The purpose of this poverty assessment is to shine a new light on poverty, inequality, and its drivers in Costa Rica. The report provides a descriptive overview of poverty trends in the country and examines why the poorest do not reap the benefits of economic growth. It provides high-level...

The World Bank Group (WBG) has long recognized that the restoration and preservationof cultural heritage, urban regeneration, and sustainable tourism can play a vital role in developing countries' efforts to promote local economic development, accelerate social integration, and alleviate...

Lao PDR faces a great opportunity to develop its tourism sector, in particular nature-based tourism (NBT), to create greener, more resilient economic growth and good jobs from its attractive landscapes and wildlife. Throughout the world, NBT is the fastest growing segment of tourism, and the...

Conservation and tourism contribute to greener economic growth in many countries. Although protected areas have often been viewed as land excluded from economic development for the purposes of environmental conservation, many countries have realized their powerful economic potential through...

Nepal is endowed with a wealth of natural resources including snow-capped mountains, abundant rivers, sub-tropical forests, significant biodiversity and wildlife, and pristine, diverse landscapes. A part of the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, the country is recognized for its high endemicity and...

Economic activity in Uganda is accelerating despite commodity-price inflation, global monetary tightening, international supply-chain bottlenecks, and a local Ebola outbreak. Real GDP growth is estimated to reach 5.7 percent in FY22/23, albeit still below the pre-COVID-19 projection of 6.5...

The Rwandan economy continued to achieve strong growth in 2022 in the face of weakening external demand and restrictive monetary policies required to control inflation. Rising food prices particularly affected the poor, who devote a large share of their spending to food and appear to have faced...

This handbook has been developed to provide instruction on the design and implementation of incentives for resource-efficiency purposes. The target audience is World Bank staff and stakeholders who are supporting the implementation of a resource-efficiency program in a country on behalf of the...

The aim of this publication is to provide an international framework (the "Framework") with the minimum requirements and performance expectations as to how an industrial park can become an Eco-Industrial Park (EIP). It summarizes the key areas in which the three international organizations that...