Despite recent progress on vaccine developments to combat the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the global economic recovery remains surrounded by high uncertainty. During the first half of 2020, global economic output declined by an unprecedented level, resulting in a sharp fall in global trade....

The world has waited long enough for high-performing primary health care (PHC). It's time to deliver. Forty years ago, leaders embraced the promise of health for all through PHC. That vision has inspired generations. But for nearly half a century, countries have struggled to walk the talk on...

This Approach Paper considers the role of public finance to build, protect and utilize human capital as countries seek to recover from the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis and lay a foundation for inclusive, resilient and sustainable development. The paper defines the problem in relation to human...

The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved since its inception in 1962 and since the expansion of the EU to 28 member countries (EU28 - EU27, since the departure of the United Kingdom on 31 January 2020). In its latest iteration published in June 2018, the 2021-2027 CAP,...

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) reported over 30 million Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and around 960,000 deaths as of May 2021. Official tracking data shows that Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina have the highest number of reported cases throughout LAC, which in turn is the region with among...

Amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sri Lanka's economy contracted by 3.6 percent in 2020, the worst growth performance on record, as is the case in many countries fighting the pandemic. Swift measures enacted by the government in the second quarter helped contain the first wave of...

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brought global tourism and travel to a standstill. Thus, although the health impact of the pandemic has been fairly contained in Maldives, its economic consequences have been devastating. To contain the spread of the virus, the country closed its borders for...

The High-Frequency Phone Survey for refugees in Uganda (URHFPS) tracked the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis on refugees throughout three rounds. The World Bank (WB) in collaboration with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and the United Nations High Commissioner...

In recent months, there has been a steep increase in the number of daily new cases and, more disturbingly, in the number of deaths. While it took almost one year for Malaysia to record its first 100,000 cases, the increase in the number of new cases between April to May 2021 alone amounted to...

Traditional measures of poverty have focused on income or expenditure based on a minimum threshold required to purchase a basket of essential goods and services. However, important aspects of well-being might not be fully captured through monetary measures alone. Multidimensional poverty...