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 |

The squalor of slums, unsustainability of sprawl, and sterility of skyscrapers are persistent challenges for community leaders and urban planners. Instead, they call for livable neighborhoods with…

Somik Lall, Mathilde Lebrand, Hogeun Park |

Photo © : Guangqing Liu While most people link air pollution only to burning fossil fuels, other activities such as agriculture and biomass burning also contribute to it. The complexity of air…

Garo Batmanian |

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 |

Part of the World Bank’s new vision is to step up its efforts to help fragile and conflict-afflicted states break the vicious cycle of poverty. But this is no easy task.   The destruction of…

Massimiliano Calì |

When presidents, prime ministers, and government ministers of more than 60 nations put their countries’ names behind natural capital accounting last year at Rio+20,  something shifted. Countries…

Rachel Kyte |

Find a good longread on development? Tweet it to @worldbank with the hashtag #longreads.  China’s prospects stirred interest as the BRICs met in South Africa and a new survey by the Organization…

Donna Barne |

Only a very short time ago, we were drawing blank looks when we mentioned "natural capital accounting." This week at Rio, everyone is talking about it. Walls are plastered with flyers…

Rachel Kyte |

A few years ago I proudly put a sticker on my bicycle that claimed one should ‘bike local’ in order to ‘think global.’  These days, it seems that the car is unavoidable in the majority of growing…

Julie Babinard |