Ukraine provides an illuminating example of a health system that has responded to a health shock in a way that both builds health system resilience and advances health system reforms. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Ukraine in early 2020, a set of major health financing and provider...

This evidence review is designed to support policy makers seeking to implement a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). It synthesizes the latest global evidence of effectiveness of SSB taxes and summarizes international experiences with SSB taxation to-date. SSBs are non-alcoholic beverages...

The global COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the largest public health initiative ever undertaken, presents challenges unprecedented in scale, speed and specificities, especially in low and middle-income countries. In November 2020, anticipating the availability of safe and effective vaccines for...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Bank's corporate goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity call for specific attention to the poor and vulnerable. The overarching objective of the SDGs is to end poverty in all its forms, but their key difference from...

Following the resurgence of conflict along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border regions between September and November 2020, the governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia signed the Trilateral Cease-fire Statement that resolved some aspects of the decades-long conflict. In December 2022, as a follow-up to...

This paper has outlined an ambitious agenda for the WBG to support PPR enhancement at country, regional, and global levels as part of a broader approach to strengthen health systems. It is an agenda that not only seeks to deliver on the Bank's IDA commitments related to disease outbreaks and...

Leaving no one behind is a central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which recognizes health as a fundamental human right. Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is key to delivering on this promise. UHC ensures that everyone receives good quality health services, when...