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 |

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 |

As we marked World Poverty Day on October 17th, a blog published recently by World Bank staff highlights that poverty has finally receded to pre-COVID pandemic levels, which in essence means we…

Nadir Mohammed, Laura Moreno Herrera, Salman Zaidi |

On the continent, the importance of the Congo Basin forests cannot be understated. Often called the lungs of Africa, it is the largest carbon sink in the world. The Congo Basin spans across six…

Cheick Fantamady Kanté |

Human capital development is essential for sustained and inclusive growth. The wealth of modern nations depends not only on their natural resources: it also depends on their human resources.…

Nathalie Lahire, Ioana Botea, Eliane Mbende |

As we keep hearing the term “inflation” in the news every day, it’s worth revisiting what that really means for MENA countries. Here are four policies that tackle high inflation and low growth…

Nadir Mohammed, Kevin Carey, Johannes Hoogeveen, Gladys Lopez-Acevedo |

The COVID-19 pandemic created a huge crisis, but also an opportunity for MENA countries to build more adaptive, resilient, inclusive social protection systems. There are many lessons to draw from…

Ferid Belhaj |

The Middle East and North African countries cannot wait until the end of the pandemic to begin rebuilding the post-COVID region.

Ferid Belhaj, Nadir Mohammed |

About this series More blog posts The social inclusion of disadvantaged groups is necessary for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity, said government representatives, experts, and civil…

Lauri Sivonen |

"We’re the nation that just had six of our scientists and researchers win Nobel Prizes—and every one of them was an immigrant, " U.S. President Barack Obama recently said after the Nobel…

Bassam Sebti |