Asia’s youngest country, Timor-Leste, is pursuing an ambitious trade policy agenda aimed at deepening its integration into regional and global markets and improving living standards for its 1.3…

Csilla Lakatos, Pierre Sauvé |

Recently, the World Bank has collaborated with Samoan government ministries, a local non-government organizations and researchers to conduct the Samoa Food and Tobacco Household Survey to…

Sutayut Osornprasop, Nicola Hawley, Jutta Krahn |

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 |

Blog featuring female leaders across the Pacific for the World Bank Pacific’s 2021 International Women’s Day campaign.

Yasmin Poole |

A new paper, How could the Pacific restore international travel after COVID?, highlights the benefits of a phased approach to opening up the Pacific, alongside the potential pitfalls, and less…

Andrew Blackman, Hamish Wyatt |

Hear from Habiba Gitay, Senior Climate Change Specialist, whose work over the years has focused on providing strategic direction on climate resilience and integrating climate resilience into…

Habiba Gitay |

The COVID-19 pandemic is devastating lives and livelihoods globally. Before the pandemic, the World Bank projected that 35 million people in East Asia and the Pacific would escape poverty in 2020…

Victoria Kwakwa |

The foundations of our food systems are being undermined and this is unsustainable. It will be even more so as we increase food production to feed a growing population.

Nandita Roy |

Among the 29 countries and economies of the East Asia and Pacific region, one finds some of the world’s most successful education systems. Seven out of the top 10 highest average scorers on…

Michael Crawford |

Construction of a sky train in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Seksan Pipattanatikanunt/World Bank In the past, procurement (purchasing) was not considered to be a specialist function but one of the…

Adu-Gyamfi Abunyewa |