The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
The Global Risks Report 2018 is published at a time of encouraging headline global growth. Any breathing space this offers to leaders should not be squandered: the urgency of facing up to systemic challenges has intensified over the past year amid proliferating signs of uncertainty, instability and fragility. This year’s …
Urbanization is occurring at a rapid pace in Bangladesh, accompanied by the proliferation of slum settlements, whose residents have special health needs given the adverse social, economic, and public environmental conditions they face. Over the past 45 years, the country’s health and nutrition policies and programs have focused largely on …
Although sanitation remains a focus in present government programmes and schemes (SBM and AMRUT), capacity building of ULBs and State Government on issues of sanitation has remained an area of neglect in most of the State and ULBs. The study on Capacity Building Need Assessment of cities (Angul and Dhenkanal) …
Despite unprecedented wealth accumulation, coastal Mumbai suffers from a myriad of socioeconomic and ecological challenges as well as connected uncertainties. These include endemic flooding, shrinking of sensitive ecosystems, inequality, and marginalisation of natural resource-dependent communities, such as fishers. These are in addition to existing risks, including building collapse, fire hazards, …
The global business environment has undergone a major transformation that requires greater knowledge to address the social and environmental challenges of our time. Due to the widening of gaps between socioeconomic groups and the increasing threat of climate change, businesses are pressured to change normative managerial practices and operations towards …
This report aims to initiate the process of supporting timber-exporting African countries in combating illegal timber harvesting and trade. It focuses, in particular, on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) national strategies and the implementation of European Union Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreements (EU-FLEGT VPAs). The report …
There was little improvement in EU Member States’ 2050 climate plans between 2015 and 2017, this new analysis from WWF shows. This makes the proposed Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union, currently under discussion, critical to ensuring EU Member States produce effective long-term emissions reduction strategies. WWF found …
This compilation of case studies is the product of water integrity action plans developed and enforced during implementation of the Regional Capacity Building Programme on Water Integrity for the MENA region. The Programme works to improve transparency and accountability practices in water resources management across the MENA region, including in …
India launched a massive renewable energy push in 2014 — a move that could bring electricity and jobs to poor, rural communities across the country. The government set ambitious targets to generate 160 gigawatts of wind and solar power by 2022, and studies estimate that, to achieve these goals, India …
This paper explores the benefits of a coordinated approach to land and water governance in efforts to address the global food security challenge and the need to tackle gender inequality in access to and control over land and water. The scarcity of arable land and freshwater is at the centre …
educing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus the sustainable management of forest and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) is a global climate change mitigation initiative. The United Nations REDD Programme (UN-REDD) is training governments in developing countries, including Nigeria, to implement REDD+. To protect local people, UN-REDD has developed …
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is set to erupt in cities throughout the world. Bits are meeting bricks as the internet enters the spaces we live in, becoming the Internet of Things. The results will impact most aspects of our lives, raising questions of urgent concern. Which dimensions of cities will …
A distinctive feature of urbanization in the last 50 years is the expansion of urban populations and built development well beyond what was earlier conceived as the city limit, resulting in metropolitan areas. This is challenging the relevance of traditional municipal boundaries, and by extension, traditional governing structures and institutions. …
Despite sustained economic growth over the past two decades, Sub-Saharan Africa faces massive challenges and significant gaps in many development outcomes. Although poverty has been declining, a recent report estimates that over two-fifths of the African population was poor in 2012. Nearly two-thirds of Africans do not have electricity. Less …
The management information system of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 was hailed as a pioneering tool for enhancing transparency and accountability. However, it is now being used with impunity to centralise the programme and violate workers’ legal entitlements, causing frequent disruptions on the ground and opening …
Evidence shows that growing climatic variability has severe impacts on water availability and quality, which in turn jeopardizes social stability and jobs for the younger generations. This is particularly true in arid and semi-arid regions, where often migration is both the result of and a way to adapt to climate-induced …
Article 13 of the Paris Agreement establishes a transparency mechanism to enhance the parties’ trust in the UN climate regime. But many states at present lack the institutional capacity to fully carry out their obligations under the Paris Agreement. The differences in their domestic capacities have influenced how parties have …
The Government of India along with the various State and Local Governments is implementing several flagship Urban Missions. An overarching goal of the various missions and schemes is to make Indian cities more ‘Liveable’. The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has developed a set of ‘Liveability Standards in Cities’ to …
The Key Indicators presents the latest statistics on a comprehensive set of economic, financial, social, environmental, and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators for the 48 regional members of the Asian Development Bank. It is designed to serve as a resource for information on development issues across the region for a …
Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Nithin Chandran Vs. Union of India & Others dated 05/09/2017 regarding pasting of posters, pamphlets in the campus and public streets for Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections. The Applicant (Nithin Chandran) informs the Tribunal that despite specific order passed …
