The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) has developed country profiles to assess the progress of developing PPP legal frameworks and carried out a comparative analysis of existing legal and…

Maude Vallée, Andrea Stucchi |

While MENA has made strides in improving women and girls’ health, much more needs to be done. Understanding the impact of conflict on women and girls is critical for designing both preventive…

Fadia Saadah, Sameera Al Tuwaijri |

Urgent reforms on broadband policy would hasten the digital transformation the Philippines needs to achieve its goal of becoming a prosperous middle-class society by 2040.

Naoto Kanehira, Mitch Abdon, Mary Grace Mirandilla-Santos |

A new World Bank report, Unlivable: What the Urban Heat Island Effect Means for East Asia’s Cities, sheds light on three important questions to help city leaders rise to the extreme urban heat…

Anna Wellenstein, Mark Roberts, Chandan Deuskar, Nick Jones, Jane Park |

Tracking economic developments can be challenging when data are aggregated and released with a lag. In Algeria, for instance, GDP data are available up to the fourth quarter of 2022.

Cyril Desponts, Eric Le Borgne |

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 |

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

Chyi-Yun Huang, Stephan Zimmermann, Stuart Fraser |

Most workers in developing countries are in informal employment-- that is, a job that does not come with social security benefits and leaving them with limited means to manage risks to their…

Nadir Mohammed, Roberta Gatti, Marco Ranzani, Gladys Lopez-Acevedo, Nistha Sinha, Adam Elsheikhi |

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 |

High levels of marine and coastal pollution in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) pose a severe threat to the region’s “blue economy,” which is a key lever for economic growth in the region.…

Kanako Hasegawa, Lamia Mansour, Dahlia Lotayef, Suiko Yoshijima, Andrea Kutter |