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 |

COVID-19 vaccination rates are low in PNG; in fact, some of – if not, the – lowest in East Asia Pacific. Supply of vaccines was an issue at first, and issues with health infrastructure are an…

Christopher Hoy, Terence Wood, Ellen Moscoe |

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, we are about a year into an unprecedented health and economic crisis that has destroyed lives and livelihoods globally and in the East Asia and…

Victoria Kwakwa |

Since early May 2020, many countries in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region have conducted high-frequency household phone surveys to monitor the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and to inform…

Lydia (Ypsse) Kim, Maria Ana Lugo, Ikuko Uochi |

New Zealand’s success story is often told in terms of its lamb, wool, kiwifruit and agricultural exports. But our country’s greatest asset has always been our people who have been equipped to do…

Annette Dixon |

The World Bank has joined the fight to kick TB out of Papua New Guinea. (World Bank / Tom Perry) My last surviving grandparent, my Nanna, passed away peacefully late last year. And the end of a…

Tom Perry |

In most rural communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a daily routine for women and girls involves collecting clean drinking water for their families. Whether it means a strenuous walk down a steep…

Ruth Moiam |

Nearly 50 years ago, books such as Asian Drama: An Inquiry Into The Poverty Of Nations, by the Swedish economist and Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal, offered a dire prediction of famine and poverty…

Axel van Trotsenburg |

In the last three decades, East Asia has reaped the demographic dividend. An abundant and growing labor force powered almost one-third of the region’s per capita income growth from the 1960s to…

Axel van Trotsenburg |

​​Junaid Ahmad,  World Bank Group Senior Director for Water, and Caren Grown, World Bank Group Senior Director for Gender,  wrote a blog for Thomson Reuters Foundation ahead of World Toilet Day. …

Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Caren Grown |