Today's unprecedented growth of data and their ubiquity in our lives are signs that the data revolution is transforming the world. And yet much of the value of data remains untapped. Data collected for one purpose have the potential to generate economic and social value in applications far beyond those originally anticipated. But many barriers stand in the way, ranging from misaligned incentives and incompatible data systems to a fundamental lack of trust. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives explores the tremendous potential of the changing data landscape to improve the lives of poor people, while also acknowledging its potential to open back doors that can harm individuals, businesses, and societies. To address this tension between the helpful and harmful potential of data, this Report calls for a new social contract that enables the use and reuse of data to create economic and social value, ensures equitable access to that value, and fosters trust that data will not be misused in harmful ways. This Report begins by assessing how better use and reuse of data can enhance the design of public policies, programs, and service delivery, as well as improve market efficiency and job creation through private sector growth. Because better data governance is key to realizing this value, the Report then looks at how infrastructure policy, data regulation, economic policies, and institutional capabilities enable the sharing of data for their economic and social benefits, while safeguarding against harmful outcomes. The Report concludes by pulling together the pieces and offering an aspirational vision of an integrated national data system that would deliver on the promise of producing high-quality data and making them accessible in a way that promotes their safe use and reuse. By examining these opportunities and challenges, the Report shows how data can benefit the lives of all people, but particularly poor people in low- and middle-income countries

How can we manage cross-border mobility in a manner that is beneficial to all? The World Development Report 2023 shifts from a narrow focus on labor markets for migrants and legal protection for refugees to a more holistic perspective -- one that recognizes the humanity of migrants and the complexity of the societies of origin and destination.

A new look and new ways to access the world's premier source of development data. Looking for accurate, up-to-date data on development issues? World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. Compiled from officially-recognized international sources, WDI presents the most current and accurate global development data available, including national, regional and global estimates. This year's print edition and e-book have been redesigned to allow users the convenience of easily linking to the latest data on-line. What you will find in the print edition: A selection of the most popular indicators across 214 economies and 14 country groups organized into six WDI themes Thematic and regional highlights, providing an overview of global development trends An in-depth review of the progress made toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals A user guide describing resources available on-line and on mobile apps What you can do on-line: Download individual tables and other key information Access and download time series data using the data retrieval system Access indicators in five different languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, English, and Spanish) Directly obtain the the most up-to-date data available. The WDI Little Data Book 2013 is a companion to the WDI, and is a handy country-by-country view of key development indicators for more than 200 countries. Each page provides a country data profile of of its people, environment, economy, states and markets, and global links. ACCESS WDI TIME SERIES DATA FREE ONLINE = data.worldbank.org (the full data retrieval system organized by indicator, country and topic); and data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators (for all on-line WDI resources). DOWNLOAD THE WDI DATAFINDER MOBILE APP AND OTHERS = data.worldbank.org/apps. WDI DataFinder is a mobile app for browsing the current WDI database on smartphones and tablets, using iOS, Android, and Blackberry, available in four languages: English, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Use the app to browse data using the structure of the WDI; visually compare countries and indicators; create, edit and save customized tables, charts and maps; and share what you create on Twitter, Facebook, and via email.

The World Development Report 2022 is a practical guide to help low-and-middle-income countries strengthen financial markets for a more equitable recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis. The report examines the central role of finance in the economic recovery from COVID-19. Based on an in-depth look at the consequences of the crisis most likely to affect low- and middle-income economies, it advocates a set of policies and measures to mitigate the interconnected economic risks stemming from the pandemic-risks that may become more acute as stimulus measures are withdrawn at both the domestic and global levels.

