Food safety hazards are increasingly being recognized as a major public health problem worldwide, yetamong developing countries, there is limited understanding of the wider-ranging socio-economic costs ofunsafe food and the benefits of remedial or preventative measures. This limited evidence...

The World Bank Group has come a long way in supporting structural reforms in its member countries. The most remarkable feature of its long 35 years and continuing journey has been its ability to listen, learn and adjust over time. It learnt relatively quickly that reform ownership is a necessary...

To meet carbon emissions targets, more than 30 countries have committed to boosting production of renewable resources from biological materials andconvert them into products such as food, animal feedand bioenergy. In a post-fossil-fuel world, an increasingproportion of chemicals, plastics,...

Current levels of investment in agricultural value chains are insufficient to achieve key development goals including ending poverty and hunger, boosting shared prosperity through more and better jobs, and better stewarding the world's natural resources by 2030. Crowding-in private investment to...

At the start of the new millennium, malnutrition in Senegal was of great concern. Among children under five years of age almost one-third (30 percent) were stunted (low height for age), 10 percent were wasted (low weight for height), and 20 percent were underweight (weight for age), each of...

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the 2009 global recession. Most emerging market and developing economies weathered the global recession relatively well. However, following a short-lived initial rebound in activity in 2010, the global economy and, especially, emerging market and...

COVID-19 not only represents a worldwide public health emergency but has become an international economic crisis that could surpass the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Right now, containment and mitigation measures are necessary to limit the spread of the virus and save lives. However, they...

This retrospective examines how the World Bank's strategic use of climate-related trust funds has enabled it to play an outsized role in catalyzing climate action worldwide for nearly 30 years. By looking back at the history of climate and carbon finance, with a focus on the pioneering role of...

This study investigates the World Bank's use of lending and non-lending instruments to affect the policy priorities of developing countries. In a typical year, the World Bank lends more than USD 30 billion to its client countries. It also spends approximately USD 200 million on the provision of...