This paper presents a review of studies that estimate the cost of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Although the Sustainable Development Goals provide useful benchmarks for fiscal authorities and donors, typical cross-country costing exercises can be misleading, for a variety of...

The Global Monitoring Report 2015/2016: Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change details the progress toward the global development goals and examines the impact of demographic change on achieving these goals. Part I examines global development progress, the unfinished development...

The operations policy on Development Policy Lending (DPL), approved by the Board in August 2004, requires that the Bank systematically analyze whether specific country policies supported by an operation are likely to have "significant effects" on the country's environment, forests, and other...

Water-related diseases are a major health burden for populations, especially the poor. Meeting global aspirations for poverty reduction will require addressing the global water and sanitation challenge. This discussion paper provides an overview of the poverty-related impacts of inadequate water...

Global Development Finance: External Debt of Developing Countries (GDF)-the World Bank’s annual report on debt financing of developing countries-includes comprehensive data for 128 countries that report under the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System, as well as summary data for regions and...

Global Development Finance 2011: External Debt of Developing Countries is a continuation of the World Bank's publications Global Development Finance, Volume II (1997 through 2009) and the earlier World Debt Tables (1973 through 1996). As in previous years, GDF 2011 provides statistical tables...