It is undeniable that progress has been made in reducing extreme poverty over the last quarter century—from 36 percent of the world population in 1990 to an estimated 8.6 percent in 2018—and that…

         Before the conflict began in Yemen in 2015, 10-year-old Raheeb Al Kamali used to play football in a playground with his friends every afternoon in the AlTawahi District of Aden. Cristiano…

Photo: LIC/Flickr No matter how you measure it, the impact of air pollution is startling. According to new research, air pollution worldwide cuts life expectancy by 1.8 years for an average person…

Economic growth, social inclusion, public health, environmental protection… mobility is at the core of many critical issues that have been shaping the global development agenda. This message came…

The traditional route of industrialization for developing countries may no longer be available for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This should not be a source of regret, as the…

Globally, 56 percent of children live in countries with Human Capital Index (HCI) scores below 0.5. As these countries gear up to improve their human capital outcomes, it is vital to set a target…

Last month, I attended the International Family Planning Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, where policymakers from across the world gathered to strategize about ways to achieve a demographic dividend—…

Editor's Note: The global water crisis is a crisis of too much, too polluted and too little. At the World Bank, our job is to find and implement solutions to tackle this crisis. In the “Water…

​The poorest country in the Middle East and North Africa even prior to the conflict, Yemen has through violence and subsequent economic freefall landed at the epicenter of a series of interrelated…

“We had lost hope, ” said Muneera’s father. “As her health deteriorated and her body weakened, we worried that she could not last much longer.” Six months short of her fourth birthday, Muneera was…