This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces 4 papers published from February 16 to February 28 on various topics, including…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

Zimbabwe is on a path to strengthening transparency in how it manages public finances and delivers results for citizens

Adrienne Shall, Edwin Farai Vela-Moyo, Stella Ilieva, Marko Kwaramba, Cheryl Khuphe |

Southern African countries had a tough 2019. The Government of Lesotho declared a national disaster as a result of the drought which left a fourth of its population facing severe food insecurity…

Barry Maher, Gracelin Baskaran |

Global economic growth is accelerating. After registering the slowest pace since the 2007-2009 financial crisis in 2016, global growth is expected to rise to a 2.7 percent pace this year and 2.9…

M. Ayhan Kose, Raju Huidrom, Franziska Ohnsorge, Naotaka Sugawara |

Global Value Chains are a win-win for firms that enjoy greater efficiency, productivity, and profits while they create better jobs (Photo by Jonathan Ernst / World Bank)   Global Value Chains (GVC…

Ruchira Kumar |

Translations available in Chinese and Spanish. Many of you are already familiar with the PPP (Public-Private Partnerships) Group’s Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) Database. As a…

Clive Harris, Jenny Chao |

Estimating national-level growth levels and rates is fraught with challenges. Doing so at subnational levels even more so – because of data challenges, and difficulties in attributing economic…

Apurva Sanghi, Tom Bundervoet, Laban Maiyo |

Also available in: Français | العربية   A boat trip from Port Elizabeth to Kingstown, in the Caribbean country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, is a one-hour trip that locals take several…

Valerie Lorena |

Tackling a myriad of challenges including cross border issues and escalating internal conflicts, the Middle East seems like the last place for serious integration – economic or otherwise. So, a…

        One day on a recent mission to Tripoli, Libya – after an early start and a hectic morning of meetings – I went with the World Bank’s Representative to a wonderful Turkish Restaurant in the…

Simon Bell |