The district of Cox's Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh, is an instructive context to understand how long-standing and newer growth opportunities and constraints manifest at the local level, remote from Bangladesh's major growth poles of Dhaka and Chittagong. Potentially exacerbating Cox's...

Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the international community has recognized the need for an approach to development that considers the interdependence of human and natural systems. Single-sector approaches to development challenges are insufficient to produce sustainable...

The Republic of Congo is the third-largest crude oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and Angola and is heavily dependent on oil production and oil exports. With a population of 5.5 million, Congo is a lower middle-income economy, endowed with abundant natural resources. The economy...

While Uganda has a long history of decentralized service delivery, and has instituted Local Economic Development (LED) as an additional mandate for local governments (LGs), there has been less progress in operationalizing the concept and practically implementing it across LGs in Uganda. In...

The Government of Indonesia has introduced many reforms to improve the quality of education but learning outcomes have continued to lag. Improving the quality of education has been especially challenging in rural and remote areas. Starting in 2016, the World Bank supported the Government of...

This report presents the findings of a rapid mapping and capacity assessment of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Guinea Bissau. The assessment aimed to understand the role of NGOs in targeted service delivery sectors and in social mobilization. The findings of the assessment...

Despite higher levels of poverty and extreme poverty in rural areas, access to basic services outside the capital is limited in Guinea-Bissau. The state's weak presence beyond Bissau has meant that donors, working in partnership with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), have become an...

The objective of this report is to provide an update to the Government of Cabo Verde, think-tanks and researchers, and the public on the state of the Cabo Verde economy and its outlook, together with the structural reforms required to strengthen the foundations for private sector-led recovery...

The Ugandan economy is recovering from a sharp contraction due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) shock that had slowed growth to its lowest pace in over three decades. Real GDP growth is estimated to reach above 3 percent during FY21, following the modest recovery of 0.7 percent in the first half of...

Concrete literally holds the modern world together. The material and its binding agent cement comprise a key ingredient in the buildings and roads essential for development and in infrastructure critical to sustainable growth. The cement industry also generates about seven percent of the world's...