With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), world leaders made a bold pledge in 2015 to leave no one behind on the path of development by 2030. Half-way to the target date, some 22 countries…

Samuel Kofi Tetteh Baah, Christoph Lakner, Umar Serajuddin |

Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced low economic growth per capita, a very slow decline in poverty incidence, and the number of people living in extreme poverty has been rising steadily. As a…

Johannes Hoogeveen, Johan A. Mistiaen, Haoyu Wu |

Risks and hazards are particularly relevant in El Salvador, one of the most risk-exposed countries in the world. Extreme climatic events, such as earthquakes or floods, make the country especially…

Monica Robayo-Abril, Britta Rude, Hugo Ñopo |

El Salvador has made outstanding progress in eradicating poverty in recent years. While this achievement is no doubt praiseworthy, we can never lose sight of the fact that the country still faces…

Carine Clert, Hugo Ñopo |

This blog is a biweekly feature highlighting recent working papers from around the World Bank Group. It introduces four papers published from November 1 to November 15 on various topics, including…

Marcelo Buitron, Policy Research Working Paper team |

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 |

For 34 million children and adolescents in our region, being of African descent is synonymous with invisibility: not only are they forgotten and neglected; they are also actively discriminated…

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo |

6 out of 10 women in Ecuador have experienced some type of violence based on gender, with indigenous groups showing very high levels (68%), aggravated by discrimination in the labor market and…

Diana Catalina Buitrago Orozco, Manuel Contreras-Urbina, Lorena Levano, Mariana Felicio, Carmelina Moran Salazar |

Las empresas privadas son la columna vertebral de la mayoría de las economías en desarrollo. Proporcionan 9 de cada 10 empleos, generan ingresos fiscales para financiar proyectos de…

Martin Spicer |

Central America and the Dominican Republic have a good track record of economic growth. Between 1991 and 2019, Central America grew by an average of 4.5% per year, and the Dominican Republic by an…

Michel Kerf |