The COVID-19 crisis spurred unprecedented change, especially in industries with a large digital component. This digital revolution has catalyzed increases in access to and use of financial…

David Malpass |

This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces five papers published from March 16 to March 31 on various topics, including…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

Mobile government (mGov) offers developing countries several benefits for their citizens including financial inclusion, wider access to services and improved government social accountability.

Khuram Farooq, Peter Kustor |

The World Bank Group’s Identification for Development (ID4D) Initiative recently released a consultation draft of the ID4D Practitioner’s Guide for public comments throughout June.

Julia Clark, Vyjayanti T Desai, Jonathan Marskell |

Women stitch handicrafts at Everest Fashion Fair Craft in Lalitpur, Nepal. © Peter Kapuscinski/World Bank [[tweetable]]Technology and what it will do to change how we work is the driving obsession…

Kristalina Georgieva |

Entering data. Photo: World Bank In the fiscal transparency arena, people often hear two conflicting claims. First, governments complain that few people take advantage of fiscal information that…

Paolo de Renzio, Massimo Mastruzzi |

Kazakhstan. Photo: Kubat Sydykov / World Bank How large is the share of public procurement to GDP in middle-income and low-income countries and how it is evolving? If sizable, can public…

Simeon Djankov, Federica Saliola, Asif Islam |

Translations available in Chinese and Spanish. Many of you are already familiar with the PPP (Public-Private Partnerships) Group’s Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) Database. As a…

Clive Harris, Jenny Chao |

For the first time in history, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen below 10%. The world has never been as ambitious about development as it is today. After adopting the…

Sri Mulyani Indrawati |

Strong trade connectivity can help disaster response and recovery by ensuring that humanitarian relief goods and services get to where they are needed when disaster strikes.  Trade policy measures…

Selina Jackson, Michael Roberts |