In Sri Lanka, a free ambulance service is using digital innovation and homegrown solutions to save countless lives. A great example of how countries in South Asia continue to be resilient and…

Martin Raiser |

The Kopay Divisional Hospital in the Jaffna District in northern Sri Lanka is one of the primary medical care institutions that is part of the country’s healthcare reorganization strategy,…

Anna Bjerde |

A look back at South Asia’s year in 10 blogs. These blogs spotlight stories of resilience and innovation, and explore issues critical to the region such as air pollution, climate change, women’s…

Adnan Siddiqi, Trishna Thapa |

Our new paper “Free compulsory education can mitigate COVID-19 disruptions’ adverse effects on child schooling” focuses on the role of pre-existing policies, such as free compulsory education laws…

Marco Tiberti, Luca Tiberti, Sylvain Dessy, Horace Gninafon |

Africa is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty. While many countries were successful in reducing poverty during the years before the pandemic,…

Camilla Holmemo, Christian Bodewig, Robert S. Chase, Suleiman Namara |

South Asia continues to experience rising temperatures, with record-breaking heat waves that are longer, hotter, and more frequent. Heat not only causes deaths and lowers productivity, but also…

Ella Kim, Sebastian Forsch, Leon Glicksman |

Learn from Indonesia and Sri Lanka on how health systems are fuelled by their financing arrangements and getting them right is crucial for ensuring people remain at their heart.

Christoph Kurowski, Kara Hanson, Somil Nagpal |

As part of the World Bank Group’s COVID-19 response, the Nigeria Electrification Project supported by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) helped improve electricity supply in…

Raluca Golumbeanu, James Knuckles |

The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the largest global shocks in recent history, but it did not increase extreme poverty in Africa as it was feared it would. The reason may be a combination of things…

Kibrom A. Abay, Nishant Yonzan, Sikandra Kurdi, Kibrom Tafere |

Most of the focus on the impact of flaring gas has been on the economic impacts, and its ability to harm human health has largely been ignored. This paper bridges this gap by linking data from…

Omoniyi Alimi, John Gibson |