With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), world leaders made a bold pledge in 2015 to leave no one behind on the path of development by 2030. Half-way to the target date, some 22 countries…

Samuel Kofi Tetteh Baah, Christoph Lakner, Umar Serajuddin |

In 2005, Burundi embarked on an extraordinary mission to change its schooling system to ensure that all children, especially girls, had access to quality education. This small East African nation…

Maroua Sallami, Thérèse Rukingama Niyonzima |

A group of 30 students from Ngola Kanini Public Secondary School visited our World Bank office in Luanda this week. The students, ages 14-15 years, had the opportunity to interact with our…

Juan Carlos Alvarez |

Six years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica, among other countries, are still recovering from the impact of two of the deadliest hydrometeorological events in…

Francesco Varotto, Clara Ariza, Roberto Mendez, Naraya Carrasco, Suranga Kahandawa |

In seven East Asia and Pacific (EAP) countries, policymakers prioritize secondary school completion over basic learning quality, while underestimating the levels of learning poverty. This…

Noah Yarrow, Rythia Afkar, Paul Cahu, Mary E. Breeding |

School leadership plays a major role in shaping the quality of education, acting as a strategic lever to foster conducive learning conditions for students. Despite this, the characteristics of…

Nathalie Guilbert, Carolina Alban Conto, Fabricia Devignes, Juan D. Barón |

Cambodia has made remarkable development progress over the past decades through rapid economic growth, averaging over seven percent per year in the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic and lifting…

Sebastian Eckardt, Faya Hayati |

Universal health coverage and health resilience must advance equality and inclusion and meet the needs of all people.

Lucas de Toca, Ronald Upenyu Mutasa |

A statement by a young woman in Luanda, Angola echoes an experience faced by countless others: “A woman has to earn everything in life. She can’t expect it from a man because then she will never…

Ana Luiza Machado, Miriam Muller, Liliana Sousa |

Sometimes people have to go through periods of hardship in their lives, like natural disasters, unemployment, a poor harvest, or even having to flee conflict. Some people in Burundi have faced all…

Åsa Giertz, Dario Zanardi |