Rich Countries, Poor People: Will Africa’s commodity boom benefit the poor?

Travelling across Africa these days you are likely to run into increasing numbers of mining, oil, and gas industry personnel engaged in exploration, drilling, and extraction across the continent. …

Anand Rajaram |
Governance, Digital Development, Social Sustainability and Inclusion, Education

Relaunching Africa Can and Sharing Africa’s Growth

Dear Africa Can readers, we’ve heard from many of you since our former Africa Chief Economist Shanta Devarajan left the region for a new Bank position that you want Africa Can to continue…

Francisco Ferreira |
Education, Poverty

Septage : Kerala’s Looming Sanitation Challenge

Kerala is a beautiful state in South India, home to about 34 million people, many of whom share my pride as a Keralite.  Of all the states in India, Kerala scores the highest on the  human…

Suseel Samuel |
Environment, Poverty, Competitiveness, Digital Development, Governance

Ending Open Defecation, Not by Evidence Alone

Open defecation – going outside without using a toilet or latrine – is one of the most important threats to child health and human capital, period; ending it must be a policy priority.

Jaehyang So, Dean Spears |
Environment, Governance, Education, Health, Poverty

1 River Basin, 9 Countries, 1 Vision

1 basin, 9 countries, 1 vision was in a brochure of one of the Council of Ministers meeting of the Niger Basin. The first time I saw that brochure I smiled as I right away thought about 9-1-1, the…

Amal Talbi |
Agriculture and Food, Energy, Environment, Water