Our new World Bank report, “Advancing Knowledge of the Water-Energy Nexus in the GCC Countries,” discusses the challenges GCC countries face in ensuring long-term sustainability of the use of its…

Issam Abousleiman, Anders Jagerskog |

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has a fixation with subsidizing consumer goods, particularly water, food, and energy. Subsidies are often introduced to protect the poor and…

Federica Alfani, Maria Eugenia Genoni, Johannes Hoogeveen |

With 90 percent of fresh water in Africa found within 63 international river basin catchments crossing multiple borders, water resource management on the continent must be an inherently…

Noosha Tayebi |

Maps and the use of geographical information systems (GIS) are also key tools in understanding the value of ‘unseen’ resources such as groundwater, a topic that will be at the forefront of the…

Angelica Valeria Ospina, Erwin de Nys |

The World Bank Group’s earlier resilience projects and recent support to Tonga’s emergency response and recovery efforts – including a development policy loan of over US$18M – have been vital in…

Alina Monica Antoci |

As we keep hearing the term “inflation” in the news every day, it’s worth revisiting what that really means for MENA countries. Here are four policies that tackle high inflation and low growth…

Nadir Mohammed, Kevin Carey, Johannes Hoogeveen, Gladys Lopez-Acevedo |

The energy sector remains a male-dominated field across the world, and this is no different in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Women in MENA already have a generally low participation…

Husam Beides, Elisabeth Maier |

Adopting best-practice building techniques can have a tremendous impact on global warming. Developers can make improvements in two areas.

Ismail Radwan |

This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group that were published in the World Bank’s Policy Research Working Paper Series. It introduces five…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

One objective of fiscal policy is to stabilize a country’s macroeconomic environment. Countercyclical fiscal measures intend to offset the effects of the economic cycle on a country’s economy. For…

Jose Luis Diaz Sanchez, Joana Monteiro da Mota |