Plastic is indispensable to modern life, so ubiquitous that it is virtually invisible. In many ways, it is an ideal material. Invented in the mid-19th century, plastic is remarkably versatile and relatively cheap to make, and it can be used as an inexpensive substitute for wood, glass, metal,...

Romania lags behind other European Union (EU) countries in many health outcomes. The government of Romania plans to build three new regional hospitals in the North-West (NW), North-East (NE), and South-West (SW) regions. These are envisaged to be tertiary referral hospitals providing highly...

The increasing importance of the Internet, not only for tasks related to information search, storage, and sharing, but also for connecting people and business, domestic and international trade, education, entertainment and social interactions, has led governments around the world to include...

This paper examines interventions that seek to address firm-level capabilities and access to markets in an integrated fashion. Examples of such interventions include supplier development programs (linking domestic SMEs in developing countries with large buyers, such as foreign investors that are...

A key focus of most countries is to stimulate growth in their small and medium enterprises (SME) population. There are various influences on SME competitiveness. Governments, development partners, non-profit entities, and private sector associations and firms intervene to aim to increase SME...

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...

The pandemic severely disrupted economic activity in Tanzania, and the World Bank's latest firm-level data suggest that the situation had only modestly improved by the end of 2020. New data sources show that COVID-19 continues to weigh heavily on employment and income. Data for the first quarter...

This report summarizes the findings of an allocative efficiency analysis to support Cote d'Ivoire's national HIV response. The study was conducted at the request of the Government of Cote d'Ivoire by the World Bank, the University of Bern, the Burnet Institute and the University of New South...