Bringing essential services to the poor, whether in remote rural areas, provincial towns, or in the slums of megacities, is a great challenge for governments in developing countries. Lack of governmental capacity and fiscal resources at the national and local levels prevents effective public...

Smallholder farmers in developing countries face tough challenges to their productivity, growth, and sustainability—including lack of access to affordable financial products, limited knowledge of high-quality inputs, low usage of technology and market data, and poor market links across the...

While its poverty rate has fallen slightly over the past two decades, the DRC remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The unaddressed demand for service delivery will require local private sector solutions to meet the needs of the poor, marginalized, and other underserved populations....

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global humanitarian crisis, putting both lives and livelihoods at risk. In the initial stages of the pandemic – especially in contexts where the state machinery was caught unawares or lacked capacity, or both, social enterprises (SEs) or socially-driven...

The last Public Expenditure Review for Ecuador (PER) was produced in 1993. More than a decade later, the purpose of this report is to provide the Ecuadorian authorities with the World Bank's and Inter-American Development Bank's joint comprehensive account of their diagnoses and recommendations...

The last Public Expenditure Review for Ecuador (PER) was produced in 1993. More than a decade later, the purpose of this report is to provide the Ecuadorian authorities with the World Bank's and Inter-American Development Bank's joint comprehensive account of their diagnoses and recommendations...

With 700 million people residing in rural India over a large and diverse topography, providing access to safe drinking water is a significant challenge. The government has tried, playing a key role in financing and implementing drinking water schemes. However, about 30 percent of urban and 90...

Tuberculosis (TB) afflicts 2.8 million citizens in India, representing more than 30 percent of the world’s total burden. To control TB, complete adherence to treatment is crucial—under the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Directly Observed Therapy Short-course (DOTS) strategy. In this...

In India, women and girls, especially in rural areas, are particularly affected by illiteracy. The social enterprise educate girls works to reform the existing school framework and create community ownership of government schools to improve Indian girls’ enrollment, retention, and academic...

India suffers from a high maternal and infant mortality rate, especially in rural areas, where poor women do not receive effective care and one in every 22 infants die within one year of life. In 2010, Dimagi, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), IntraHealth International, Real...