The past 25 years have witnessed unprecedented changes around the world many of them for the better. Across the continents, many countries have embarked on a path of international integration, economic reform, technological modernization, and democratic participation. As a result, economies that had been stagnant for decades are growing, people whose families had suffered deprivation for generations are escaping poverty, and hundreds of millions are enjoying the benefits of improved living standards and scientific and cultural sharing across nations. As the world changes, a host of opportunities arise constantly. With them, however, appear old and new risks, from the possibility of job loss and disease to the potential for social unrest and environmental damage. If ignored, these risks can turn into crises that reverse hard-won gains and endanger the social and economic reforms that produced these gains. The World Development Report 2014 (WDR 2014), Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development, contends that the solution is not to reject change in order to avoid risk but to prepare for the opportunities and risks that change entails. Managing risks responsibly and effectively has the potential to bring about security and a means of progress for people in developing countries and beyond. Although individuals own efforts, initiative, and responsibility are essential for managing risk, their success will be limited without a supportive social environment especially when risks are large or systemic in nature. The WDR 2014 argues that people can successfully confront risks that are beyond their means by sharing their risk management with others. This can be done through naturally occurring social and economic systems that enable people to overcome the obstacles that individuals and groups face, including lack of resources and information, cognitive and behavioral failures, missing markets and public goods, and social externalities and exclusion. These systems from the household and the community to the state and the international community have the potential to support people s risk management in different yet complementary ways. The Report focuses on some of the most pressing questions policy makers are asking. What role should the state take in helping people manage risks? When should this role consist of direct interventions, and when should it consist of providing an enabling environment? How can governments improve their own risk management, and what happens when they fail or lack capacity, as in many fragile and conflict-affected states? Through what mechanisms can risk management be mainstreamed into the development agenda? And how can collective action failures to manage systemic risks be addressed, especially those with irreversible consequences? The WDR 2014 provides policy makers with insights and recommendations to address these difficult questions. It should serve to guide the dialogue, operations, and contributions from key development actors from civil society and national governments to the donor community and international development organizations."

Today's unprecedented growth of data and their ubiquity in our lives are signs that the data revolution is transforming the world. And yet much of the value of data remains untapped. Data collected for one purpose have the potential to generate economic and social value in applications far beyond those originally anticipated. But many barriers stand in the way, ranging from misaligned incentives and incompatible data systems to a fundamental lack of trust. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives explores the tremendous potential of the changing data landscape to improve the lives of poor people, while also acknowledging its potential to open back doors that can harm individuals, businesses, and societies. To address this tension between the helpful and harmful potential of data, this Report calls for a new social contract that enables the use and reuse of data to create economic and social value, ensures equitable access to that value, and fosters trust that data will not be misused in harmful ways. This Report begins by assessing how better use and reuse of data can enhance the design of public policies, programs, and service delivery, as well as improve market efficiency and job creation through private sector growth. Because better data governance is key to realizing this value, the Report then looks at how infrastructure policy, data regulation, economic policies, and institutional capabilities enable the sharing of data for their economic and social benefits, while safeguarding against harmful outcomes. The Report concludes by pulling together the pieces and offering an aspirational vision of an integrated national data system that would deliver on the promise of producing high-quality data and making them accessible in a way that promotes their safe use and reuse. By examining these opportunities and challenges, the Report shows how data can benefit the lives of all people, but particularly poor people in low- and middle-income countries

International Debt Statistics (IDS) is a longstanding annual publication of the World Bank featuring external debt statisticsand analysis for the 123 low- and middle-income countries that report to the World Bank Debt Reporting System (DRS). Thecontent coverage of IDS 2021 includes:.1) a user guide describing the IDS tables and content, definitions and rationale forcountry and income groupings, data notes, and description of the additional resources and comprehensive datasetsavailable to users online, 2) a brief overview analyzing global trends in debt stocks and debt flows to low- and middleincomecountries within the framework of aggregate capital flows (debt and equity), 3) tables and charts detailing debtor and creditorcomposition of debt stock and flows, terms volume and terms of new commitments, maturity structure of future debtservice payments and debt burdens, measured in relation to GNI and export earnings for each country, and 4) one-pagesummaries per country, plus global, regional and income-group aggregates showing debt stocks and flows, relevant debtindicators and metadata.

