The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Weak consumption in the People’s Republic of China will partly offset robust domestic demand in South Asia. Disinflation is expected to continue, driven by lower food and energy prices, along with the lagged effects of previous monetary policy tightening. The region’s high-income technology exporters remain a bright spot, benefiting from …
Compiled from interviews by the Private Adaptation Finance component at GIZ and supplemented by desk research, this brief highlights the private sector’s potential to empower women as catalysts for climate adaptation. While the focus spans Africa and South Asia, the insights presented resonate across diverse cultural and regional contexts. Addressing …
This edition of the Macro Poverty Outlooks periodical contains country-by-country forecasts and overviews for GDP, fiscal, debt and poverty indicators for the developing countries of the South Asia region. Macroeconomic indicators such as population, gross domestic product and gross domestic product per capita, and where available, other indicators such as …
Women farmers play a crucial role in South Asia’s agricultural sector and contribute significantly, despite facing numerous challenges. The intersection of climate change, gender, and health can have disproportionate impacts on women’s well‑being. Communicable and non‑communicable diseases, occupational hazards, and mental health issues are exacerbated by climate change, affecting women’s …
As climate change intensifies, the danger posed by heatwaves is increasing every year. In 2015, thousands were killed in India and Pakistan, and in 2022, the death toll reached tens of thousands in Europe. Despite this, heatwaves often receive limited attention from humanitarians, emergency response agencies, and policymakers at large. …
Approximately 1 billion people around the world are served by healthcare facilities without reliable electricity access or with no electricity access at all. The electrification of such facilities is a crucial requirement for achieving universal health coverage. This report titled Climate Finance for Powering Healthcare examines how climate finance, such …
This edition of the Macro Poverty Outlooks periodical contains country-by-country forecasts and overviews for GDP, fiscal, debt and poverty indicators for the developing countries of the South Asia region. Macroeconomic indicators such as population, gross domestic product and gross domestic product per capita, and where available, other indicators such as …
This report focuses on the role of key stakeholders (policy makers, waste management practitioners, civil society, informal workers’ organizations, and the private sector) in contributing to pollution reduction in South Asia while also enhancing livelihood prospects for informal waste workers—the most vulnerable of whom tend to be women. The report …
At just under 6 percent, South Asia is expected to grow faster than any other developing country region this year—but slower than its pre-pandemic pace and not fast enough to meet its development goals. The region faces many risks to this outlook, including due to fragile fiscal positions created by …
Universal access to affordable clean energy continues to be a challenge across the globe. Women’s and marginalised groups’ access to clean energy services and green technologies remains constrained by intersectional social factors and gender-blind policies. The recurrent failure of policies to consider differentiated gender and social inclusion needs is a …
South Asia is home to 9 of the world's 10 cities with the worst air pollution. Concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in some of the region's most densely populated and poor areas are up to 20 times higher than what the World Health Organization considers healthy (5 micrograms per …
This report provides evidence-based guidance on cost-effective and energy-efficient cooling and ventilation interventions to improve building-level thermal comfort and indoor air quality for a changing climate in South Asia. It focuses on Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan but also covers all the countries in the region, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, …
As global plastic waste continues to grow, the global community is coalescing to reduce plastic waste. Some stakeholders are also exploring new options to use plastic waste as partial substitute for raw material. The use of plastic waste as a bitumen modifier in road construction, referred to here as ‘plastic …
This paper estimates the effects of gradually introducing a US$25/ton CO2-equivalent carbon tax in South Asian economies using the Climate Policy Assessment Tool (CPAT). The results for South Asia suggest that monetized welfare co-benefits net of efficiency costs from such a tax—regardless of what other economies or regions do—are resoundingly …
This policy brief evaluates the current state of the knowledge of and plans to manage urban heat in South Asia. First, the brief examines heat in South Asian cities through the different layers of the urban environment: buildings, communities, and cities. Next, it adds the human element and explores different …
South Asia’s outlook is shaped by both good and bad news in the global economy. Lower commodity prices, a strong recovery in the services sector, and reduced disruptions in value chains are aiding South Asia’s recovery but rising interest rates and uncertainty in financial markets are putting downward pressure on …
This issue of the Southasiadisasters.net titled “Building Adaptation and Resilience to Heat Waves,” presents the timely need for the mainstream implementation of adaptation strategies against extreme heat, especially in the sprawling urban cities of South Asia. Heat waves are characterised by abnormally high temperatures, particularly in the summer months. They …
Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty, with women and girls comprising 60 percent of the global hungry. Women face multiple challenges (such as limited access to education and employment opportunities) that curtail their economic autonomy and weaken their bargaining position within the family, consequently …
South Asia’s Path to Sustainable and Inclusive Growth highlights the remarkable development progress in South Asia and how the region can advance in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Steps include a renewed push toward greater trade and financial openness, while responding proactively to the distributional impact and dislocation associated …
South Asia is home to 9 of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution, which causes an estimated 2 million premature deaths across the region each year and incurs significant economic costs. This new World Bank report shows that there are economically feasible, cost-effective solutions to achieve clean …
