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...

Following the Herat province (Western Afghanistan) earthquake sequence of October 7 to 15, 2023, the World Bank carried out a remote desk-based assessment of the physical damages using the Global RApid post-disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) methodology. The objective of the assessment is to...

Extremely severe cyclonic storm Mocha made landfall as a Category 4-equivalent cyclone in the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale on Sunday May 14, 2023, at 07:07 UTC (14:07 local time) around Sittwe city, the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar. Given the fragile and conflict-affected situation...

There is growing evidence that financially inclusive countries are more financially stable and exhibit better micro- and macro-economic conditions conducive to financial well-being of individual consumers. In order to produce significant economic and societal benefits, financial inclusion needs...

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...

News headlines over the last few years have been filled with global scandals involving corruption on an unprecedented scale. They touch virtuallyevery continent, from Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The scale, magnitude, and sophistication of the operations has increasingly risen to...

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...

Following the magnitude (Mw) 7.8 Turkiye-Syria Earthquake on February 6, 2023 and the Mw 6.3 earthquake on February 20, 2023, the World Bank carried out a remote, desk-based assessment of the physical damages in Syria using the Global RApid post-disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) methodology....

On February 6, 2023, two very large earthquakes of magnitude (Mw) 7.8 and 7.5 occurred nine hours apart on different fault lines in the southern region of Turkiye and northern Syria. These are referred to as the Kahramanmaras earthquakes. In Turkiye, which is the focus of this report, these...

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...