Industrial commodities prices to surge in 2017
Prices for industrial commodities such as energy and metals appear to have bottomed out last year and are forecast to post strong gains in 2017. Tightening supply and strengthening demand are behind...
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Stronger together: Stepping up our partnerships with the UN
A few years ago, West Africa was gripped by the Ebola outbreak. The onset of the virus devastated communities and weakened the economies of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Ebola moved quickly and an...
View ArticleRethinking governance for more effective policymaking
We’ve all had those hallway conversations or coffee meetings or been privy to overhearing those chats… the ones where we have quick exchanges on why so many ‘best practice’ polices – such as those...
View ArticleTrade has been a global force for less poverty and higher incomes
In the ongoing debate about the benefits of trade, we must not lose sight of a vital fact. Trade and global integration have raised incomes across the world, while dramatically cutting poverty and...
View ArticleBeyond the status quo: Using impact evaluation for innovation in health policy
How do we deliver higher-quality health services in low-capacity settings? This is the question that we have sought to answer through a long-standing impact evaluation (IE) research collaboration...
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Two ways to make Africa’s cities more livable, connected and affordable
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 African...
View ArticleA hybrid model to evaluate energy efficiency for climate change mitigation
In response to global calls for climate change mitigation, many countries, especially in the developing world, have considered pursuing policies that can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and...
View ArticleInternational transfers of mitigation to achieve the goals of the Paris...
More than a year has passed since the signing of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which developed, emerging and developing countries across the...
View ArticleTeachers + classrooms + students = learning? Think again!
If you speak to any African parent, she or he will usually very quickly point out how important it is for her or his children to attend school. Literacy and education do not only confer social status,...
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Agribusiness trade as a pillar of development: Measurement and patterns
Agribusiness is en vogue, fostered by a new understanding of the agricultural sector as a major contributor to overall growth and poverty reduction and through its linkages with the manufacturing and...
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Are capital flows fickle? And does the answer still depend on type?
According to conventional wisdom, capital flows are fickle. They are fickle more or less independent of time and place. But different flows exhibit different degrees of volatility: FDI is least...
View ArticleEqual opportunity, equal outcomes?
As we mark International Women’s Day this week, and its call for bold pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity, the role of law in fighting for the human rights and gender equality of women is...
View ArticleWDR 2017 does not disappoint: Four implications for work in development
As a political scientist specializing in the comparative politics of development, including particular attention to issues of governance and democracy, I have followed this year’s World Development...
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Breaking the STEM ceiling for girls
Although countries have dramatically closed gender gaps in education and labor force participation, gender differences within education and employment persist. Women earn less income and work in lower...
View ArticleKeeping score
When we think of scorecards, we think of football or other sports where we want to keep track of how our favorite players and teams are doing. We at the World Bank are also a team – a team battling a...
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For Pi Day, some pie charts on learning
It’s 3/14, also known as Pi Day– a mathematics holiday to celebrate the irrational, transcendental number we learned in school, for the most part, to calculate the circumference or area of circles....
View ArticleThe potential gain from regional electricity trade in South Asia
Countries in the South Asia Region (SAR) face a number of operational and economic challenges as they seek to keep up with rapidly growing electricity demands. Our analysis finds that increased...
View ArticleWomen, cities, and opportunity: Making the case for secure land rights
Land and property lie at the center of many of today’s pressing development challenges. Consider that at most 10% of land in rural Africa is reliably registered. At this week‘s annual Land and Poverty...
View ArticleTen signs of an impending global land rights revolution
The development community has experienced various “revolutions” over the years – from microfinance to women’s rights, from the green revolution to sustainable development. Each of these awakenings...
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Pursuing higher economic returns to extractive investment
Across large swaths of the developing world, a new trend is taking hold: governments are targeting public and private investments in specific geographic areas in the hopes of creating spatial...
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