Urgent reforms on broadband policy would hasten the digital transformation the Philippines needs to achieve its goal of becoming a prosperous middle-class society by 2040.

Naoto Kanehira, Mitch Abdon, Mary Grace Mirandilla-Santos |

A new World Bank report, Unlivable: What the Urban Heat Island Effect Means for East Asia’s Cities, sheds light on three important questions to help city leaders rise to the extreme urban heat…

Anna Wellenstein, Mark Roberts, Chandan Deuskar, Nick Jones, Jane Park |

Discover how Central Asian countries are using regional data and knowledge to enhance their disaster preparedness.

Chyi-Yun Huang, Stephan Zimmermann, Stuart Fraser |

In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, air pollution levels exceed international standards, significantly surpassing other cities in the region. An innovative study conducted by the World Bank…

Sebastian Molineus, Alan Fuchs Tarlovsky, Sandra Baquie, Patrick Behrer, Natsuko Kiso Nozaki |

Drylands in Central Asia are among the most rapidly degrading and climate-vulnerable areas worldwide. Desertification caused by climate change and human activities has led to land degradation,…

Banu Setlur, Paola Agostini, Brenden Jongman |

For millennia, the Black Sea has supported economic and human development in the region, and today more than 160 million people living in Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine…

Paola Agostini, Eolina Petrova Milova, Sameer Akbar |

While green IT initiatives in private and public sectors differ in reach, focus, and organizational approach, we can identify several green IT solutions that have already been developed, tested,…

Achim Blume |

Catastrophe bonds, also known as #catbonds, brings diversification to investment portfolios and provides robust performance in good and bad times. What could a cat bond for a Central Asian country…

Naomi Cooney, Daniel McGree, Martin Melecky, Tatiana Skalon |

Getting the balance right at the water-energy nexus is already a challenge, and the climate crisis is only expected to exacerbate this, especially in Central Asia.

Tatiana Proskuryakova, Winston Yu |

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is the largest and most effective platform for fighting extreme poverty in the world’s lowest-income countries. As new IDA donors,…

Antonella Bassani, Akihiko Nishio |