In a climate of heightened debt vulnerabilities, countries in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to fill the gap in infrastructure finance, which is paramount to achieving their sustainable development objectives. At the same time, the infrastructure financing landscape in the region has become...

This paper explores how innovation in low and middle-income countries is enhancing their local and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper also analyses how innovation could further address locally relevant development challenges by mobilising resources, improving processes and...

The world is increasingly facing a technologically changing employment landscape and such changes are directly affecting the future demand for skills. For regional economies built on labour migration, the impending changes will affect migrants and their families, their countries of origin and...

This paper explores the health financing challenges that countries face when they transition from low-income towards middle-income level and beyond. While domestic actors bear an increasing share of the national health expenditure in this process, the transition is not automatic nor necessarily...

Strategic investment funds (SIFs) are instruments of economic and financial policy, and the operations of these funds have important fiscal implications. These implications span the full cycle of the SIFs’ operations, from funding, through capital allocation, to operations and maintenance of...

Responding to the gender impacts of COVID-19 – including lost economic opportunities when taking on more domestic and care work in the health sector and at home, and increased violence – requires more tailored policies and resources that support gender equality and women’s empowerment. It...

Il existe en Afrique un réel décalage entre les aspirations des jeunes et la réalité des marchés du travail. Les aspirations professionnelles des jeunes Africains ont ainsi peu en commun avec la demande de main-d’œuvre actuelle et prévue dans la région, ce qui rend peu probable une...

The 2030 Agenda aims for a world in which every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed. Without gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved. Yet...

Transition finance offers a flexible approach for development partners to respond to the changing financial needs of developing countries undergoing transition. The transition finance ABC methodology, part of the transition finance toolkit, provides methodological guidance, metrics, data...

This policy paper sheds light on current trends in development co-operation for data and statistical systems in developing countries. It analyses trends in funding through official development assistance as well as strategic priorities and modalities for providing support. It identifies...