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South Sudan Public Finance Review: A Narrow Path to Recovery: The Key Role of Restoring Public Finances
Full text linkThis Public Finance Review (PFR)—the first such assessment by the World Bank for South Sudan— aims to evaluate the state of the nation’s public finances and provide actionable recommendations to create fiscal space for public investment and service delivery while strengthening fiscal governance. The report is structured to systematically address core challenges. Chapter 2 situates recent macroeconomic
developments within South Sudan’s post-independence history, offering a diagnostic of the causes behind its repeated macroeconomic crises. Chapter 3 explores the oil sector in South Sudan and the role of oil and non-oil revenues in its macro-fiscal dynamics. Chapter 4 analyzes budget execution and the effectiveness of
public spending. Each chapter provides a set of short- and medium-term policy priorities. Conducting this analysis in a fragile context presented significant challenges, including lack of data, which heavily constrained the preparation of the PFR
Public Workforce Performance and Prosperity
Full text linkThis report examines how to enhance the effectiveness of the world’s 400 million public sector workers in carrying out essential government functions. Strong development outcomes such as better jobs, improved education and health services, climate action, peace and security, fiscal sustainability, and renewed public trust depend on a capable state, which in turn relies heavily on the skills and motivation of frontline service providers and administrative staff. The report uses a conceptual framework in which workforce performance is shaped by both inputs, particularly the wage bill representing the size, quality, and compensation of public employees, and organizational practices that transform these inputs into outputs. These practices include performance management, training, collaboration, community engagement, and integrity and transparency, all of which influence worker productivity and motivation. Digital technologies, already proven to boost productivity in the private sector, have similarly transformed the public sector, and the report focuses on how these technologies interact with workforce management and how worker and managerial skills affect their adoption. While centered on the public sector workforce, the report does not cover other important determinants of state capacity such as regulations and broader organizational structures
Small Emerging Markets: A New Asset Class
No full textThis paper examines whether small low- and middle-income countries offer excess returns and diversification benefits to global investors. Using monthly equity price data from 2015–25, the study pools listed stocks from low- and middle-income countries whose populations fall below a given threshold and construct value-weighted portfolios, sorted by population and land area. It then estimates a two-factor asset-pricing model to evaluate their risk-adjusted performance relative to developed- and emerging-market benchmarks. Portfolios restricted to countries with fewer than 20 million people—or less than 100,000 square kilometers—earn positive and economically meaningful alphas alongside low covariances with global-market returns. Risk-adjusted performance, measured by an adjusted Treynor ratio, peaks in the 15 million to 20 million population range. Once larger low- and middle-income countries enter the portfolio, integration with global markets rises sharply, alphas converge to zero, and diversification benefits vanish. No analogous pattern appears among high-income countries, where even very small markets are fully integrated. These results point to a “small emerging market asset class”: small developing economies remain partially segmented, combining exposure to undiversifiable country-specific risks stemming from structural vulnerability (for example, heightened climate and environmental risk) with limited financial integration, for which investors appear to be compensated. Small low- and middle-income countries thus form a distinct frontier for international portfolio diversification
Global Economic Prospects, January 2026
Full text linkThe global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support
Where Are Pakistan’s Out-of-School Children? Mapping Accessibility of Schooling Using Satellite Data and Machine Learning Methods with an Application to the 2022 Floods
No full textAccording to administrative data, as many as 25 million children between the ages of 5 and 16 are out-of-school in Pakistan. However, little is known about where these children are in relation to available public and private schooling options. This paper brings together novel data from satellite imagery, the population census, government school censuses of public schools, and publicly available location data on private schools to understand the out-of-school phenomenon at the community level. The paper uses satellite imagery analysis and machine learning methods to present estimates of the accessibility of schools and to describe the whitespace between schools. The paper relies on administrative data from more than 137,000 public schools and documents the existence of more than 72,700 private schools using publicly available location data. The approach suggests that 21.7 million children (49 percent of the total) are enrolled in private schools, higher than previously reported official estimates. The paper also presents detailed data on how the out-of-school population, accessibility, and whitespace are distributed geo-spatially across Pakistan. As an application of the strength of using satellite imagery, it analyzes the effect of a major flood event in 2022 on accessibility, whitespace, and catchment areas. Doing so suggests that the 2022 floods affected the schooling of approximately 3.5 million children in Pakistan. Lastly, an in-person ground-truthing survey conducted about 18 months after the floods is used to corroborate the findings. Together, the data sets and methods presented in this paper have applications for both day-to-day monitoring of school infrastructure as well as pre- and post-disaster planning efforts in Pakistan and elsewhere
Electrifying Africa’s Economic Transformation: What Reforms Should Governments Pursue?
