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 …
Replacing traditional cooking fires and stoves in the developing world with "cleaner" stoves is a potential strategy to reduce household air pollution that worsens climate change and is a leading global killer. A new study by researchers from the University of British Columbia, University of Washington and elsewhere -- which …
From the late Pleistocene to the Holocene and now the so-called Anthropocene, humans have been driving an ongoing series of species declines and extinctions. Large-bodied mammals are typically at a higher risk of extinction than smaller ones. However, in some circumstances, terrestrial megafauna populations have been able to recover some …
This paper surveys a sample of INDCs and assesses how capacity building is identified and mentioned in the context of their pledges towards the Paris Agreement. The paper suggests that it is necessary to improve prior information on capacity building gaps and needs to enhance clarity, transparency and understanding, and …
Assuming a three-year product life and a target of three lanterns per household, this corresponded to about two million jobs globally, more than... Switching from fuel-based lighting – such as firewood and kerosene lanterns – to solar-LED systems also create two million potential new jobs in developing countries like India, …
Officials from nearly 200 countries are gathered here to chalk out details of an agreement to cut the use of HFCs India on Thursday pitched for the formation of guidelines for enhancing flexibility, developing methodologies and ensuring transparency in phasing out of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a potent greenhouse gas, to limit …
The per capita expenditure on health in India in 2012 was 58 US dollars as against 88 and $ 108 in other developing countries like Sri Lanka and Indonesia respectively. "As per World Health Statistics 2015 brought out by World Health Organisation (WHO), the per capita total expenditure on health …
Diplomats meeting in Vienna this week hope to take a major step toward a deal under the Montreal Protocol to decrease the use of a potent greenhouse gas, in what could be the most significant measure to combat global warming since last year's Paris climate agreement. Officials from nearly 200 …
Many households in impoverished regions around the world are starting to shift away from inefficient and polluting fuel-based lighting -- such as candles, firewood, and kerosene lanterns -- to solar-LED systems. While this trend has tremendous environmental benefits, a new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found …
For the first time, this United Nations report details the number of trees, forests and how the land is used in the world’s drylands. The findings could be used to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and help fight climate change. Drylands cover about 41 percent of the Earth’s …
Developing countries such as Kenya, Bangladesh and Jordan are leading the world on green finance, which is essential to meet the world's sustainable development aspirations, according to a new report from the Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System. Released to coincide with the High-Level Political Forum on …
Agricultural index insurance offers the promise of an affordable and sustainable insurance product for farmers that can help reduce their vulnerability to aggregate agricultural shocks such as large-scale drought or flooding. However, index insurance provides claim payments based on a trigger that is only imperfectly correlated with losses. This implies …
In December 2015, the Paris Agreement recognized the critical role of forests in combating climate change. This recognition included actions to halt and reverse the rate of deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, which have contributed up to 20 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions. To assist countries in …
The face of development has changed, with diverse stakeholders involved – and implicated – in what are more and more seen as global and interlinked concerns. At the same time, there is an urgent need to mobilise unprecedented resources to achieve the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The private sector …
The adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 firmly anchored the issue of climate change at the centre of international and national development policy. These agreements set out an ambitious set of universal targets, as well as national policy engagements (in the field of …
Global fish production is approaching its sustainable limit, with around 90% of the world’s stocks now fully or overfished and a 17% increase in production forecast by 2025, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Overexploitation of the planet’s fish has more than tripled since the 1970s, with …
India said that it has initiated the domestic process for ratifying the Paris Agreement, the global treaty to tackle climate change adopted by 195 countries in December. Addressing the seventh edition of the informal ministerial meet, Petersberg Dialogue, co-hosted by Germany and Morocco, the chair of the 22nd round of …
This compendium of best practices brings together practical ecologically sound and nutrition-sensitive approaches to improving the productivity of backyard, community and family farms. With the increasing awareness of the importance of safe and healthy diets, there is a resurgence of interest in these complementary pathways to household level food security …
The growth of >300 million children <5 y old was mildly, moderately, or severely stunted worldwide in 2010. However, national estimates of the human capital and financial losses due to growth faltering in early childhood are not available. The researchers quantified the economic cost of growth faltering in developing countries. …
This paper aims at understanding: how gender-sensitive and transformative instruments promote territorial development through women’s empowerment and how these instruments can contribute to food security, rural development and poverty reduction. But first, it should be borne in mind that, usually, resources accorded to development programs are limited. For this reason …
This paper aims at understanding: how gender-sensitive and transformative instruments promote territorial development through women’s empowerment and how these instruments can contribute to food security, rural development and poverty reduction. But first, it should be borne in mind that, usually, resources accorded to development programs are limited. For this reason …
