Mandalay is the second-largest city in Myanmar and a gateway to the Bay of Bengal to neighboring economic hubs. Rapid economic and demographic growth, paired with the relaxation of import restrictions for new and used two, three, and four-wheeler has resulted in rapidly declining conditions for...

Cities in the developing world are rapidly expanding, boosting countries' economies, reducing poverty, and fueling global prosperity. But as more people, assets, and economic activity become concentrated in cities, and infrastructure struggles to keep up with rapid growth, the risk posed by...

From the near twenty million metropolitan city of Karachi, in Pakistan to the 400,000 person city of Pokhara, in Nepal, mayors and decisions makers are struggling to raise financing for capital investments in their cities that could deliver improved services to their communities, with the key...

Small island developing states (SIDS) are among the most exposed, vulnerable countries in the world to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change. SIDS are already experiencing significant economic and social losses from climate change impacts. Extreme weather events such as flooding and...

Many developing countries sharing water resources of international river basins are facing serious problems in meeting their rapidly growing demandes for domestic, irrigation, industrial, power, and other uses due to riparian conflicts. This report decribes the Bank's successful interventions in...

Hydropower and irrigation projects involving reservoirs can displace thousands of people from their traditional lands and deprive them of their livelihoods. If poorly planned, they can also lead to environmental degradation. Solutions to these problems must be found--solutions that are...

This report consists of a collection of essays on extreme poverty. The first part of the report deals with what it means to live in extreme poverty, how to reach the very poor, through programs, and interventions, and how to make private, and public institutions more responsive to their...