Future Development

A general view of the traffic on a crowded road in Cairo October 26, 2010. Smog-ridden Cairo's gridlock shows investment in roads, railways and ports is failing to keep pace with economic growth, menacing public health and threatening economic asphyxiation. Around 12,000 deaths occur every year in Egypt because of road accidents, the highest rate in the world per head of population bar Eritrea and the Cook Islands, according to the World Health Organization's most recent report in 2009. The capital's congested roads come to a standstill daily as infrastructure fails to support population growth of 2 percent a year and as thousands of new cars hit the streets every year. Picture taken October 26, 2010. To match Feature EGYPT-BUSINESS/ REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany (EGYPT - Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY TRANSPORT) - GM1E71R08F001

Egypt’s population: Boom then bust?

Omer Karasapan and Sajjad Shah · Tuesday, May 22, 2018

A general view shows houses surrounded by fields outside the village of Qalaalti, Azerbaijan, June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov - D1AETMNKFCAB

Is cotton the answer to Azerbaijan’s oil price woes?

Monday, May 21, 2018

Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members wait to be escorted upon their arrival at the maximum-security jail in Zacatecoluca, El Salvador, June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas - RC168BB3EA40

A crime-fighting policy for Latin America and the Caribbean

Carlos Díaz and Eleonora Patacchini

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrives at the EU council in Brussels, Belgium May 15, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman - RC1873ED5BB0

With the US out, how can Iran benefit from the JCPOA?

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

An atrium is seen at the World Bank headquarters building during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas - RC1A8C4E8F00

Will a capital increase mean a greater global role for the World Bank?

Johannes F. Linn

Monday, May 14, 2018

A syringe filled a narcotic, an empty syringe and a spoon sit on the roof of a car, where a man in his 20's overdosed on opioids in Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S., August 14, 2017. Picture taken August 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder - RC1257D38130

Premature mortality and the long decline of hope in America

Thursday, May 10, 2018

An elderly woman counts money at a market in the town of Tkvarcheli, some 50 km (31 miles) southeast of Sukhumi, the capital of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia December 27, 2013. The territory of Abkhazia is located several miles southwest of the border with Russia and the Olympic Park in the Adler district of the Black Sea resort city of Sochi which will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in February. Abkhaz separatists fought Georgian government forces in 1992-1993, after which the breakaway region declared independence. Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, Vanuatu and Tuvalu recognized Abkhazia as an independent state while all other countries regard it as a Georgian province, according to local media. Picture taken December 27, 2013. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov (GEORGIA - Tags: SOCIETY POLITICS OLYMPICS SPORT) - GM1EA161B4D01

Georgia’s destiny will be shaped by its demography

Mercy Tembon, Wolfgang Fengler, and Aurélien Kruse

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski - RC1F2E89A7A0

Time to turn off the spigot of fiscal policy

Maria Gonzalez-Miranda and Ivailo Izvorski

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

An Algerian staff at a production plant works in Ain Kebira, 300 km (186 miles) east of Algiers, March 28, 2009. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the overwhelming favourite to win elections on April 9, has pledged $150 billion to modernise the economy, build 1 million homes and address mass unemployment which stands officially at 12 percent but rises to 70 percent among the young. Yet critics say many of the projects are behind schedule and failing to create the millions of jobs needed to restore hope to the population of Africa's second-biggest country. Photo taken March 28, 2009. To match feature ALGERIA-INDUSTRY/ REUTERS/Louafi Larbi (ALGERIA BUSINESS POLITICS) - GM1E5470LIW01

A leap in gender equality begins with better data

George Ingram and Nora O’Connell

Friday, May 4, 2018

A man holds his phone to take a Facebook live video near a chasm suspected to have been caused by a heavy downpour along an underground fault-line near the Rift Valley town of Mai Mahiu, Kenya March 28, 2018. Picture taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya - RC12E3D4ACD0

Using big data to link poor farmers to finance

Roy Parizat and Heinz-Wilhelm Strubenhoff

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Solar panels are seen during the inauguration ceremony of the solar energy power plant in Zaktubi, near Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Ludovic Marin/Pool - RC19AF190190

Achieving universal energy access by closing the gap between what we know and what we do

Subhrendu K. Pattanayak, Hannah Girardeau, and Faraz Usmani

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Customers pose with cups of tea named in the fashion of the Sang subculture at the Sung Tea shop in Beijing, August 24, 2017. The tea creations are called: "You are the Fattest" and "You don't have nothing, you have a disease". Picture taken August 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter - RC1E2560AA00

How to harness the spending power of millennials: Move beyond the US

Kristofer Hamel, Katharina Fenz, and Martin Hofer

Monday, April 30, 2018

A soldier of the Japanese advanced team watches as an Iraqi construction worker prepares a road for their base outside the town of Samawa, some 300kms south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad February 21, 2004. Japan kept security tight across the country on Saturday as its largest contingent of troops to date prepared to leave on a controversial mission to Iraq. REUTERS/Peter Andrews PA - RP4DRIASPQAA

Improving the relationship between security and development

Homi Kharas and Bruce Jones

Friday, April 27, 2018

Managing Director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala arrives for the Korea - World Bank Development conference as part of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Busan June 4, 2010. Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 wealthy and developing economies gather in South Korea this week to grapple with Europe's debt crisis, financial reforms and efforts to rebalance the global economy. REUTERS/Nicky Loh (SOUTH KOREA - Tags: BUSINESS) - GM1E6640QB401

She won’t back down: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s fight against corruption

Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly and Homi Kharas

Thursday, April 26, 2018

An oil well oozes crude oil after it was hit by a shrapnel from a bomb dropped by fighter jets at the El Nar oil field in South Sudan's Unity State, March 3, 2012. South Sudan accused Khartoum of bombing two oil wells in the north of the new nation and moving troops and weaponry close to an army base near the poorly defined border. A Sudanese official denied the allegations. Relations between Sudan and the South have deteriorated in recent months as talks about border disputes and oil transportation fees have floundered, causing the South to shut down oil production. REUTERS/Hereward Holland (SOUTH SUDAN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ENERGY SOCIETY) - GM1E83407J001

Low-income country debt: Déjà vu all over again?

Shanta Devarajan

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Contributors

Homi Kharas

Interim Vice President and Director - Global Economy and Development

Shanta Devarajan

Senior Director, Development Economics - World Bank

Shanta_WB

Wolfgang Fengler

Lead Economist, Trade and Competitiveness - World Bank

wolfgangfengler

Indermit Gill

Director, Duke Center for International Development, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

About Future Development

This blog was first launched in September 2013 by the World Bank in an effort to hold governments more accountable to poor people and offer solutions to the most prominent development challenges. Continuing this goal, Future Development was re-launched in January 2015 at brookings.edu.

For archived content, visit worldbank.org »