State-owned financial institutions (SOFIs) are often associated with poor corporate governance, political interference, crowding out of private sector resources, higher non-performing loans (NPLs…

Gunhild Berg, Mario Guadamillas |

As the world observes World Environment Day this week, we should be mindful that [[tweetable]]there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050 if nothing is done[[/tweetable]], according…

Silpa Kaza, Lisa Yao |

As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, the number of megacities is growing rapidly. Today there are 37 cities worldwide with populations of greater than 10 million, and 84 with populations…

Philip E. Karp, Peter Ellis, Barjor Mehta |

[[tweetable]]When it comes to responding to disasters, time is of the essence.[[/tweetable]] Help needs to come immediately to save lives; recovery and reconstruction have to start swiftly to…

Zuzana Stanton-Geddes, Jolanta Kryspin-Watson |

In Mali, residents of Timbuktu take part in the maintenance of the Djingareyber Mosque, a World Heritage Site, applying traditional repair techniques. (Tiecoura Ndaou / UN Photo) Imagine a city…

Sameh Wahba, Barbara Minguez Garcia |

​Today, a quarter of the world’s population lives in urban “agglomerations”—supersized metropolitan areas that cut across jurisdictional boundaries and bring together one or more cities along with…

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Philip E. Karp, Maria Angelica Sotomayor |

Global competition to attract foreign and domestic direct investment is so high that nearly all countries offer incentives (such as tax holidays, customs duty exemptions and subsidized loans) to…

Harald Jedlicka, Yassin Sabha |

Also available in: Arabic | French National Bank of Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Gulf banking markets may have entered an important phase of consolidation, with the potential to…

Pietro Calice |

The spectacular recovery of a long-missing painting by Pablo Picasso – a canvas that had been stolen more than a decade ago, in a daring museum theft in Paris – offers a vivid reminder of the…

Christopher Colford |

  You’d probably be skeptical if I told you that the Western Balkans – a region that has long suffered from social and ethnic fragmentation – now has a strong opportunity to boost shared…

Paulo Correa |