For a small economy like Uruguay, integration into the global marketplace is one of the most powerful vehicles for growth and development. Participating actively in international trade allows…

Gonzalo Varela |

On the northern tip of Lake Kivu, where eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) meets Rwanda, the pedestrian border crossing connecting the lush town of Gisenyi, Rwanda and the frenetic city of…

Cecile Fruman, Carmine Soprano |

How do you help a burgeoning democracy like Myanmar with its transition to a market-based economy after 50 years of isolation, poor infrastructure and limited capacity for reform? You do it by  …

Cecile Fruman |

In the late 1950s, a group of businessmen and politicians on the outskirts of a small town in western Ireland realized their local airport was in jeopardy of losing its international flights.…

Douglas Zhihua Zeng 曾智华 |

“Ask anyone you meet on the street whether political risk has risen in the last few years, and you’d likely get a convincing yes, ” a high official from Canada’s Export Development Center recently…

Laura Gómez-Mera, Gonzalo Varela |

The Yangon Circular Railway is the local commuter rail network in Yangon, Myanmar. In this recording, World Bank Country Manager Kanthan Shankar boards the train on a three-hour ride around the…

Kanthan Shankar |

Conflict is a major cause of poverty in the developing world today. In addition to endangering lives, conflict disrupts the functioning of an economy in many ways. It destroys infrastructure,…

Massimiliano Calì, Julia Oliver |

Imagine you are a leader of an African country and your entire government budget for the year is $1.2 billion. That same year, an investor sells 51 percent of their stake in a huge iron ore mine…

Caroline Anstey |

A major factor holding back African development is the time it takes to transport goods within the continent. Though road conditions are poor in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, research has shown that…

Gael Raballand, Julia Oliver |

Film is a powerful tool for explaining environmental issues. I first learnt this lesson while trying to enlist local communities in northern Vietnam to help protect a strange blue faced and…

Leo Bottrill |