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 |

Focusing on Kiribati, Tonga and Vanuatu, in late 2020 the World Bank conducted roughly 450 interviews with temporary migrant workers, their families and communities, and their employers. We…

Kirstie Petrou, Dung Doan, Ursula Casabonne |

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) |

With lessons learned over its two years of operation, the Gap Fund climate initiative aims to expand its technical assistance to as many as 40 new cities in the upcoming year

Augustin Maria, Giulia Macagno |

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 |

Health systems being challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has never been a more important time for clear and strategic health sector planning. And in the midst of the pandemic, Vanuatu…

Kenslyne Lele |