The current crisis of forced displacement is posing serious humanitarian and development challenges across the world. The World Bank Group and the international community at large cannot ignore these challenges, given their scale and complexity. As documented in a recent World Bank report, about...

In this working paper, an exploration of available data and information is conducted and findings presented, to support the view that the dichotomous business model and related harm reduction narrative promoted nowadays by the tobacco industry, merits scrutiny by the international community. The...

The goal of this study is to examine cigarette affordability in Russia between 2002 and 2017 in order to provide an understanding of the country's current tobacco excise tax policy, and to identify opportunities and next steps

This report uses selected scenarios for increasing excise taxes on tobacco products in Trinidad and Tobago, with the aim of reducing smoking prevalence across the population. These scenarios provide inputs for modeling the long-term health and cost benefits to the population of proposed excise...

This report draws on a comprehensive review of the literature and on input from policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to address four questions: (1) how is the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and road traffic injuries (RTIs) changing the epidemiology of Sub-Saharan...

This study investigates the affordability of cigarettes in China between 2001 and 2016. In the past two decades, China has achieved unprecedented economic growth rates. The country's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has increased at an average annual rate of 10 percent. Rapid economic...

Turkey's government increased tobacco tax revenue and lowered tobacco consumption by increasing tobacco tax rates significantly between 2003 and 2013. However, both per capita tobacco consumption and total cigarette sales in Turkey have begun to increase again in recent years. Although the...

The delivery of health services in Russia is a federal, regional and municipal responsibility. Reform of the regional health systems, which suffer from over-reliance on curative and inpatient care, deteriorating infrastructure and equipment, and poor quality of services, is a major challenge for...

Across Russia, the deep socio-economic crisis of the 1990s and early 2000s provided fertile ground for the spread of Tuberculosis (TB). Indeed, as noted, 'people who were already living very precariously saw their real incomes drop by 25 percent to 30 percent at a time when government spending...