The World Development Report (WDR) has become such a fixture that it is easy to forget the circumstances under which it was born and the Bank's motivation for producing such a report at that time. In the first chapter of this essay, the authors provide a brief background on the circumstances of...

An analyst using household survey data to construct a welfare metric is often confronted with onfronted with An analyst using household survey data to construct a welfare metric is often confronted with a number of theoretical and practical problems. What components should be included in the...

As recent discussions have made clear, the apparent lack of poverty reduction in the face of historically high rates of economic growth-both in the world as a whole and in specific countries (most notably India)-provides fuel for the argument that economic growth does little to reduce poverty....

What happened to poverty in India in the 1990s has been fiercely debated, both politically and statistically. The debate has run parallel to the wider debate about globalization and poverty in the 1990s and is also an important part of that debate. The economic reforms of the early 1990s in...

The paper advances a framework to take stock of CIT incentives across two interrelated policy objectives: stimulating investment in green sectors and processes; and/or encouraging divestment from dirty sectors. It distinguishes three categories of CIT incentives related to the green agenda: (i)...

South Sudan's extensive renewable natural resources are critically important to its predominantly rural population, which relies on largely subsistence livelihoods and has limited access to the market economy. Until recently, almost all South Sudanese lived directly off the land, while colonial...

Cabo Verde's climate exposure, partly also because of its geography, is compounded by economic vulnerabilities. The country has experienced robust economic growth since the early 1990s and achieved a substantial reduction in poverty, but growth has been volatile and has slowed in recent years....

The World Bank Group's Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) integrate climate change and development. They help countries identify and prioritize the most impactful investment and reform actions that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost adaptation and resilience, while...

Cambodia has made incremental progress in modernizing its core government systems since 2020. In particular, the country has improved its scores in the Government Technology (GovTech) Maturity Index (GTMI) from 0.45 in 2020 to 0.58 (out of 1) in 2022. Despite this improvement, there is still an...

Kenya's macroeconomic environment improved in 2024, following a tighter macroeconomic policy framework. Still, GDP growth is decelerating as Kenya faced a multiplicity of challenges during the year. Broadening economic participation through women's economic empowerment is essential for easing...