To ease transitional problems during stabilization and structural reform and to protect the well-being of the poor, the Government of the Philippines have focussed on three major 'safety net' programs. Although substantial resources have been devoted to theses programs, few studies have been...

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...

Over the past decade, material efficiency and resource productivity have surfaced on the global policy agenda. The rise of the circular economy (CE) agenda reflects the objective of moving away from the current systems of production and consumption based on the 'take-make-use-waste' linear...

In the context of weakening global demand, growth in the Western Balkans decelerated over the course of 2022 and into 2023. Against the background of the lasting effects of shocks from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, sticky inflation, and tighter financial conditions, global demand has been...

The report reviews the recent developments in the Vietnamese economy and discusses the economy's short- to medium-term prospects, highlighting domestic and external risks associated to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. A special emphasis is on what Vietnam needs to do to realize its objective...

The current downturn in commodity prices provides an opportunity for Indonesia to shift away from its dependence on commodity-driven growth towards higher value-added activities in manufacturing and services. However, Indonesia faces both global and structural challenges in making this...

Over the past quarter century, Vietnam's agricultural sector has made enormous progress. Vietnam's performance in terms of agricultural yields, output, and exports, however, has been more impressive than its gains in efficiency, farmer welfare, and product quality. Vietnamese agriculture now...

This report discusses Poland's experience along five dimensions. These five dimensions - a pentagon of policies and institutions are governing, sustaining, connecting, growing, and including. The main lessons from Poland and the key insights for its future, based on this pentagon, are presented...

Developments in the Rwandan economy as of the first half of 2017 have been mixed. On the upside, Rwanda's external imbalances have eased on account of improvements in global commodity prices, global and regional strengthening of growth recovery, and the external adjustment the government...