World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
Not a member yet
39632 research outputs found
Sort by
Greening Digital Infrastructure in Eastern Africa
Get PDFGreening digital infrastructure means both reducing its carbon footprint (climate mitigation) and enhancing its resilience to climate risks (climate adaptation). While
earlier sections focused on resilience, this chapter addresses improving energy efficiency in data centers, networks, and devices, alongside increasing renewable energy use. Although greening also involves broader issues like e-waste
management, this report concentrates on energy and emissions aspects of digital infrastructure. The analysis presented in this report highlights the urgent need to integrate climate considerations into the planning, design, and implementation of digital infrastructure projects across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, and South Sudan
Améliorer la gestion du capital produit, humain et naturel pour accroître le niveau de vie en République du Congo
Get PDFThis is the twelfth edition of the Republic of Congo Economic Update. Each edition of this annual report presents an overview of the Republic of Congo’s (ROC) evolving macroeconomic position, followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic. The first chapter of this year’s update presents recent economic developments and the medium-term outlook, as well as policy options going forward. The second chapter, the special topic, explores the development and protection of Congo’s assets in order to improve living standards.Il s’agit de la douzième édition des Cahiers économiques de la République du Congo. Chaque édition de ce rapport annuel présente une vue d’ensemble de l’évolution de la situation macroéconomique de la République du Congo, suivie d’une analyse détaillée d’un sujet spécifique. Le premier chapitre de la mise à jour de cette année présente les évolutions économiques récentes et les perspectives à moyen terme, ainsi que les options stratégiques pour l’avenir. Le deuxième chapitre, le thème spécial, explore la mise en valeur et la protection des atouts du Congo afin d’améliorer le niveau de vie
The Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP) 2025 Annual Report
Get PDFThe Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership (GWSP) is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank's Water Department, established in 2017. Its primary goal is to support countries in achieving water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 6, which aims for universal access to clean water and sanitation. GWSP operates globally through three main entry points: knowledge into implementation, just-in-time technical assistance, and long-term country engagement. It leverages global knowledge, provides on-the-ground assistance, influences World Bank financing mechanisms, and fosters global dialogue and advocacy to enhance its reach and impact. In fiscal year 2025 (FY25), GWSP influenced $12.46 billion in new lending across 13 countries, 11 of which were fragile or conflict affected. The FY25 Annual Report describes the GWSP’s support to key themes including water for prosperity, water and climate resilience, water and social inclusion, and water finance. The report also includes results stories demonstrating the added value of GWSP across the Water Strategy 2025-2030 pillars: water for people, water for planet, and water for food. Additionally, the report describes GWSP’s efforts on knowledge management and learning, data for development, and communications. GWSP's work is crucial in addressing the global water challenge and ensuring a water-secure world for all
The State of Global Services Trade Policies: Evidence from Recent Data
Get PDFThe economic environment for services trade has changed dramatically over the past 15 years, driven by rapid technological progress that has expanded the possibilities for exchanging services. How has trade policy responded to these changes? How do policy stances in a wide range of service sectors compare across economies? With its unprecedented global coverage, the Services Trade Policy Database and the associated Services Trade Restrictions Index, developed jointly by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, help address these questions. This paper makes three principal contributions. First, it offers an in-depth discussion of the current state of services trade policies and their differences across 134 economies and 34 services subsectors. Second, the paper reveals how recent (2016–22) changes in policy stances have seen progressive liberalization by lower-income economies but stabilization or even slight policy reversals in high-income economies. This dynamic differs fundamentally from the trend that unfolded after the Great Recession over 2008–16. Third, the paper shows the implications of policy changes over the past six years on services trade costs, and it showcases how the Services Trade Policy Database’s regulatory information can inform trade negotiations, regulatory analysis, and policy making. Alongside these contributions, the paper documents updates to the Services Trade Policy Database’s economy and sector coverage and explains the latest methodological improvements made to the World Bank–World Trade Organization Services Trade Restrictions Index
Psychological Barriers to Participation in the Labor Market: Evidence from Rural Ghana
Get PDFMental health conditions are strongly associated with reduced labor market participation, but the underlying channels through which such conditions impact labor supply remain unclear. This paper reports on a two-phase study decomposing this relationship by examining (i) job take-up decisions; (ii) labor supply, output, and earning conditional on job take-up; and (iii) quit rates. In Phase 1, women in rural Ghana were asked whether they would be willing to take up a cash-for-work job during the lean season when alternative work is scarce. The findings show that individuals with depression and anxiety, which are common in this population, are much more likely to decline work offers outside the home but equally likely to accept work-from-home positions. In Phase 2, jobs at home were randomly offered to those who were willing to work from home, avoiding selection effects. Neither depression nor anxiety predicted work completion, income, or quit rates. These findings suggest that poor mental health may harm labor market outcomes in traditional jobs outside the home via reduced take-up, above and beyond the established negative impacts of mental health on productivity in work outside the home. The results also suggest an alternative approach to improving labor market outcomes for those in poor mental health: work-from-home opportunities, which are not associated with lower take-up or lower productivity on the job for those in poor mental health
Paraguay Country Climate and Development Report
Get PDFThe World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) are a core diagnostic that integrates climate change and development. They help countries prioritize the most impactful actions that can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and boost adaptation and resilience, while delivering on broader development goals. CCDRs build on data and rigorous research and identify main pathways to reduce GHG emissions and climate vulnerabilities, including the costs and challenges as well as benefits and opportunities from doing so. The reports suggest concrete, priority actions to support the low-carbon, resilient transition. As public documents, CCDRs aim to inform governments, citizens, the private sector and development partners and enable engagements with the development and climate agenda. CCDRs feed into other core Bank Group diagnostics, country engagements and operations, and help attract funding and direct financing for high-impact climate action.Paraguay, an upper middle‑income country (UMIC), is blessed with abundant natural resources. This reliance on natural resources makes Paraguay vulnerable to weather‑related shocks, including those stemming from climate change. Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are regular occurrences in Paraguay. While the country is accustomed to experiencing such events, climate change is projected to increase the frequency and severity of these shocks, potentially reducing crop yields, increase transportation costs, and disrupting energy production. Climate change is also expected to result in higher temperatures in Paraguay, potentially having negative effects on health, learning, and worker productivity. Increasing resilience to climate shocks is therefore key to ensure climate change does not hamper Paraguay’s socioeconomic progress. Opportunities and challenges for decarbonizing Paraguayan economy are different from the ones faced by most countries. The Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and challenges that climate change poses to Paraguay’s development. The report examines how Paraguay can build better resilience to climate shocks. It also examines how Paraguay can benefit from decarbonization by leveraging its hydropower sector and transforming its forestry, agriculture, and transport sectors. Finally, it discusses how the government can prioritize and finance investments for climate change adaptation and mitigation and leverage more action toward these objectives from the private sector
Beyond Camps and Communities: The Economics of Refugee Relocation in Bangladesh
Get PDFRelocating refugees to remote purpose-built settlements
offers an alternative to hosting refugees in traditional
camps or local communities. Yet, its consequences remain
poorly understood. This paper evaluates the well-being and
fiscal implications of relocating Rohingya refugees from
the overcrowded camps of Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char, a
newly developed remote island settlement in Bangladesh.
