Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced low economic growth per capita, a very slow decline in poverty incidence, and the number of people living in extreme poverty has been rising steadily. As a…

Johannes Hoogeveen, Johan A. Mistiaen, Haoyu Wu |

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Rapid increase in defaults poses a threat to financial stability of the two economies. From a social standpoint, excessive debt can decrease households’ disposable…

Fernando Dancausa, Martin Melecky |

We asked high schoolers aged 16 to 19 from around the world to provide their insights on learning after three years of the global pandemic in up to 500 words in English, French, Spanish, or Arabic…

Iona Lee |

Who is responsible for learning losses from COVID-19? Is it the Kazakhstani government who failed to provide internet to remote areas of the country within the first months of the pandemic?

Aizhan Karpykova |

This World Bank paper argues that transmission infrastructure is a stable operating asset with proven technologies that have remained largely unchanged for over a century. Furthermore,…

Debabrata Chattopadhyay, Durreh Tabassum |

Discover how Central Asian countries are using regional data and knowledge to enhance their disaster preparedness.

Chyi-Yun Huang, Stephan Zimmermann, Stuart Fraser |

Drylands in Central Asia are among the most rapidly degrading and climate-vulnerable areas worldwide. Desertification caused by climate change and human activities has led to land degradation,…

Banu Setlur, Paola Agostini, Brenden Jongman |

Catastrophe bonds, also known as #catbonds, brings diversification to investment portfolios and provides robust performance in good and bad times. What could a cat bond for a Central Asian country…

Naomi Cooney, Daniel McGree, Martin Melecky, Tatiana Skalon |

Getting the balance right at the water-energy nexus is already a challenge, and the climate crisis is only expected to exacerbate this, especially in Central Asia.

Tatiana Proskuryakova, Winston Yu |

Banking supervisors in Central Asia need to be prepared for a potentially sharp rise in NPLs. A recent World Bank policy paper assesses the NPL resolution framework in four Central Asian countries…

Emiko Todoroki, Ismael Ahmad Fontan, Fernando Dancausa, Maksym Iavorskyi |