Economics & Development

This document outlines the procurement plan for the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP) in Kenya, covering various agricultural and public administration sectors under Eastern and Southern Africa operations.

This document is an implementation status and results report for the Strengthening Public Financial Management II Project, tracked under project ID P181237. It focuses on central government agencies and financial management improvements.

This document outlines the procurement plan for the Investment Facilitation Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo under Eastern and Southern Africa. It covers various sectors including energy generation, public administration, education, and social risk management.

This restructuring paper outlines project changes for the Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project. It covers administrative and operational updates related to water supply and sub-national government sectors.

This document outlines the procurement plan for the Pacific Region Preparedness, Adaptation and Resilience project in Samoa, managed under the East Asia and Pacific region.

This document outlines the procurement plan for the General Education Modernization Project in Sri Lanka under the South Asia region. It provides administrative and financial planning details related to public administration, primary, and secondary education.

This development objective of Preventing Infections Through Vigilance at the Origin of Transmission (PIVOT) for Latin America and the Caribbean aims to strengthen national and regional capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to zoonotic disease threats through a One Health approach. The project is organized around four components. Component 1: Prevention, Risk Assessment, and Early Warning Systems strengthens risk assessment, early warning, biosafety, community engagement, and vaccination preparedness through tools, training, and regional coordination mechanisms. Component 2: Surveillance, Detection, and Laboratory Capacity enhances surveillance systems, laboratory networks, diagnostic protocols, genomic sequencing capabilities, and regional laboratory collaboration to improve disease detection and monitoring. Component 3: Functional Performance and Response Capacity supports preparedness planning, governance, legal and policy harmonization, intersectoral coordination, capacity gap assessments, and emergency response readiness to strengthen outbreak management. Component 4: Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation provides oversight, coordination, monitoring, fiduciary management, knowledge management, and operational support for effective project implementation. Complementary World Bank-executed technical assistance will focus on financial sustainability, pandemic preparedness financing, economic analysis, and investment frameworks to support long-term One Health preparedness across the region. Implemented by IICA in partnership with FAO, PAHO, IDB, and the World Bank, the project promotes multisectoral collaboration and regional health security throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

This document contains the audited financial statement for the Hunan Subnational Governance and Rural Public Service Delivery Program for Results in China, supported by the World Bank. It covers financial reporting and governance related to subnational public service delivery in rural areas.

Ratings of the Sri Lanka Second Resilience, Stability and Economic Turnaround Development Policy Operation for Sri Lanka were as follows: overall outcome was moderately satisfactory, relevance of prior actions was satisfactory, achievement of objectives efficacy was moderately satisfactory, and Bank performance was satisfactory. Key lessons and recommendations are as follows. First, a two tranche structure can be powerful in crisis contexts to unlock sensitive reforms, but tranche timing should be set by institutional readiness rather than fiscal quarters or political calendars; where legislation is a condition, allow at least six months to enact and operationalize, pair with technical assistance that proceeds independent of disbursement, and avoid signaling specific dates that may slip. Second, reforms anchored in institutional architecture and law are more resilient than policy commitments; prioritize legislative and regulatory actions that create enforceable obligations, and when policy commitments are unavoidable, pair them with a legal mandate or a multilateral anchor so progress can survive government transitions; when a transition is foreseeable, front load vulnerable laws in the first operation and use the second to deepen implementation. Third, results indicators require the same rigor as prior actions; ensure baselines come from stable sources, targets will be measurable at closing, and indicators capture the causal chain of the reform; do not rely solely on survey data that may be unavailable by closing and confirm preconditions, such as institutional appointments, are in place before committing to outcome targets. Fourth, development partner coordination is most effective when focused on specific high risk actions and aligned conditionality; align closely with International Monetary Fund Extended Fund Facility benchmarks where possible, and for politically sensitive trade reforms expand consultations beyond the finance ministry to line ministries and affected private sector to reduce resistance and reconcile revenue neutrality with liberalization goals at design. Fifth, emergency social protection performs better when recertification, a social registry, and a clear institutional home are embedded from the outset; do not compromise on the legal basis for recertification to hasten launch, treat the social registry as a core investment, and build monitoring systems that do not depend on infrequent household surveys. Sixth, the number of operations shapes ambition and durability; compressing a planned three operation series into two risks overloading a single operation and weakening sequencing, so if compression is unavoidable, favor legislative actions with durable impact and avoid stacking too many policy commitments whose implementation horizons exceed the series; consider a follow on series to carry forward complex reforms, as done with the subsequent program that addresses insolvency gaps, tariff reform implementation, and sector governance issues building on the foundations of the Public Debt Management Office, the Banking Special Provisions Act, and the National Commission on Women.

