Indonesia has been successful in navigating the macroeconomic fallout from asynchronous global shocks. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth remains strong though the economy is yet to fully recover to its pre-pandemic trajectory. This is consistent with labor market trends, which show a recovery...

Investments in early years of education and childhood development are among the most cost-effective and beneficial a country can make to tackle learning poverty, promote healthy child development, and enhance shared prosperity. Over the past two decades, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) has...

The Indonesia Economic Prospects (IEP) is a bi-annual World Bank report that assesses recent macroeconomic developments, outlook and risks, as well as specific development challenges for the Indonesian economy. In doing so, the IEP aims to inform the public policy debate and is geared towards a...

Vision 2045 aims to significantly transform Indonesia with the target of becoming one of the world's top five economies by the time it reaches its centenary in 2045. But is this achievable without considering Indonesia's Water Security? This study reflects on this question in detail, highlights...

In 2015, a global study estimating inputs of plastic waste into the oceans ranked Indonesia as the second largest contributor to plastic marine pollution. In 2017, another study ranked four Indonesian rivers in the world's most polluting top 20. The challenge of plastic waste and marine debris...

The Republic of Indonesia, herein Indonesia, is the world's largest archipelagic state, consisting of more than 17,500 islands with over 81,000 kilometres (km) of coastline, a population of 270.6 million as of 2019 and the largest economy in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is highly vulnerable to...

Similar to many other countries around the world, the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has hit Indonesia hard. Latest estimates suggest that about 5.1 million people-equivalent to 2.4 percent of the working-age population-have lost their jobs, while an additional 24 million have had to work...

COVID-19 (coronavirus) has taken a heavy economic and human toll globally and in Indonesia. According to official statistics, over 3.8 million people have died from COVID as of May 2021. The global economy experienced one of the most severe recessions, shrinking by 3.5 percent in 2020 compared...

Indonesia has experienced two major forest and land fire events in the past five years. According to government data, the 2015 and 2019 fire episodes led to the burning of around 2.6 million hectares and 1.6 million hectares,1 respectively. The fires and the resulting haze in 2019 led to...

There are close to four hundred water utilities in Indonesia with varied performance and capacity but only around half are considered well performing. Inefficient operations has been identified as one of the key issues hampering performance and reducing utilities' capacity to provide reliable...