This publication contains the annual review for fiscal 1996 (July 1995-June 1996) and a 10-year accounting of the project portfolio in a project matrix (Appendix). The annual review portion of the publication is divided into four sections:an overview, a series of regional review, a set of...

The Bank Group's lending and non-lending support for environmental sustainability has increased and improved over the past 15 years. But the institution needs to raise the priority it accords to this area of rising concern, strengthen internal cooperation, and work more effectively with its...

Technology and data are integral to daily life. As health systems face increasing demands to deliver new, more, better, and seamless services affordable to all people, data and technology are essential. With the potential and perils of innovations like artificial intelligence the future of...

"Conservation of high-biodiversity tropical forests is sometimes justified on the basis of assumed hydrological benefits - in particular, the reduction of flooding hazards for downstream floodplain populations. However, the "far-field" link between deforestation and distant flooding has been...

The largest hydrographic basin in the world, the Amazon is the source of 20 percent of all the fresh water on the planet. The Basin covers some 600 million hectares in nine countries, over half of which are located within Brazil's national boundaries. A striking characteristic of the Amazon...