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) |

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 |

GovTech – the use of the latest technology to modernize the public sector -- has great potential to deliver on the promises of the digital age by improving core government systems and services to…

Kimberly Johns, Cem Dener |

Multiple and overlapping disaster and crises are demonstrating the need for adaptability and flexibility of national disaster risk management (DRM) systems. Here are five ideas to consider when…

Jian Vun, Jolanta Kryspin-Watson |

Since early May 2020, many countries in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region have conducted high-frequency household phone surveys to monitor the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and to inform…

Lydia (Ypsse) Kim, Maria Ana Lugo, Ikuko Uochi |