Avian and human flu raises the specter of a global pandemic that can kill hundreds of millions, make billions ill, and cost trillions of dollars. Uncoordinated actions in response to a future outbreak...
Cartagena is a coastal city in Colombia, and tourism is a main pillar of the economy. In 2000, pollution from domestic wastewater was contaminating tourist beaches, degrading the environment, and producing...
DCM Shriram Consolidated Limited (DSCL), an International Finance Corporation (IFC) investment client, is one of the major sugar producers in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, providing the 150,000 sugar...
Recurring floods in the north of Ghana called for an improved flood forecasting system to better manage the situation, and find long-term solutions for mitigation. However, in working towards this there...
The development challenge was low productivity, and therefore low income, among coffee farmers. A significant demand existed for services to improve productivity, such as market information, financing...
Worldwide, 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, and three quarters of these people live in rural areas. Seeking to respond to this development challenge, in 2007, the World Bank initiated...
Road crash fatalities are an epidemic in the developing world, the number one killer of the young, with huge economic and social costs. These fatalities can only be stabilized and then reduced if all actors...
In Yemen, a high proportion of the population lives in poverty, with low access to health, education, water, and other basic services. This falls particularly heavily upon vulnerable populations, such...
Partners in the Government of Indonesia face challenges in producing rigorous evidence and applying it to develop policy and program responses to reduce poverty and vulnerability, tackle inequality, and...
The main development challenge was a lack of participatory mechanisms to identify peoples’ needs for programs to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. The Moroccan government’s approach to dealing with...
Morocco is the largest energy importer in the MENA region, but it is also seeking to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels, as well as its carbon footprint. In 2010, Morocco adopted a ‘National...
The central challenge was a lack of information about Latvia’s poor and unemployed, which was needed to develop anti-poverty programs and effectively target beneficiaries. While Latvia has among the highest...
Mismatches in the labor market negatively impacted employment opportunities, and policymakers in Kuwait were unable to make evidence-based decisions to correct these distortions. Information crucial for...
Drop-out rates due to economic reasons in upper primary and secondary schools have been very high in Cambodia. This program focused on the design, scaling-up, and mainstreaming of scholarship programs...
The government of Indonesia needed to cost-effectively deliver basic services and assistance to the rural poor across its vast territory. The government, with World Bank funding and technical assistance...
The development challenge was to ensure better service provision in health and agriculture by effectively collecting feedback from World Bank project beneficiaries in Nigeria. The project had to avoid...
In Uganda, poor, rural women often lack professional medical attendance during childbirth, leading to elevated risk of maternal mortality. The project created a system to ensure that private partners effectively...
While Bangladesh’s textile industry is an important driver of the national economy, it is also a heavy consumer of water, and a major polluter of water bodies around it. Suboptimal use of chemicals and...
The state of Bihar has some of the worst social and economic indicators in India, with significant challenges of social exclusion, lack of access to finance, landlessness, low food security, and indebtedness...
In Tanzania, despite compulsory education for children from 5-12 years, those from poor households often either drop out of school or are not enrolled in school because their parents cannot afford to pay...