In preparation for its 2019-2022 Country Partnership Framework with South Africa, the World Bank Group has drafted a Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) which forms the basis of this book. Its aim is to strengthen understanding of the constraints in achieving two goals in South Africa: to eliminate poverty by 2030, and to boost shared prosperity. These goals are enshrined in South Africa’s Vision 2030 in the National Development Plan.

This book is the result of consultations and conversations with key government departments, the National Planning Commission, the private sector, academics and trade unions. It identifies five broad policy priorities: to build South Africa’s skills base; to reduce the highly skewed distribution of land and productive assets; to increase competitiveness and the country’s participation in global and regional value chains; to overcome apartheid spatial patterns; and to increase the country’s strategic adaptation to climate change. The key obstacle to growth that has been identified is ‘the legacy of exclusion’.

Undoing this is a long-term process, but renewed commitment by the political leadership to strengthen institutions and rebuild the social contract present an enormous opportunity in achieving progress towards South Africa’s Vision 2030.

World Development Indicators 2014 provides a compilation of relevant, high-quality, and internationally comparable statistics about global development and the fight against poverty. It is intended to help users of all kinds-policymakers, students, analysts, professors, program managers, and citizens-find and use data related to all aspects of development, including those that help monitor and understand progress toward the two goals. Six themes are used to organize indicators-world view, people, environment, economy, states and markets, and global links. As in past editions, World view reviews global progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and provides key indicators related to poverty. A complementary online data analysis tool is available this year to allow readers to further investigate global, regional, and country progress on the MDGs: http://data.worldbank.org/mdgs. Each of the remaining sections includes an introduction; six stories highlighting specific global, regional or country trends; and a table of the most relevant and popular indicators for that theme, together with a discussion of indicator compilation methodology.

How can we manage cross-border mobility in a manner that is beneficial to all? The World Development Report 2023 shifts from a narrow focus on labor markets for migrants and legal protection for refugees to a more holistic perspective -- one that recognizes the humanity of migrants and the complexity of the societies of origin and destination.

Productivity growth is the foundation of lasting income growth and poverty reduction: Poverty declined in EMDEs with the fastest pace of productivity growth 1981-2015, and rose in EMDEs with the lowest pace. A broad-based slowdown in productivity growth has been underway. Productivity levels in EMDEs remain less than 20 percent of the advanced-economy average, and just 2 percent in LICs. Factors contributing to the productivity deceleration include smaller gains from sectoral reallocation, a slowdown in improvements in many drivers of productivity growth, and an increase in the frequency of adverse shocks.

The global economy has experienced four waves of rapid debt accumulation over the past fifty years. The first three debt waves ended with financial crises in many emerging and developing economies.

Cities across the globe are looking to develop affordable, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible transportation solutions that can meet the accessibility needs of expanding metropolitan populations and support future economic and urban development. When appropriately planned and implemented as part of a larger public transportation network, urban rail systems can provide rapid and vital access to city centers from surrounding districts. High-performing urban rail services can help enhance quality of life by giving citizens access to employment opportunities, essential services, urban amenities, and neighboring communities. The Urban Rail Development Handbook synthesizes and presents knowledge to inform the planning, implementation, and operations of urban rail projects with a view towards: Emphasizing the need for early studies and project planning Making projects more sustainable (economically, socially, and environmentally) Improving socioeconomic returns and access to opportunities for users Maximizing the value of private participation, where appropriate Building capacity within project-implementing and -managing institutions. The Handbook provides experiential advice to tackle the technical, institutional, and financial challenges faced by decision makers considering urban rail projects. It synthesizes international "good practices" and recommendations that are independent of commercial, financial, political, or other interests. Rather than identify a single approach, the Handbook acknowledges the complexities and context necessary when approaching an urban rail development by helping to prepare decision makers to ask the right questions, consider the key issues, perform the necessary studies, apply adequate tools, and learn from international good practice all at the right time in the project development process.

