South Africa’s approach to identification offers valuable lessons for countries looking to increase the coverage, robustness, and use of their ID systems. Since the end of apartheid, South Africa’s national identification system has been transformed from a tool of oppression to one for...

Ghana’s real gross domestic product (GDP) expanded in 2018, albeit at a slower rate than in 2017; the expansion was spurred by the mineral component of the industry sector. The government sustained its fiscal consolidation efforts in 2018 despite challenges. The current account deficit narrowed...

Urbanization in Myanmar is still in an early phase with slightly less than one-third of the population living in cities. This presents an enormous opportunity for the country. Cities are engines of growth and prosperity, which facilitate industries to grow jobs, services and innovations. Cities...

Benefiting from successful economic transformation after independence and the start of EU accession negotiations, economic activity in Montenegro has been solid, supporting the rise in incomes their convergence with the ones in the European Union. Inflation has been modest and kept in check....

In the wake of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (Ebola) crisis, the international development community, including the World Bank Group (WBG), have taken various institutional and operational steps to improve the advice, investments, and financing instruments to support both the efficiency and...

African cities are growing faster than cities on any other continent. With populations growing at such an enormous rate, it is often difficult for infrastructure to keep pace with urban growth. Rising automobile traffic on the continent has posed a great challenge. Increasingly, African cities...

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Nepal is estimated at 7.1 percent in FY2019, driven mainly by the service and agriculture sectors. The service sector is likely to grow by 7.5 percent due to a boost in the retail, hotel, and restaurant subsectors, driven by an uptick in tourist arrivals...

Access to finance is an essential component of economic development and job creation. A host of studies have shown a positive correlation between financial development and economic growth. Access to finance is also critical for larger corporations and conglomerates, which, given their size,...

The analysis presented in this Public Expenditure Review (PER) is designed to support the efforts of the government of Gabon (GOG) to enhance public expenditure efficiency and improve the quality of public goods and services. The report reviews public expenditure data over an 8-year period,...