Basic learning in Latin America and the Caribbean is facing its biggest crisis in a century. Around four out of every five primary school students may now fail to reach minimum knowledge levels,…

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo |

The average annual air temperature in a city with a million and a half or more people can be between 1 °C and 3 °C higher during the day compared to its surrounding area, while at night that…

Bernadette Gordyn, Beatriz Eraso Puig |

This blog highlights two studies from past World Bank's Knowledge for Change Program (KCP)-supported research that demonstrate the importance of a data-driven and evidence-based approach to…

Kerina Wang, Lauren Nicole Core, KCP Program Management Unit (KCP PMU) |

About three-quarters of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean uses the Internet. The World Bank studies 24 countries in the region and provides three main findings on household digital…

Gabriel Lara Ibarra, Niccolò Comini, Natalija Gelvanovska-Garcia |

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted employment in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Although labor markets in the region began to recover, employment levels and working conditions have…

Ana Rivadeneira, Sergio Olivieri, Trinidad Saavedra |

With only 16% of the Earth's land surface, Latin America and the Caribbean contain 50% of the world's known biodiversity. However, biodiversity loss is increasing at an alarming rate.…

Anna Wellenstein, Genevieve Connors |

With about a third of the world’s water resources, Latin America has the highest water endowment per capita, nearly four times the global average. Even so, as many as 150 million people or about a…

Anna Wellenstein, Midori Makino |

What is the importance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, for Latin America and the Caribbean?

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo |

The 4th World Bank Tax Conference exposed the magnitude of the challenge to build equitable tax systems via policies that improve compliance of the very wealthy. This blog highlights a summary of…

Pierre Bachas, Chiara Bronchi, Thiago Scot, Claudia Vargas |

Detailed data on the spatial distribution of jobs is crucial, but such data are rarely available. This study develops a machine learning algorithm that relies on widely available public data to…

Paolo Avner, Jun Rentschler, Samira Barzin, Neave O'Clery |