Economics & Development

Argentina faces macroeconomic instability with recurring fiscal imbalances, regulatory distortions, shallow financial markets, infrastructure bottlenecks, fragmented health and social systems, skills gaps, and persistent informality that have constrained private investment, productivity, and formal job creation. The World Bank Group will focus on restoring macroeconomic and fiscal stability through fiscal consolidation, improved expenditure efficiency and subsidy targeting, growth-enhancing tax reform and administration, and streamlined regulations, alongside trade openness, stronger competition policy, labor market reforms, and state-owned enterprise privatization to crowd in private investment. It will strengthen human capital by improving foundational learning, expanding quality technical and vocational education aligned with private sector demand, advancing digital and socioemotional skills, and enhancing equitable access to integrated, efficient health services, procurement, and digital health, while supporting adaptive social protection and nutrition programs that connect beneficiaries to productive employment. It will help improve connectivity and power by investing in sustainable transport, logistics, and digital infrastructure, promoting resilient regional corridors, and enabling a more reliable and cleaner energy system through expanded transmission, battery storage, and renewable energy, leveraging public-private partnerships and private participation. It will catalyze private investment for job creation by deepening capital markets and financial inclusion for micro, small and medium enterprises, advancing deregulation and administrative simplification, and mobilizing private capital in strategic sectors such as agribusiness, mining, energy, tourism, and manufacturing, including natural gas infrastructure and value chains for critical minerals, while supporting frameworks that promote formalization and better jobs. These efforts will be complemented by coordinated engagement with international partners, risk mitigation instruments, and advisory services to strengthen institutions, enhance market access, and ensure sustainable, inclusive growth.

Ratings of the Lowlands Livelihood Resilience Project for Ethiopia were as follows: outcome was satisfactory, Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was substantial. Lessons and recommendations emphasize that conflict reduction is achievable when investments in water points, pasture rehabilitation, and secure access routes are paired with strengthened local dispute resolution mechanisms, as demonstrated by a sharp decline in conflicts over grazing and water; future operations should continue to prioritize these investments and reinforce traditional mediation systems. Building resilience in poor lowland communities requires a multi-sectoral, integrated approach because isolated interventions leave households vulnerable; combining livelihood grants, access to finance and markets, and improved water and schooling yields multiplier effects on income, enrollment, and nutrition, and should be maintained as a core design principle. Integrated area-based programming can be effectively combined with community-driven development to reflect beneficiary priorities at local level; projects should institutionalize procedures that align integrated planning with participatory selection and implementation of subprojects. Fodder and feed production, including establishment of fodder banks, is essential to cushion drought impacts, smooth seasonal feed supply, support sustainable land management, and strengthen pastoral resilience; scaling such systems and enabling inter-regional feed flows is recommended. Early identification of key stakeholders and collaboration around shared objectives during preparation fosters productive partnerships; cofinancing models and joint implementation support, as with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, should be pursued to leverage expertise and resources. Entering memoranda of understanding at early design stages with the sector agencies responsible for operating infrastructure helps ensure post-transfer functionality and budget allocation for operations and maintenance; this practice should be standardized. Positioning rangelands as entry points for investments through delineated clusters and Rangeland Management and Investment Plans focuses resources along livestock migration routes, addresses root causes of vulnerability, and strengthens traditional rangeland management; subsequent phases should continue to use rangeland clusters and plans to guide strategic investments.

Ratings of the Heat Supply Improvement Project for the Kyrgyz Republic were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was modest. Lessons and recommendations include the need to confirm political-economy fit for each component before approval, especially in multi-component operations, by validating stakeholder support for individual components and prioritizing those with strong ownership to avoid early cancellations. For equipment-intensive infrastructure, regulatory and certification requirements should be addressed as implementation-critical from the outset by mapping local testing, calibration, and standards-recognition steps, and embedding these explicitly in procurement planning, supplier obligations, and schedules, including in bidding documents. Supply chain, logistics, and systems integration risks should be mitigated by securing logistics arrangements in supplier contracts and planning early for interoperability of metering and billing systems, recognizing that digital and metering infrastructure are core to district heating modernization. Energy-efficiency operations should plan early for outcome validation by combining engineering estimates with comprehensive metering evidence and by building systematic post-retrofit measurement and verification into project design to strengthen the evidence base for realized savings. Monitoring and evaluation governance should be strengthened through version-controlled results frameworks and periodic verification of indicators and targets by the task team independent of PIU reporting to prevent errors such as inadvertent target changes and to maintain data discipline throughout implementation.

The BILIM: Transforming Public Education for Economic Growth Operation supports the Government of Uzbekistan’s 2030 education reform agenda by improving teaching quality, learning environments, and data-driven decision-making in public primary education. Aligned with the national Concept for the Development of the Public Education System to 2030, the Program focuses on six lagging regions—Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, Bukhara, and Navoiy—selected for high poverty, weak learning outcomes, and significant infrastructure gaps. The Program is structured around three results areas: (i) strengthened pedagogical practices through modernized initial teacher education, continuous professional development, coaching, and remedial support; (ii) improved access to inclusive, climate-resilient, and learning-conducive school environments guided by the RIGHT+ framework; and (iii) enhanced education management information systems, learning assessments, and data-driven planning. The Program is expected to directly benefit around 2 million primary school children and 50,000 teachers and school leaders, while also generating policy and system improvements with nationwide relevance. With a total Program expenditure of US$373 million, financed by the Government, IDA, and IFFEd, the operation combines results-based financing with a complementary IPF technical assistance component to strengthen implementation capacity, evidence generation, and institutional sustainability.

The Country Opinion Survey in Zimbabwe assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Zimbabwe perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national government institutions and officials, parliamentarians, semi-autonomous government agencies, local governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, media, academia, research institutes and think tanks, the private sector, and civil society organizations in Zimbabwe on: 1) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Zimbabwe; 2) their views on development priorities in Zimbabwe; 3) overall impressions of the WBG’s effectiveness and results, instruments, knowledge work and activities, engagement and collaboration, and communication and information sharing in Zimbabwe; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG’s future role in Zimbabwe.