Landlocked and mountainous, Tajikistan has a young-and mostly rural-population of about 8.7 million and GNI per capita of USD 1,100 in 2016, making it a lower middle-income country. In 2016, Tajikistan launched the National Development Strategy of the Republic of Tajikistan for the Period Up To...

Global growth is projected to be slightly faster in 2020 than the post-crisis low registered last year. While growth could be stronger if reduced trade tensions lead to a sustained reduction in uncertainty, the balance of risks to the outlook is to the downside. Growth in emerging market and...

The aim of this note is twofold: (1) summarize emerging challenges and opportunities for the water sector in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries; and (2) suggest ways to respond to these challenges where the World Bank's Water Global Practice can provide support. Following a description...

Poverty rates in Guatemala are among the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Guatemala is now the second poorest country in the region, with only post-earthquake Haiti being poorer. Guatemala is an extreme outlier in the region in terms of chronic malnutrition, and almost half of all...

The Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Poverty Diagnostic in Mozambique is part of a global initiative to improve the evidence base on the linkages between WASH, human development, and poverty. The Diagnostic provides a detailed analysis of sector status, strengths and weaknesses to...

Solomon Islands is a small, remote archipelago in the South Pacific that faces a fairly unique set of development challenges. Solomon Islands is now at a critical juncture in its development trajectory. Neither the economic geography nor the present political economy of Solomon Islands is...

The present report summarizes the evidence and findings from a series of studies and new data collection around water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and poverty. This WASH poverty diagnostic was undertaken to increase our understanding of the linkages between monetary poverty and WASH...

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a classic example of the paradox of plenty, since the country is extremely rich in natural resources while its population is extremely poor. It is the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with a total surface area of about 234 million hectares...

The rapid review confirms that Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are socially, culturally, and environmentally diverse, with some features in common, and which collectively make them unique to other regions of the world: Small island countries have uniquely fragile water resources...