Global poverty monitored by the World Bank for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is reported only at the national level, lacking a breakdown between urban and rural areas. A key challenge to producing...
The aging of populations around the world and the associated fall in the working age population are expected to adversely affect countries’ GDP growth in coming decades. These demographic shifts will also...
The report presents an analysis of the jobs portfolio for Nepal covering WB operations as well as Development Partners' (DP) activities, with the objective of understanding the approach towards jobs specific...
This study seeks to estimate the effects of access to agent banking on opening and usage of a savings account in urban and peri-urban areas in Senegal. A randomly selected group of individuals were given...
Correspondent banking relationships connect banks and people across borders and are critical to finance and trade. They are a vital link between emerging markets and the broader global economy. Yet efforts...
Richard Van Wagenen, Dean of the Graduate School of American University, was invited by the Bank to assist in the creation of the program. He joined the staff of the Bank in November 1962, and immediately...
Do regions with higher working age populations grow faster? This paper examines this question using data from Russian regions and finds evidence that demographic trends influence regional growth convergence...
In 2010 the Government of the Philippines launched a Universal Health Care initiative, which mandated the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to provide health insurance coverage to all...
Social safety nets in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region responded to protect people's incomes during the global recession, especially in countries where systems were developed before the crisis...
Madhya Pradesh is fast emerging as a repository of skilled human resource. Investment on building up of human capital is showing upward trend. The State Government has focused attention on improving the...
While Iraq is a middle-income country it faces challenges which are more commonly found in low income countries. These include dependence on one primary commodity (crude oil); significant infrastructure...
Although many studies indicate that both the level and composition of public spending are significant for economic growth, the results in the empirical literature are still mixed. This note is based on...
The Sustainable Development Network (SDN) calls for elevating the environment into upstream processes such as policy, programmatic, and investment dialogue. In its 2002 environment strategy, the Bank committed...
This case study describes the history and business model of the Rural and Community Bank (RCB) network in Ghana, analyzes its performance, identifies key issues, and makes recommendations on the way forward...
The annual impact report 2008 brings together the results of two interrelated approaches that explore the value of using quasi-experimental methods to construct accurate counterfactuals for project intervention...
Rapid growth in project finance, driven by huge increases in liquidity, helped fuel the gains in private participation in infrastructure (PPI) in developing countries in the past decade. But when the financial...
Stimulating agricultural growth is critical to reducing poverty in Africa. Commercial agriculture, potentially a powerful driver of agricultural growth, can develop along a number of pathways. Yet many...
Recent academic research has questioned the role of economic policy as a determinant of long term growth rates. While there seems to be a correlation between several policy variables and growth rates...
This paper examines how banks can translate the potential of mobile phones into greater financial access for poor people. Although mobile phone operators have been able to use the mobile phone for mobile...
This paper examines how banks can translate the potential of mobile phones into greater financial access for poor people. Although mobile phone operators have been able to use the mobile phone for mobile...