Mobility is a precondition for economic growth: mobility for access to jobs, education, health, and other services. Mobility of goods is also critical to supply world markets in our globalized…

Marc Juhel |

Countries coming out of crises undergo rapid structural changes, including migration and big economic shifts. This can complicate the measurement of their progress, sometimes in unexpected ways,…

Mark R. Thomas, Kristen Himelein |

Conflict Diamonds A National Geographic Special on conflict diamonds. I am a mining specialist, not a conflict specialist. But on my recent trip to Sierra Leone, I was struck by the ever-present…

Christopher Sheldon |

Information and communication technologies (ICTs), including mobile phones, are increasingly seen as critical tools to improve public health and health outcomes in Africa. Several experiments,…

Samia Melhem |

With oil in Niger and Uganda, natural gas in Mozambique and Tanzania, iron ore in Guinea and Sierra Leone―African countries are increasingly finding rich new deposits of oil, gas, or minerals and…

Makhtar Diop |

I was glad to read the announcement made by World Bank President, Dr. Jim Kim, at the start of this year’s UN General Assembly meetings, about the Bank’s projected financing support through the…

Patricio V. Marquez |

             The debate over how to ensure good health services for all while assuring affordability is nothing new. However, it has recently acquired new impetus under the guise of Universal…

Jorge Coarasa |

As a newcomer in my new post in Accra, I am starting to learn about Ghana’s achievements and challenges.  I have been impressed with some innovative policies and measures adopted to address…

Patricio V. Marquez |

Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Power Project: Bringing More Electricity to Africa's Great Lakes Region In May this year, I joined World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and U.N. Secretary…

Makhtar Diop |

If you saw how poor I was before, you would see that things are getting better.   When I hear stories like that of Jean Bosco Hakizimana, a Burundian farmer whose life was transformed by a cow, I…

Joachim von Amsberg |