The World Development Report 2022 is a practical guide to help low-and-middle-income countries strengthen financial markets for a more equitable recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis. The report examines the central role of finance in the economic recovery from COVID-19. Based on an in-depth look at the consequences of the crisis most likely to affect low- and middle-income economies, it advocates a set of policies and measures to mitigate the interconnected economic risks stemming from the pandemic-risks that may become more acute as stimulus measures are withdrawn at both the domestic and global levels.

It is over a decade since 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 developing economies, have suffered a decade of weak growth despite unprecedented monetary policy accommodation and several rounds of fiscal stimulus in major economies. A Decade After the Global Recession provides the first comprehensive stock-taking of the decade since the global recession for emerging market and developing economies. It reviews the experience of emerging market and developing economies during and after the recession. Many of these economies have now become more vulnerable to economic shocks. The study discusses lessons from the global recession and policy options for these economies to strengthen growth and be prepared should another global downturn occur

Dam Safety Assurance: Global Comparative Assessment of Legal and Institutional Frameworks

With more than 1.5 billion people living in countries affected by conflict, the World Development Report 2011 (WDR) looks into the changing nature of violence in the 21st century. Interstate and civil wars characterized violent conflict in the last century; more pronounced today is violence linked to local disputes, political repression, and organized crime. The report underlines the negative impact of persistent conflict on a country's or a region's development prospects, and notes that no low income, conflict-affected state has yet achieved a single Millennium Development Goal. The risk of major violence is greatest when high levels of stress combine with weak and illegitimate national institutions. Societies are vulnerable when their institutions are unable to protect citizens from abuse, or to provide equitable access to justice and to economic opportunity. These vulnerabilities are exacerbated in countries with high youth unemployment, growing income inequality, and perceptible injustice. Externally driven events such as infiltration by foreign combatants, the presence of trafficking networks, or economic shocks add to the stresses that can provoke violence. The WDR 2011 draws on the experiences of countries that have successfully managed to transition away from repetitive violence, pointing to a specific need to prioritize actions that build confidence between states and citizens, and develop institutions that can provide security, justice, and jobs. Government capacity is central, but technical competence alone is insufficient: institutions and programs must be accountable to their citizens if they are to acquire legitimacy. Impunity, corruption, and human rights abuses undermine confidence between states and citizens and increase the risks of violence. Building resilient institutions occurs in multiple transitions over a generation, and does not mean converging on western institutional models. The WDR 2011 draws together lessons from national reformers escaping from repetitive cycles of violence. It advocates a greater focus on continuous preventive action, balancing a sometimes excessive concentration on postconflict reconstruction. The report is based on new research, case studies, and extensive consultations with leaders and other actors throughout the world. It proposes a toolkit of options for addressing violence that can be adapted to local contexts, as well as new directions for international policy intended to improve support for national reformers and to tackle stresses that emanate from global or regional trends beyond any one country's control.

This book brings together public financial management and public sector reform experiences from eight countries in East Asia. It examines how reforms have been implemented in those countries and explores key lessons that can help reformers to further advance their endeavors.

This report examines the use of natural capital (natural resources and services) around the world. It finds that most countries are using these resources inefficiently, and closing these efficiency gaps can address many of the world's pressing economic and environmental problems.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating. The pact will connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP valued at $3.4 trillion. It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035. But achieving its fullpotential will depend on putting in place significant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures.The scope of the agreement is considerable. It will reduce tariffs among member countries and cover policy areas, such as trade facilitation and services, as well as regulatory measures, such as sanitary standards and technical barriers to trade. It will complement existing subregional economic communities and trade agreements by offering a continent-wide regulatory framework and by regulating policy areas-such as investment and intellectual property rights protection-that have not been covered in most subregional agreements.The African Continental Free Trade Area: Economic and Distributional Effects quantifies the long-term implications of the agreement for growth, trade, poverty reduction, and employment. Its analysis goes beyond that in previous studies that have largely focused on tariff and nontariff barriers in goods-by including the effects of services and trade facilitation measures,as well as the distributional impacts on poverty, employment, and wages of female and male workers. It is designed to guide policy makers as they develop and implement the extensive range of reforms needed to realize the substantial rewards that the agreement offers. The analysis shows that full implementation of AfCFTA could boost income by 7 percent, or nearly $450 billion, in 2014 prices and market exchange rates. The agreement would also significantly expand African trade-particularly intraregional trade in manufacturing. In addition, it would increase employment opportunities and wages for unskilled workers and help close the wage gap between men and women.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the most pronounced setback in the fight against global poverty since World War II.This report provides new data on the stark reversal of progress in the fight against global poverty. It explores how to optimize fiscal policy and identifies policies that can help correct course.

