World Bank Country Manager for Romania Elisabetta Capannelli and her daughter,  who was an orphan in Manilla before joining Capannelli's family. Reeling from a long year of work and toil,…

Elisabetta Capannelli |

In the last three decades, East Asia has reaped the demographic dividend. An abundant and growing labor force powered almost one-third of the region’s per capita income growth from the 1960s to…

Axel van Trotsenburg |

The European Union (EU) has settled into a “new normal” of mediocre growth, with real GDP set to expand by about 2 percent in 2015 and in 2016. With sizeable unemployment and still not full…

Ivailo Izvorski |

[[tweetable]]What’s a major challenge for Romanian taxpayers?[[/tweetable]] They spend hours waiting in line at tax offices.   In March 2014, with support of the World Bank, a Delivery Unit (DU)…

Andrea Sitarova, Alberto Leyton |

PISA measures the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science. Photo: Simone D. McCourtie / World Bank  Investing in people starts by ensuring that graduates…

Christian Bodewig, Lucas Gortazar |

The city of Ouarzazate in Morocco will host what will become one of the largest solar power plants in the world. Photo: CIF / World Bank The investment needs for low-carbon, climate-resilience…

Rachel Stern |

El Niño is back and may be stronger than ever.   A wooden boat is seen stranded on the dry cracked riverbed of the Dawuhan Dam during drought season in Madiun, Indonesia's East Java province…

Axel van Trotsenburg |

Syrian refugee students listen to their school teacher during math classes.  Photo © Dominic Chavez/World Bank ​In Europe, the year 2015 will be remembered as the year of the “refugee crisis.”…

Christian Bodewig |

A team of NAFA young professionals receives an award in recognition for their work to help Romanians register and pay taxes online [[tweetable]]Nobody likes paying taxes.[[/tweetable]] But taxes…

Ismail Radwan |