Using data from the 2019 and 2023 waves of the Cox’s
Bazar Panel Survey and the Bhasan Char Panel Survey
2022 and considering the absence of systematic selection
criteria in the relocation process, the paper compares
well-being outcomes between relocated and non-relocated
households using both unadjusted means and propensity
score matching. The paper documents two main findings.
First, relocation is associated with a systematic reduction
in refugee well-being, including lower food consumption
(in both variety and nutritional value), higher illness and
depression rates, and lower wages. Second, these outcomes
occur despite significantly higher costs: per capita service
delivery in Bhasan Char is approximately three times more
expensive than in Cox’s Bazar. These results raise important
questions about the sustainability and effectiveness of
purpose-built relocation models in displacement setting
The 2024 Revised Basel Core Principles For Effective Banking Supervision: Benefits and Practical Challenges For Emerging Markets and Developing Economies
Get PDFThis paper examines the benefits and implementation challenges of the newly
revised Basel Core Principles (BCPs) for effective banking supervision. It outlines
the rationale for the 2024 reform led by the Basel Committee on Banking
Supervision (BCBS), highlights key enhancements, and provides insights to help
supervisors—particularly those in capacity-constrained jurisdictions—align with
the updated standards. While the paper primary focuses on emerging markets and
developing economies (EMDEs), the topics and issues it addresses are relevant to
supervisors in all jurisdictions. The topics can be of value to policy makers involved
in regulatory reform, as well as stakeholders engaged in technical assistance and
capacity building in banking supervision
Country-Level Pathways to 30x30 and Their Implications for Global Biodiversity Protection
Get PDFThe Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference set a target to protect 30 percent of the world’s land and sea areas by 2030. This paper evaluates the potential contribution of the 30x30 initiative to biodiversity conservation by examining its implications for species that are endemic or occupy very small habitats. Using more than 600,000 species occurrence maps derived from Global Biodiversity Information Facility data—substantially expanding representation for plants and invertebrates—the study develops high-resolution, country-specific templates that identify priority-ordered protected areas optimized for cost-effective species coverage. Each iteration expands protection to maximize gains for unprotected species until full coverage is achieved, allowing flexibility to adapt to national economic and political constraints, including the 30 percent target of 30x30. The results include priority-ordered terrestrial protected areas for 138 countries and marine protected areas for 160 countries. At the global level, full protection of currently protected species aligns with 30 percent terrestrial and marine coverage. Expanding global land protection from 14.8 to 18.0 percent and marine protection from 16.6 to 19.9 percent would achieve 100 percent species coverage in the database. However, uneven species distributions make this infeasible for all countries within the 30 percent territorial limit. Among the 242,414 critical species analyzed, 65.5 percent are currently protected. Most of the remainder could be covered within national 30 percent limits, although some countries would need to exceed them. The analysis highlights opportunity-cost disparities—particularly for low-income countries—indicating that effective implementation of 30x30 will require international compensation mechanisms. The study underscores that true success lies in species protection rather than territorial extent
The Distributional Impacts of Climatic Variability on Welfare in Thailand
Get PDFThis paper uses cross-sectional surveys of households over 2007–21 from Thailand’s Socio-Economic Expenditure Survey to conduct one of the first investigations of the impacts of climatic variability on two key statistics characterizing the distribution of welfare in Thailand: the mean and the variance (or inequality). It shows that historically higher rainfall is positively associated with the mean level of welfare, as measured by household consumption expenditures per capita, and negatively associated with poverty and a variety of measures of inequality in the country. These results validate concerns about the impacts of increased climatic variability and more frequent and intense weather extremes associated with the process of climate change. More frequent and more intense shortages of rainfall will decrease welfare and increase inequality at the national level and in both urban and rural areas. There is considerable variation in the extent to which access to social assistance and credit programs in their current configuration mitigates the negative impacts of rainfall shortages on welfare and prevents increases in inequality. Investing in irrigation infrastructure and strengthening the insurance components of social protection and credit support programs, such as the Village Funds program, through increasing the identification, targeting, and coverage of those vulnerable to poverty from exposure to such shocks, provide promising options for mitigating the impacts of climatic variability on welfare, poverty, and overall inequality in Thailand