This report is organized as follows. After this introduction, the second section explains the main data sources used in the study. The third section discusses the relationship between sectoral output growth and employment generation, and presents basic estimates on growth elasticities. The...

Women, business and the law focuses on this critical piece of the puzzle, objectively highlighting differentiations on the basis of gender in 141 economies around the world, covering six areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit...

Across Africa, rising mobile phone penetration, improving broadband Internet, and growing use of mobile money are creating new opportunities for governments, businesses, and individuals. While Africa's digital revolution has been impressive, the continent has further to go to close gender...

The World Bank Group has come a long way in supporting structural reforms in its member countries. The most remarkable feature of its long 35 years and continuing journey has been its ability to listen, learn and adjust over time. It learnt relatively quickly that reform ownership is a necessary...

After nearly two decades of strong economic growth, in 2005 the economy was in difficulties. The loss of trade preferences in textiles in 2005, the anticipation of prospective reform to the European Union's sugar protocol for 2006-10, and higher international oil prices had contributed to a...

This paper analyses the role of good governance in fostering pro-poor and inclusive growth. Using a sample of 112 countries over 1975-2012, it shows that growth is generally pro-poor. However, growth has not been inclusive, as illustrated by a decline in the bottom 20 percent of the income...

We revisit the relevance of the World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA)against growth performance, with attention to possible biases arising from qualitative andquantitative changes in the CPIA methodology. The CPIA, introduced in the late 1970s, had aseries of extensive...

The objective of this report is to better understand the challenges of meeting Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 from the perspective of off-grid services currently being used by a large and increasing proportion of the urban population. For this assessment, two key distinct areas with high...

Sanitation services are beneficial for communities at large. They generate strong positive health and environmental benefits to society ('externalities'). Public financing is an important way to stimulate the provision of these services, but there are serious issues with the way public subsidies...

The World Bank Group (WBG) has been active in public and private sector pollution management for the past several decades. The Bank has mainstreamed environmental health concerns into its rural and urban services through projects that improved the management of solid and hazardous waste and...