No full textThis paper examines the challenges that African governments are grappling with as part of a renewed international effort to expand electricity access. It shows how the crux of the challenge is twofold: one, to enable poor people to make productive use of electricity to raise their incomes and grow out of poverty; and two, to build the legitimacy of tariffs and taxes as incomes rise, to finance electricity infrastructure sustainably. Africa needs to transition from a situation where incomes are too low to cover the costs of accessing electricity to one where electricity is universally and reliably available to fuel modern economic activities. This means that Africa needs to borrow from future growth in incomes to cover the costs of investing in electricity today. Concomitantly, investments in electricity today need to raise incomes and the willingness to pay tariffs and taxes in the future as incomes rise. The paper offers ideas for a mix of reforms that may strategically complement one another to accomplish this transition. Evaluating these ideas, through a “learning by doing” approach, would help address the fundamental fiscal and institutional challenges to electrifying Africa
Solutions for Better Agri-Risk Management in the European Union
No full textGlobally, the agri-food system is facing an increasingly complex and volatile risk landscape. Traditional risks, related to production, markets, finances, and others, are now compounded by climate change, geopolitical instability, pandemics, and digital vulnerabilities. These evolving threats are intensifying existing challenges, such as droughts and floods, and are undermining farmers’ ability to invest, innovate, and sustain productivity. There is increased global attention to these evolving risks and recognition of the importance of responding through proactive, integrated risk management strategies that combine public and private instruments, such as climate-smart investments to de-risk farms, insurance to transfer risks, and disaster relief to alleviate the impacts of adverse events. Despite a global trend of increased public spending on agricultural risk management, significant protection gaps remain. In Europe, climate-related risks are particularly acute and driven by drought, while new risks are rising. Drought alone accounts for over 50 percent of climate-related agricultural losses and remains significantly underinsured across much of the European Union (EU), see fi-compass (2025). Market and biosecurity risks are growing and leading to billions in losses to the European farmers. Some of these risks are exacerbated by climate change, but others represent new shocks, particularly considering regional geopolitical developments. All call for increased resilience, which must rely on an effective combination of risk mitigation (through preventive actions, such as climate-smart investments, diversified and systemic transformation of supply chains, early warning systems, etc.), risk pooling and transfer (better insurance/mutualization products with more inclusive coverage, innovative tools at country and regional level, etc.), and risk coping (swifter and more targeted ex-post response). To better understand the uptake of CAP-funded ARM instruments, the study uses cluster analysis to group and select deep-dive EU Member States based on five key variables: water stress, utilized agricultural area, agriculture’s share in GDP, farm structure, and yield volatility. Based on this, five distinct country segments were identified, each with unique risk exposure and structural characteristics. These clusters help streamline policy analysis and inform targeted recommendations. For deeper insight, five countries, Bulgaria, France, Latvia, Italy, and Slovakia, were selected for qualitative and quantitative deep dives, reflecting a range of experiences with CAP-funded risk management tools and diversity of agricultural structures across the EU
Addressing Public Governance Challenges in Digital Health: Insights from Country Experiences
No full textThe report defines digital health governance and explains how governments can develop its different dimensions to strengthen digital transformation in the health sector. It provides an overview of what public governance means in the context of digital health, along with the important enablers and values associated with good governance. It further lays out how different governance dimensions can be developed across phases, with examples from JLN countries. Boxes are used throughout the report to present these country examples. The report structure is as follows: section 1 focuses on explaining digital health governance by looking at definitions of governance, public governance, and what good governance looks like. This section explains key concepts in digital health and why digital health governance is important. It also summarizes the values and enablers of digital health governance. Section 2 unpacks several key dimensions of digital health governance, including regulatory instruments, institutional leadership, governance of human and financial resources, and coordination. Based on JLN country case studies, several examples of good practice in developing these governance dimensions are presented to help readers contextualize what they mean in practice. To provide practical guidance, Section 3 describes how dimensions of digital health governance can be implemented across a three-phase cycle: strategic and operational planning, implementation, and evaluation. It further outlines specific activities under each phase and describes the complexities that can arise across the cycle. Based on experiences shared by JLN countries, section 4 describes in detail how the key dimensions of digital health governance can change over time. This section goes on to outline implementation challenges over time, as shared by JLN countries, and lessons from governance practices in other sectors. The report closes with a high-level conclusion summarizing the key takeaways. Separate country examples provide detailed information on digital health governance over time in various JLN member countries.
Building Resilience into the Grid: Resilience Metrics and Standards for Transmission Systems
No full textPower transmission systems are emerging as one of the most vulnerable parts of the power sector as climate change intensifies the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme weather events and multiplies system-wide risks. Following the first in a three-part series on the global stocktaking of resilience metrics and standards applicable to the power sector - Measuring the Climate Resilience of the Power Sector: Harmonization, Not Homogenization (Live Wire 146) - this Live Wire articulates metrics and standards that can be used to assess, quantify, and strengthen the resilience of transmission systems. The backbone of critical power infrastructure, transmission systems span long distances and traverse multiple hazard zones, making them especially vulnerable to climate-related failures that cause widespread social and economic disruption
A Decade of Progress: Inside Saudi Arabia’s Labor Market Transformation
Full text linkThis report offers fresh insights into Saudi Arabia’s labor market transformation over the past decade, highlighting some of the accomplishments in reshaping employment outcomes achieved after implementation of Vision 2030 and the National Labor Market Strategy. Leveraging a rich dataset comparing 2025 with a 2015 pre–Vision 2030 baseline, it offers details about
some of the main policy reforms that the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has led and how these reforms have helped modernize labor market institutions and policies, enhance inclusion, and enable the
private sector to become the emerging force driving new job creation. The analysis documents the significant observable shifts toward greater inclusion; private sector employment in micro, small, and medium-sized firms; and general workforce upskilling and distills lessons for inclusive growth and economic diversification that offer practical guidance for policy makers in the region and beyond