Is public procurement a rich country’s policy?

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 |
Health, Governance, Digital Development

Alternative procurement agencies to facilitate infrastructure investment

Photo Credit: Myxi via Flickr Creative Commons License In our last post, we highlighted a few examples of the innovative organizational structures that institutional investors have created to more…

Michael Bennon, Rajiv Sharma |
Infrastructure & Public-Private Partnerships, Competitiveness, Digital Development, Governance

How we’re fighting conflict and fragility where poverty is deepest

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 |
Fragility Conflict and Violence, Agriculture and Food, Governance, Jobs & Development, Poverty

Extreme inequality is a symptom of a broken society

Sri Mulyani Indrawati |
Gender, Governance

Trade Regionalism in the Asia-Pacific: New Game, Old Rules?

Editor's Note: This blog draws on the forthcoming article “New Trade Regionalism in Asia: Looking Past the Sino-American Great Game, " written by Swarnim Wagle, to be published in the …

Swarnim Wagle, Miles McKenna |
Agriculture and Food, Trade, Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management, Digital Development, Governance

The Arab Spring: an opportunity for financial inclusion?

        The end of 2011 was undeniably a momentous time across the Arab World with uprisings first emerging in Tunisia and Egypt and then spreading to Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Expectations of 2012…

Financial Inclusion, Financial Sector, Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management, Governance, Jobs & Development