Previous Poverty and Shared Prosperity Reports have conveyed the difficult message that the world is not on track to meet the global goal of reducing extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030. This edition brings the unwelcome news that COVID-19, along with conflict and climate change, has not merely slowed global poverty reduction but reversed it for first time in over twenty years. With COVID-19 predicted to push up to 100 million additional people into extreme poverty in 2020, trends in global poverty rates will be set back at least three years over the next decade. Today, 40 percent of the global poor live in fragile or conflict-affected situations, a share that could reach two-thirds by 2030. Multiple effects of climate change could drive an estimated 65 to 129 million people into poverty in the same period. 'Reversing the reversal' will require responding effectively to COVID-19, conflict, and climate change while not losing focus on the challenges that most poor people continue to face most of the time. Though these are distinctive types of challenges, there is much to be learned from the initial response to COVID-19 that has broader implications for development policy and practice, just as decades of addressing more familiar development challenges yield insights that can inform responses to today's unfamiliar but daunting ones. Solving novel problems requires rapid learning, open cooperation, and strategic coordination by everyone: from political leaders and scientists to practitioners and citizens.

The world is, and always has been, interconnected. But the degree of country interdependence we are witnessing now is unprecedented. Cross-national transactions are fundamentally different, both qualitatively and quantitatively, from when the last World Development Report on 'Industrialization and Foreign Trade' was written thirty years ago. Tariff reduction and significant advances in production, communication and transportation technologies led to the emergence and expansion of GVCs. The result was growth in global trade at twice the rate of income growth from the early 1990s until the mid-2000s. Today, production is fragmented and distributed across multiple places, and the parts produced in each place are shipped across the globe often crossing borders multiple times. The 2020 World Development Report will analyze the implications of the changing face of globalization for development. It will explore why global value chains (GVC) have formed in some sectors and regions, while others have been left out. It will examine how GVCs affect growth, inequality and poverty, as well as the transmission of shocks across countries. The report will consider whether new technologies or a change in trade policies create incentives to produce closer to home, reducing the potential for countries to benefit from a finer international division of labor. Finally, it will explore how national policies can promote sustainable development in a GVC world. But because production has become fragmented across countries, national policy is unlikely to be enough. The report will also consider how international cooperation on trade and other policies can support inclusive growth in a GVC world.

The guide serves as a primer for decision and policy makers, technical specialists, central, regional and local government officials, and concerned stakeholders in the community sector, civil society and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. The Guide embodies the state-of-the art on integrated urban flood risk management. The Guide starts with a summary for policy makers which outlines and describes the key areas which policy makers need to be knowledgeable about to create policy directions and an integrated strategic approach for urban flood risk management. The core of the Guide consists of seven chapters, organized as: understanding flood hazard; understanding flood impacts; integrated flood risk management (structural measures and non-structural measures); evaluating alternative flood risk management options: tools for decision makers; implementing integrated flood risk management; and conclusion. Each chapter starts with a full contents list and a summary of the chapter for quick reference.

Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report. Published semiannually, the report includes analysis of topical policy challenges faced by developing countries through in-depth research in the January edition, and shorter analytical pieces in the June edition.