A recent reform to the Marriage Law overhauled these discriminatory provisions, granting spouses equal rights to manage and dispose of marital property. In other countries, however, inequality…

Nisha Arekapudi, Nayda L. Almodóvar-Reteguis |

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that going about with your daily life is impossible without electricity. And yet, many face this exact challenge. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 6 out of 10…

Jean Arlet, Viktoriya Ereshchenko, Silvia Lopez Rocha |

Time and again, we witness how natural disasters reinforce poverty and other development challenges. Disasters strike countries around the world with alarming frequency – including severe storms,…

Stéphane Hallegatte, Brian Walsh, Jun Rentschler |

Momentum is building behind a land rights revolution. Last year, just prior to the World Bank’s Annual Land and Poverty Conference, I wrote about the many factors pushing land to the top of the…

Chris Jochnick |

Urban population in Africa will double within the next 25 years and reach 1 billion people by 2040, but concentration of people in cities has not been accompanied by economic density. Typical…

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Somik Lall |

Many laws prohibiting a range of gender violence have been ineffective in reducing the prevalence of harmful practices.  This is mainly due to the influential role that deeply rooted social norms—…

Annamaria Milazzo |