Digital public infrastructure can enable essential society-wide functions and services such as identification, payments, and data exchange.

Vyjayanti T Desai, Jonathan Marskell, Georgina Marin, Minita Varghese |

While infrastructure has been perceived as gender-neutral, it can be deeply exclusionary if masculine sensibilities solely determine the design. How can private investors incentivize gender…

Luciana Guimaraes Drummond e Silva |

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 |

Open source software can help improve government efficiency and transparency while speeding up innovation in the public sector. GovTech nations, such as Singapore, are using open source solutions…

Lesly Goh, Kai Kaiser, Nataliya Langburd Wright |

Also available in: Mongolian | Chinese     As we approach the 9th World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur next week, one of the essential challenges in implementing the New Urban Agenda that governments…

Abhas Jha |

More and more courts are going digital. But does this improve judicial performance?   Legal literature on ‘e-justice’ seems to think so. So too does the World Development Report, ‘Digital…

Georgia Harley, Agnes Said |

Photo: yuttana Contributor Studio / Shutterstock.com Most of us carry out research and report our findings with the expectation—or at least a hope—of an audience.   Yet fewer amongst us are…

Deblina Saha |

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is often considered by economists and policymakers as integral to economic growth – a cornerstone of modernization, income growth and employment. Yet for many…

Amira Karim |

Students at Beijing Bayi High School in China. Photo: World Bank In 1950, the average working-age person in the world had  almost three years of education, but in East Asia and Pacific (EAP), the…

Michael Crawford |

Then vs. now: the Port of Singapore circa 1900 (left) and today (right). Photos: KITLV/Peter Garnhum When it gained independence in 1965, Singapore was a low-income country with limited natural…

Yin Lam, Karuna Ramakrishnan |