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 …
Developing countries have experienced growing structural weaknesses over the last decade. COVID-19 and climate change have further aggravated these, worsening poverty and inequality, and starkly exposing the interdependence between people, the planet, and the economy. This report charts out the Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID) approach, which departs from …
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digital transformation and added urgency for Governments to respond. A key challenge is how to govern and harness the surge in digital data for the global good. It has been estimated that global Internet traffic in 2022 will exceed all the Internet …
The world’s poorest countries will remain on the margins of the global economy if States are unable to boost economic production, and the international community fails to provide more support, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned. Their ability to respond to and recover from crises such as …
The study provides a critical assessment of the implications of COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s fiscal consolidation path and identify alternative policy options for mitigating the high risk of debt distress. The study customizes the Middle Income Countries Debt Sustainability Analysis (MIC DSA) model by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) …
The world needs more effective multilateral coordination, without which recovery efforts in advanced countries will damage development prospects in the South and amplify existing inequalities, says UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 2021. The pandemic has seen governments in the North abandon parts of the 40-year long neo-liberal policy dogma to …
This socio-economic assessment report informs and supports further planning processes undertaken to analyse refugee hosting settlements within the municipality of Arua (classified as a secondary city in north-western Uganda). Arua is strategically located bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, and therefore hosts a large population of urban …
This report presents the global status on water-use efficiency and acceleration needs to achieve target 6.4 by 2030, based on the latest data on indicator 6.4.1. Water-use efficiency rose from 17.3 USD/m3 in 2015 to 18.9 USD/m3 in 2018 worldwide, representing a 9 percent efficiency increase. All economic sectors have …
Information and Communication technology (ICT) can boost economic growth and at the same time can create digital divide. The present paper explores both direct impact of ICT dissemination and its indirect impact through the channel of digital finance on poverty eradication and income inequality reduction at the sub-national level in …
Tourism offers Tanzania the long-term potential to create good jobs, generate foreign exchange earnings, provide revenue to support the preservation and maintenance of natural and cultural heritage, and expand the tax base to finance development expenditures and poverty-reduction efforts. The latest World Bank Tanzania Economic Update, Transforming Tourism: Toward a …
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have long pursued unconventional economic development strategies, often with great success. Equally, because of their susceptibility to exogenous shocks, which can be disproportionately more destructive than in larger states, their progress remains fragile and can be set back suddenly and dramatically. It has taken some …
EU member states must ensure careful and efficient implementation of economic recovery plans that support inclusion and growth to bounce back from the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, says a new World Bank report. The World Bank’s latest EU Regular Economic Report – entitled Inclusive Growth at a Crossroads …
In 2020, the dual shock posed by stringent non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and the severe fall in hydrocarbon revenues added to Algeria’s economic woes. While the Algerian economy showed signs of recovery during the second half of 2020, firms and workers have been deeply affected by …
The Covid-19 pandemic crisis and the security situation continue to undermine the Nigerien economy, wiping out years of hard-won gains in poverty reduction. A number of fiscal policy options are, however, available to help the country enhance public expenditure efficiency and increase its GDP by up to 2%. These are …
The thirteenth edition of the South Africa Economic Update, Building back better from COVID-19, with a special focus on jobs, examines how supporting young entrepreneurs could be one of the ways the country could address, unemployment, among its other pressing social challenge in an environment of weakened economic growth. The …
The low-carbon transformation of China’s urban areas is a crucial action towards meeting the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal. In this policy insight, Jasmine Tillu presents the economic case for this transformation. There is a strong economic case for transforming the development trajectory of China’s cities. Urban infrastructure investments and spatial …
West Africa is experiencing persistent structural changes in the economic and social relations that surround individuals, households and communities. Referred to as social transformation, these changes are giving rise to growing inequalities, poverty and exclusion. A better understanding of the drivers of social transformation as well as the groups most …
Somalia has a triple challenge of low levels of labor force participation, low productivity, and high levels of poverty. Economic growth in Somalia has been low, subject to shocks; and thus, insufficient for job creation. Shocks to the economy have contributed to forced displacement, a dominance of jobs outside of …
Kenya’s largest age cohort is between 10 and 14 and will be joining the labor force over the next decade. This inflection point coincides with the country’s effort to steer towards economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Can the jobs and labor market keep up to deliver on this socio-economic …
Malawi was affected by a severe second wave of COVID-19 (coronavirus) cases starting in the last weeks of 2020. As a result, the Government declared a second 'State of National Disaster' and announced increased social distancing measures. Case numbers peaked in January and gradually subsided through April, when restrictions were …
This paper provides an evaluation of the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on least developed countries (LDCs) in Asia and the Pacific. Drawing on analysis and estimates from various regional and national sources, this paper finds that these impacts are large relative to the number of COVID-19 …
