As a region, the Mashreq has seen more than its share of deaths, economic losses, and instability for the last decade. The region has braved massive economic and social shocks that would challenge even the most advanced economies in the world. The conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has...

Sudan, like the rest of the world, has been experiencing the unprecedented social and economic impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Sudanese authorities attempted to act quickly in the face of the spreading virus. In March 2020 the government established a high-level emergency...

This poverty and equity report provides updated poverty and inequality statistics from the Grenada Survey of Living Conditions and Household Budget Survey (SLCHBS) conducted between 2018 and 2019 by the Central Statistical Office of Grenada. The SLCHBS 2018-2019 is the third in a series of...

A joint analysis of poverty and living standards was conducted by a technical team from the Ministry of Planning and Finance, Government of Myanmar, and the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank. Poverty has previously been estimated using data from the Integrated Household Living...

The Enterprise Surveys (ES) focus on many aspects of the business environment. These factors can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an important role in whether an economy's private sector will thrive or not. An accommodating business environment is one that encourages firms to...

This note uses data from the Bhutan living standards survey (BLSS) for 2007, 2012, and 2017 to examine trends in poverty reduction and shared prosperity and to assess the drivers of poverty reduction in the last decade. The note documents the remarkable progress that Bhutan has made in reducing...

The 2020 Africa Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) report covers the period from January to December 2019. The addition of Somalia brought the number of the region's International Development Association (IDA)-eligible countries to 39. The overall CPIA score for the region's 39...

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic created an urgent need for timely information to help monitor and mitigate the social and economic impacts of the crisis. This information is essential to inform policy measures for protecting the welfare of Zimbabweans. Responding to this need, the Zimbabwe...

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic created an urgent need for timely information to help monitor and mitigate the social and economic impacts of the crisis. This information is essential to inform policy measures for protecting the welfare of Zimbabweans. Responding to this need, the Zimbabwe...