Policy makers across the Middle East and North Africa have for many years articulated plans to integrate their people spatially and economically. Wishing to bring communities together and narrow economic gaps, governments have made large capital investments in transport corridors and "new...

Addressing regional disparities is key to unlocking Russia's potential to achieve stronger gains in growth and equity outcomes as well as to improve its institutional environment. While spatial disparities have been an important policy concern in Russia for a long time, inequalities across its...

A competitive city is a city that successfully facilitates its firms and industries to create jobs, raise productivity, and increase the incomes of citizens over time. Worldwide, improving the competitiveness of cities is a pathway to eliminating extreme poverty and to promoting shared...

The Madagascar Urbanization Review aims to: - Contribute to the 2019 National Policy for Urban Development (Politique National de Developpement Urbain), the main policy document outlining the priorities for cities in Madagascar. - Serve as a diagnostic tool to identify the key barriers to...

Worldwide, Vocational Education and Training (VET) is receiving increasing attention, particularly as a potentially useful instrument to address high unemployment rates among youth. In 2016, the World Bank started providing technical assistance to the self government of Poland's Swietokrzyskie...

Though the European Union (EU) is a development conversion machine for national economies, it is less so for subnational regions. EU accession countries have been catching up to regional averages in terms of economic development since they joined the union. The economic success of the accession...

The report examines the current tourism development and market of the Presovsky Samospravny Kraj, Presov Self-Governing Region (PSK), focusing particularly on the lagging district of Snina and the National Park of Poloniny, and the opportunities for their improvement as potential drivers of...

Global growth slowed markedly in H1 2022. This was due to COVID-19 resurgences at the turn of the year; protracted supply disruptions; reduced macroeconomic support; and substantial negative spillovers from the war in Ukraine. The conflict, which has sparked the largest commodity price shock in...

Land use planning is one of the most important policy instruments for urban and regional development aiming to meet the needs of the populations while considering various factors such as environmental sustainability, economic development, and social well-being. The process of land use planning...

Russia's spatial disparities stem largely from its economic geography, which is unique and has no parallels even when compared to seemingly similar countries such as Australia and Canada. While Australia and Canada also have large land masses and even lower population densities than Russia, a...