The conventional wisdom is that low world prices for oil only hurt rich exporting countries, while generating a windfall for poor net importer economies. However, in Central Asia, the story is…

Aurelien Kruse |

If you think about it, snow is a pretty amazing thing. It is nature’s way of storing water in the winter, and then using it in the summer when it is needed, namely during the growing season. If it…

Kulsum Ahmed |

In Mozambique in 2003, it took an entrepreneur 168 days to start a business. Today, it takes only 19 days. That kind of transformation has major implications for ambitious men and women who are…

Cecile Fruman |

Imagine yourself in the last century, walking down one of the streets of a large Central Asian city. You are surrounded by architecture dominated by the Soviet style, with common building types…

Joaquin Toro |

Almaty, Kazakhstan. Photo: Wikimedia Commons To gain a better understanding of how innovation in public-private partnerships (PPPs) builds on genuine learning, we reached out to PPP infrastructure…

Thomas Maier |

Citizens in Nigeria participate in a readiness assessment exercise to identify high-priority datasets Around the world, governments, entrepreneurs and established businesses are seeing the…

Laura Manley |

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 |

Although innovation has been a hot topic in Kazakhstan for over a decade now, it’s not always easy getting brilliant ideas “from the laboratory to the market.”   Kazakh scientists navigate this…

Yeraly Beksultan |

Mark Twain once said: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” It might seem that not much has changed since then. In Kazakhstan, however, we have tried to change this…

Aliya Pistayeva, Shynar Jetpissova |

Path along the Ishim River in Astana, Kazakhstan. Photo: Jyoti Bisbey “What is different now?” This question echoed through my head during my recent morning runs along the beautiful Ishim River in…

Jyoti Bisbey |