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 |

Myanmar’s education sector has faced disruptions. Between February 2020 and February 2022, public schools in Myanmar were closed for a staggering 532 days, making it the country with the longest…

Sutirtha Sinha Roy, Roy Van der Weide, Saurav Dev Bhatta, Mar Mar Thwin |

Myanmar's transition to an open market economy in 2011 led to significant gains in GDP per capita and poverty reduction.

Sutirtha Sinha Roy |

Research and surveys consistently show that firms do not rank tax incentives as the primary reason for choosing where to invest. Instead, political and macroeconomic stability, the legal…

Viet Anh Nguyen, Hassan Zaman |

This blog highlights two studies from past World Bank's Knowledge for Change Program (KCP)-supported research that demonstrate the importance of a data-driven and evidence-based approach to…

Kerina Wang, Lauren Nicole Core, KCP Program Management Unit (KCP PMU) |

The fossil-fuel driven growth model of Azerbaijan has come at a cost: the country’s land, soil, and air are affected by pollution and the development of human capital and other sectors of the…

Saša Eichberger, Sarah G. Michael |

Additional Financing for the Judicial Modernization and Smart Infrastructure Project is helping complete the critical court infrastructure and further implement digital judiciary services,…

Eva Melis |

The COVID-19 global pandemic has challenged the world in so many ways. While the race for vaccine development and deployment absorbed much of our attention, extended lockdowns transformed our way…

Victor Mulas, Frederico Pedroso, Hiromi Akiyama, James Lee |

With nearly 10,000 inhabited islands, there are thousands of diverse island communities across Southeast Asia facing the challenge of beaches covered in plastic. Photo: Shutterstock/

Kate Philp |

The Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens the uneven recovery of East Asia and Pacific. The invasion comes on top of the economic distress caused by the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the financial…

Aaditya Mattoo, Ekaterine T. Vashakmadze, Ergys Islamaj |