweb. You will see that the portions of the text adapted for Russia are highlighted. The Russian language text of The World and Russia can be found on the Web site of its Russian publisher, the St. Petersburg Institute, School of Economics, at www.ise.spb.ru.

The Latvian adaptation, The World and Latvia, is currently being prepared by a local team led by two professors at the University of Latvia. The English translation of this second adaptation will also appear on the DEP Web site with the Latvia- specific portions of the text highlighted.

We hope that the Russian and Latvian examples will inspire educators from other countries to use this international template to develop customized student materials that meet the needs of their national curricula. Alternatively, students and other readers interested in development issues could use this international template without adaptation as a source of relatively current statistical data and widely accepted concepts for purposes of research and classroom discussions.