Economics & Development

This paper analyzes the trade policies, including tariffs and non-tariff measures, of major markets for Ghana’s exports. Based on the latest available data, it shows that high-income countries rely more heavily on non-tariff measures than on tariffs, while developing countries tend to impose more restrictive tariff barriers than high-income countries. In several developed markets, Ghana benefits from low or zero tariffs through preferential access and unilateral preference schemes. However, Ghanaian exports in these markets still face substantial non-tariff measures, particularly in agricultural products such as cocoa beans, cocoa paste and butter, and coconuts and cashews. These non-tariff measures primarily take the form of sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade. To improve market access in these destinations, Ghanaian exporters must comply with requirements related to product conformity, quality standards, testing, and labeling. The recent European Union Deforestation Regulation further illustrates the growing importance of non-tariff measures affecting Ghana’s exports.

Ratings of the Improvement and Rehabilitation of Irrigation Systems Project for Kosovo were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory; Bank performance was satisfactory; M&E quality was substantial. The project showed that institutional and human capacity, not engineering works, pose the principal sustainability risk in irrigation, thus future operations should give equal emphasis to institutional strengthening, operational preparedness, asset management, and financial sustainability alongside civil works, including formalized arrangements for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition operation, staffing, and software licensing, as well as cost recovery and business planning. Delays in establishing the Project Implementation Unit can critically compress implementation and limit results visibility; therefore, implementation readiness should be secured before effectiveness by front-loading recruitment, permits, and procurement packaging, and by using centralized implementation support mechanisms such as a central Project Implementation Unit within the Ministry of Finance to mitigate capacity constraints and accelerate startup. Rehabilitation of aging irrigation systems requires explicit recognition of legacy infrastructure uncertainty; preparation should include enhanced field verification, systematic validation of as-built documentation, and explicit contingencies for underground discrepancies in designs, contracts, and budgets to avoid disruptions during works. Capacity development must be embedded and sustained throughout project planning and implementation, closely linked to physical investments, with clear objectives, dedicated resources, and follow-through to ensure operational uptake by utilities, ministries, municipalities, and farmers; this includes earlier attention to digital systems procurement, licensing, staffing, and training to ensure continuity and effective use post-completion. Finally, successor operations should sequence results frameworks to reflect the slower maturation of behavioral and productivity outcomes relative to infrastructure delivery, and plan post-closing monitoring over several seasons to track crop shifts, irrigation uptake, and water-use efficiency, while maintaining coordinated stakeholder engagement and visibility throughout.

This paper uses labor force surveys from 160 countries to build a new microdatabase on hours worked covering 97% of the world population in cross section. The database also includes time series spanning over 20 years in 86 countries. Hours worked per adult slightly decline with GDP per capita but are weakly correlated with development overall. Hours worked by the young (aged 15–19) and elderly (aged 60+) fall with development, driven entirely by growing school attendance and public pension coverage. Hours worked among prime-age adults (aged 20–59) are stable with development but undergo a great gender reshuffling: falling male hours per worker have been exactly offset by increases in female labor force participation in many countries. Labor income taxes are strongly negatively related to hours worked across countries. This correlation is attenuated when controlling for social spending and disappears when further controlling for working hours regulations. Both social spending and working hours regulations are associated with lower hours worked.

The BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes: 2026 Annual Report (English) The 2026 annual report of the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL) highlights initiative and program country results during fiscal year 2026 (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026). The ISFL is a multilateral facility that promotes and rewards reduced greenhouse gas emissions and increased sequestration through better land management, including reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), climate-smart agriculture, and smarter land-use planning and policies.