The economy of the Central African Republic (CAR) decelerated in 2020 compared to 2019. Despite a relatively contained health impact, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on the country's economy, with the disruption in global value chains, low external...

Tanzania's growth and poverty reduction aspirations hinge on shifting from a reliance on agriculture toward greater productivity. Cities' key role in generating a more competitive economy is already apparent: in 2012, just four Tanzanian cities produced more than half of the country's gross...

Lesotho, a high-altitude, landlocked country of 2.1 million people encircled by South Africa, has made gains in poverty reduction over the last decade but challenges of shared prosperity remain. The country has made significant investments in developing social protection programs as part of the...

This study aims to provide guidance to the Government of Sierra Leone in how to translate investments in education into quality learning. It centers on teachers, the single most important predictor of the quality of an education system. Joyful, rigorous, and focused learning happens when...

Indonesia needs more jobs. While 2.1 million jobs have been created on average over the past three years, the 20 percent youth unemployment rate, four times higher than the adult unemployment rate, combined with the growth of the country's labor force, emphasizes the importance of greater job...

This report assesses agriculture policy support estimates in Angola. These estimates represent the monetary value assigned to different agriculture support policies and programs using the OECD methodology for the years 2018-2019. The advantages of using the OECD methodology are that: (a) it...

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has delivered an enormous shock to the global economy, exacting a large human toll, shutting down major economic sectors, and deeply upending labor markets. The objective of this analysis is to identify pragmatic steps to...

Kazakhstan's economy started to recover in the second half of 2020, although real GDP is still lower than pre-COVID-19. After suffering the worst contraction in the past two decades, Kazakhstan's real GDP rebounded in the third quarter of 2020, and growth has extended to the first quarter of...

Since 2013, the performance of Russian agriculture can fairly be described as remarkable. On average, Russian agriculture has been growing faster (3.3 percent per year) than gross domestic product (GDP) (0.9 percent per year). Increasing food exports and decreasing imports have led to a fall in...

Despite the significant potential of soil to sequester organic carbon, there are challenges to implementing carbon sequestration projects. For example, changes in soil carbon can be relatively small in magnitude per unit area and slow to be fully achieved, while its measurement and monitoring...