More than a decade has passed since the global economic and financial crisis rocked the world. A clear lesson that emerged from it was the importance of identifying and addressing country-specific vulnerabilities ex ante to build resilience when a shock occurs. The 2020 global economic and...

Many of the world's poor people depend on natural resources for their well-being. Four-fifths of the world's poor people live in rural areas, and most rural poor people depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. The renewable natural resources on which poor people depend are increasingly...

Technological innovation drives economic progress. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can be leveraged for development, but harnessing this potential depends on an enabling environment for their production, diffusion, and use. Otherwise, technology can widen rather than narrow...

Technological innovation drives economic progress. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can be leveraged for development, but harnessing this potential depends on an enabling environment for their production, diffusion, and use. Otherwise, technology can widen rather than narrow...

Over the past year, the response to the global financial crisis has continued to dominate development and the work of international institutions, including the World Bank Group. Challenges of poverty and fragile states, environment, and climate change remain daunting. But the manner in which...

The World Bank Group's (WBG) safeguards and sustainability policies were put in place to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts of its projects on people and the environment. These goals remain critical given current environmental and social trends. Recent global experience in the financial and...

The World Bank Group's success rests on its ability to help its client countries achieve the development outcomes they desire. This demands a strong outcome orientation at the country-level, defined as the Bank Group's ability to generate feedback on what works, what does not, and why, use this...

This first-of-its-kind evaluation assesses the scope of the World Bank Group's convening power and how effectively it is deployed. The report finds that the Bank Group's comparative advantages give it strong convening power that it uses on many development issues. In so doing, it meets the...

The Clean Energy Transition-the pathway for decarbonizing global energy-is essential to foster inclusive and sustainable growth while addressing climate change. Based on EIA forecasts, IEG estimates that annual global financing for RE needs to double, from USD 300 billion to USD 600 billion...

The international development community acknowledges that the SDGs will not be achieved without greater participation from the private sector. Estimates for investment needs in developing countries alone range from USD 3.3 trillion to USD 4.5 trillion per year. Up to 70 percent of the investment...