The SAFE Trust Fund application (Word document) is now open until 27 February 2015.  What is SAFE?   SAFE means Strengthening Accountability and the Fiduciary Environment. It is a Trust Fund group…

Soukeyna Kane |

It’s hard to get a break in the Europe and Central Asia region, it seems – even a short one. Hit hard by the troubles in the Eurozone at the beginning of the decade, emerging and developing…

Aurora Ferrari, Ilias Skamnelos |

"Disability is no barrier. Landmine victims play volleyball." Photo: AusAID I am often asked how “we” – development professionals and practitioners at large - can make a difference to…

Maitreyi Bordia Das |

“Maybe in the Middle East … but in our part of the world, there is no gender inequity.” As an Egyptian, I wasn’t surprised to hear such assertions from colleagues when I arrived in the Eastern…

Sammar Essmat |

Diversification of a country’s exports – increasing both the number of products it produces and the destinations of those products – is considered part of the path to development. Many economists…

Gonzalo Varela, Julia Oliver |

Cities have always been the driving forces of world civilizations. What Niniveh was to the Assyrian civilization, Babylon was to the Babylonian civilization.  When Peter the Great, third in the…

Souleymane Coulibaly |

Emerging Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is an interesting region because what you expect is not always what exists. Since this is written in honor of International Women's Day, discussing…

Sarosh Sattar |

Governments worldwide are increasingly exploring policies that will remove the constraints or disincentives for individuals to have access to jobs. One set of interventions are active labor market…

Ulrich Hörning, Huseyn ov |

Ten years ago, the World Bank and the government of Norway launched an ambitious project to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from a source few people thought much about. If you’ve…

Rachel Kyte |

I am partway through a trip to the countries of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), where winter is settling in—snow in Tbilisi and Yerevan, and a raw wind on Baku’s seafront. It…

Owen Smith |