BRD issued first bond for sustainable projects. It rewards borrowers for reaching goals like ESG compliance, funding women-led projects, and affordable housing. The Government of Rwanda used IDA…

Alwaleed Alatabani, Niraj Verma, Miguel Navarro |

Also available in: Français Brainstorming session at the Bamako Policy Hackathon. Photo: World Bank What would happen if you put all the relevant players for the entrepreneurial ecosystem —…

Alexandre Laure, Jon Stever |

Also available in: Français Entrepreneurs participating in the e-Takara competition to address specific challenges expressed by Nigerien public administrations. Credit: Niger Digital “The training…

Alexandre Laure, Simon Duchatelet |

With financial inclusion now established as an objective for most financial sector policymakers worldwide,  the day-to-day responsibility for ensuring its achievement in a responsible, consumer-…

Wilson Kamali, Douglas Randall |

Over the past five years, we have seen the emergence of a number of eGovernment applications and platforms in East Africa, leveraging the growth of internet and smartphone penetration to improve…

John Wille, Catherine Masinde |

In Mozambique in 2003, it took an entrepreneur 168 days to start a business. Today, it takes only 19 days. That kind of transformation has major implications for ambitious men and women who are…

Cecile Fruman |

Like many World Bankers, I took some time recently to look through the newly released 2015 World Development Report “Mind, Society, and Behavior.” From my perspective, in the Finance and Markets…

Douglas Randall |

You don’t have to spend very long in Rwanda before you start to be impressed by the financial inclusion landscape in this country – not only by the progress made over the past several years, but…

Douglas Randall |

Does Rwanda's impressive growth tell the whole story? (Credit: CIAT, Flickr Creative Commons) Over the last few years, a lot of optimism has been built around Rwanda being the next big thing…

Mohammad Amin |

Business reforms can spur economic dynamism in the East African Community East Africa is famous for its breathtaking landscapes and its unique concentration of wild animals. Could it also become…

Nina Paustian |