Morocco has steered significant resources towards large investments in economic sectors identified as strategic to growth, and for increased productivity and value addition. Despite Morocco's strikingly high investment rate, one of the highest in the world at an average of thirty-four percent of...

Reducing unemployment and inactivity are urgent priorities for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Limited job opportunities have fueled emigration, especially among the educated, skilled, and youth. Unlocking Bosnia and Herzegovina's economic potential requires rebalancing its growth model and...

Egypt has considerable potential to become a regional trade hub. A key challenge is how to leverage this potential to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth that benefits the country's population at large. In alignment with Egypt's decision to expand the Upper Egypt Local Development Program...

Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been weak since the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. Achieving higher and sustainable growth is particularly important in view of other economic challenges facing the region: public debt in...

This is a semi-annual report series on recent economic developments and economic policies in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia). The report looks at the economic performance and outlook for the Western Balkans region and specific...

Promoting early labor market success of workers has increasingly become an important economic and social development aim internationally, as exemplified by the 2030 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals related to youth employment. Many low-income countries, including Nepal, are in...

This report stems from the work initiated in the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) forUzbekistan in May 2016, which identified the quality of job creation as a central, cross-cuttingtheme. The SCD emphasized that "over the medium term, creating high-productivity, high-paying jobs for...

As many developing countries around the world, Ethiopia is faced with the challenge of generating employment for a rapidly-growing and youthful population. Ethiopia's working age population, currently estimated at 54.7 million, is projected to grow by two million per year over the coming decade...

Slavonia's economy is now amongst the poorest in the European Union (EU) and has been growing more slowly than comparable regions. Some Polish and Romanian counties were less advanced until 2013 but have now overtaken Slavonia. Achieving a turnaround is difficult: only 9 percent of lagging...

Until recently, transport planning and design were regarded as gender neutral that is, they were assumed to benefit men and women equally. There is now increasing recognition that women experience mobility differently from men. This policy note, strives to improve our understanding of the...