The digital economy touches nearly every sector and aspect of daily life, transforming how people learn, work, socialize, and access both public and private services. Mauritius has placed its digital agenda at the forefront of national development strategy, with significant advances in connectivity and government digitalization. The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence is raising the bar for digital readiness worldwide. The report identifies areas of relative strength alongside key structural constraints. It is the adoption - not access alone - that translates digital investment into faster and more inclusive growth: jobs, productivity gains, export competitiveness, and lower costs. Because the logic is cumulative, a weakness in any building block cascades upward to constrain adoption and, ultimately, growth - which is why the report examines adoption by firms and individuals (Section 2) alongside the foundations, skills, and enablers that determine it. Section 1 gives introduction. Section 2 examines how firms and individuals are - and are not - leveraging digital technologies productively, including the state of digital entrepreneurship and digitally delivered services exports. Section 3 turns to the country’s digital foundations: broadband quality and affordability, and data and compute infrastructure. Section 4 assesses workforce readiness, including the digital skills gap and the opportunities and risks of the AI transition. Section 5 examines the enabling environment - digital public infrastructure, e-government, and digital safeguards. Section 6 sets out policy priorities to translate Mauritius’s strong foundations into tangible gains in productivity, jobs, and inclusive growth.

On September 30, 2026, the Executive Directors of IBRD and IDA and the Boards of Directors of IFC and MIGA approved on an absence-of-objection basis the program for Executive Directors’ group travel to member countries outside their constituencies, covering the 2026 to 2028 period and detailing the initial trip. The approval, based on a document dated September 23, 2026, establishes the framework and timing for coordinated Board travel to enhance oversight and engagement with member countries beyond constituency boundaries.

Kenya, one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest and most diversified economies, has strong fundamentals for private sector–led growth. The country has a population of over 50 million, a diversified economic base, strong regional connectivity through the Port of Mombasa, a relatively skilled workforce, and significant agricultural, renewable energy, and tourism assets. Over the past decade, Kenya recorded steady economic growth, driven largely by public investment. However, this growth has not produced sufficient private investment, productivity gains, export growth, or formal job creation. Private investment remains low, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows lag those of peer countries, exports have declined as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), and only a small fraction of the 1 million annual labor market entrants find formal employment.

Focus group discussions (FGDs) are widely used in evaluation, yet their distinctive contribution is often not clearly defined. This paper shows how FGDs can reveal gender dynamics, even in evaluations that do not explicitly focus on gender, and dynamics that other methods may overlook. The paper draws on methodological literature and experience from IEG’s 2024 evaluation of World Bank and International Finance Corporation engagement for gender equality. The evaluation included eight country case studies (the Arab Republic of Egypt, Bangladesh, Benin, Mexico, Peru, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam), where 112 community-level, in-person FGDs were conducted with women, men, girls, and boys as part of 45 project deep dives. Designed for evaluators seeking to use FGDs to produce inclusive, contextually grounded evidence, the paper is relevant both for gender-responsive evaluations and for efforts to understand how policies and programs affect people in the social worlds they inhabit.

This report presents a strategic roadmap for establishing an inclusive economic corridor between Southern Thailand and Northern Peninsular Malaysia, focusing on the priority sectors of agribusiness, tourism, and logistics. Developed through extensive stakeholder consultations, the roadmap identifies opportunities to strengthen cross-border cooperation, enhance value creation, improve connectivity, and promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. It proposes phased implementation through sector action plans and quick-win initiatives that support SMEs, local communities, and private sector participation. The roadmap emphasizes coordinated governance, investment, conflict-sensitive development, and stronger institutional collaboration to transform the corridor into a platform for regional integration, economic resilience, and shared prosperity.

This document is the Final Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA) for the Benin Public Resource Management for Jobs and Growth project. It evaluates the environmental and social management systems associated with public administration, social protection, and trade initiatives.