This guide was prepared by the Early Learning Partnership (ELP) team at the World Bank as a resource for policy makers and development professionals interested in improving access to high-quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) services. It brings together a selection of approaches to ECD that...

A small open economy, Benin has seen growth that is above average for the region. The volatility of high growth spells combined with low productivity growth has translated into limited gains in income per capita. Following its transition from low-income country to lower middle income country...

In 2015, Lao PDR is virtually unrecognizable from what it was just a decade ago. A more open, more outward trade landscape has transformed the country from a closed-off backwater into a fast-growing developing country, complete with coffee shops, restaurants, and billboards lining the streets of...

Public-private dialogue (PPD) is highly necessary in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) to fill the gap resulting from the lack of legitimate institutions, to help create transparency and trust among stakeholders, and to identify the need for reforms and interventions that can...

The Telecommunications Sector Assessment Note in the Palestinian territories is a knowledge product prepared by the World Bank in response to a specific request from the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MTIT) to assess the performance of the...

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...

This paper presents the main findings of the 2017 survey on national development banks that the World Bank conducted in collaboration with the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions. Sixty-four development banks from different parts of the world, mainly from middle-income...

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a fragile, post-conflict country with high demographic growth and poor governance, all of which have devastated institutions, the economy and the social fabric. The DRC was devastated by war in the 1990s and early 2000s, which claimed millions of lives...

Despite sustained economic growth over the past two decades, Sub-Saharan Africa faces massive challenges and significant gaps in many development outcomes. Although poverty has been declining, a recent report estimates that over two-fifths of the African population was poor in 2012. Nearly...