In recent decades, the Sri Lankan government has introduced reforms aimed at enhancing education access and quality, as well as emphasizing the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which are crucial fields for economic development and social inclusion....

Brazil's nine Amazonian states, here collectively referred to as Amazonia, include some of the world's richest ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest and parts of the Cerrado savanna and Pantanal wetlands. The region is also among Brazil's poorest socioeconomically. As a result,...

Globally, air pollution has been identified as a major risk factor for premature mortality and morbidity; it caused an estimated 6.7 million deaths in 2019. The burden of disease falls particularly heavily on low- and middle-income countries, where the exposure levels tend to be significantly...

Like many other countries, Kazakhstan's economic growth has slowed since the 2007-09 global financial crisis. Although the slowdown reflected weaknesses in expanding labor and capital, the most striking reduction has been in productivity growth. In more recent years, total factor productivity...

Achieving carbon neutral development will involve a roughly 40-year-long structural transformation, especially in developing and emerging economies, where most people exposed to poor air quality live. In the meantime, 6-7 million people die each year by breathing polluted air. But does climate...

Ghana administers multiple social protection programs. One of these, pensions provided by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust, has a long history, but others-the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Labor-Intensive Public Works program, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program, and...

Sri Lanka has confronted and is grappling with a number of exogenous shocks, including the devastating 2004 tsunami; the 2008 global recession; the COVID-19 global pandemic; and, more recently, the ongoing "triple crisis" (fuel, food, fiscal). The country is now at a crossroads. An ongoing...

In 2022, South Sudan was ranked as the world's most vulnerable country to climate change and the one most lacking in coping capacity. SouthSudan is also one of the world's most politically fragile countries. Rising from the Depths explores opportunities and trade-offs for aligning South Sudan's...

Facing a challenging transition process, Libya stands to profit from a reconstruction strategy and a vision that bring the country together. Investment decisions will have to be based on the analysis of alternative short-, medium-, and long-term interventions and the sequencing of related...

Braced for Impact: Reforming Kazakhstan's National Financial Holding for Development Effectiveness and Market Creation offers a framework for assessing the readiness of development finance institutions (DFIs) and their conglomerates to deliver credible development impact and create financial...