Future Development

A boy receives polio vaccine drops by anti-polio vaccination workers along a street in Quetta, Pakistan January 2, 2017. REUTERS/ Naseer Ahmed - RC120DF331E0

Not your parents’ foreign aid: The shift from power to proximity and poverty

Sarah Bermeo · Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Children at Mashimoni School in Kibera peer through a classroom window of a building that was marked with a red cross in preparation for demolition in Nairobi, Kenya, September 23, 2016. Picture taken September 23, 2016. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION/Katy Migiro TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - D1AEUGJDWBAB

Schools don’t track their alumni very well. In Kenya, it matters

Eric M. Johnson

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Attendees take pictures of new IPhone models during an Apple launch event in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam - HP1ED9C1KSOEO

Future Development Reads: Apple’s new iPhone, drone delivery in Rwanda, and politics heating up in Europe

Wolfgang Fengler

Friday, September 15, 2017

Chests of drawers are pictured at the Income Tax office in New Delhi April 5, 2013. Indian tax officials have opened up a new front in their battle to increase revenue collected from companies, targeting manufacturing firms that slash prices below cost in order to sell slow-moving inventory. Picture taken April 5. To match INDIA-TAX/ REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS POLITICS) - GM1E94F1U5L01

Finding the missing linkages in your tax base

Thursday, September 14, 2017

A displaced man complains about the lack of food supplies outside a processing centre as smoke from burning oil refinery blanketed Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq October 23,2016. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra - S1AEUIQBNYAB

Two reasons why rentier states would adopt universal basic income

Shanta Devarajan

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Financial Chief Executives wait to speak to the media at the White House after a meeting about the economy with U.S. President Barack Obama in the State Dining Room in Washington, March 27, 2009. Obama meets with top U.S. bankers on Friday to hash out plans to reform Wall Street, rid financial institutions of bad debts and jumpstart lending in an effort to pull the United States out of recession. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES POLITICS IMAGE OF THE DAY TOP PICTURE BUSINESS) - GM1E53S069C01

Future Development Reads: Misogyny in economics, short-term growth and long-term decline, and what makes bureaucrats productive

Shanta Devarajan

Friday, September 8, 2017

Syrian refugees walk towards Greece's border with Macedonia, moments before crossing near the Greek village of Idomeni, September 9, 2015. Most of the people flooding into Europe are refugees fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries who have a legal right to seek asylum, the United Nations said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - LR2EB990PK4Y3

Syrian refugees and the slow march to “acceptance”

Thursday, September 7, 2017

A woman looks out from her house at a flood affected area in Nepal

Building better defenses against rising floods and storms

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Employees work in front of a computer screen at the headquarters of Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in the capital of Cairo, Egypt February 5, 2017. Picture taken February 5, 2017. REUTERS/Shokry Hussien - RTX30NYX

Future Development Reads: Making markets work better

Friday, July 28, 2017

A Chinese tourist pays cash at a Lotte duty free shop in central Seoul, South Korea, February 2, 2016. Chinese visitors to South Korea are buying less from global luxury mainstays like Louis Vuitton and Chanel in favour of cheaper homegrown brands, as young, independent travellers make up a bigger share of tourists. Picture taken on February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji - RTX25IKA

A golden age for business? Every second five people are entering the global middle class

Wolfgang Fengler and Homi Kharas

Thursday, July 27, 2017

A general view shows the Gibe III hydroelectric dam during its inauguration in Shoma Yero village in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia, December 17, 2016. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri - RTX2VFXL

Why developing countries get stuck with weak institutions and how foreign actors can help

Brad Parks, Mark Buntaine, and Benjamin Buch

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Pro-government protesters chant slogans while holding Egyptian national flags as they walk near the seaside on the fifth anniversary of the uprising that ended the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria, Egypt, January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih - RTX23Y78

Inequality of opportunity in Egypt

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

An employee enters the State Department in Washington, U.S., June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas - RTX38QZN

Tillerson’s “Listening Report” reinforces that State and USAID should be separate

Monday, July 24, 2017

A visitor stands in front of flags representing different African countries during a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Sandton, Johannesburg, December 4, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko - RTX1X5GY

Future Development Reads: The brittle consensus on Africa’s prospects

Friday, July 21, 2017

Sahrawi students attend a class in Carlo Giuliani school at Dakhla's refugee camp, near Tindouf in southwestern Algeria April 17, 2008. REUTERS/Dani Cardona (ALGERIA) - RTR1ZLOF

Teachers’ salaries: Too many bucks for the bang?

Friday, July 21, 2017

Contributors

Homi Kharas

Senior Fellow and Co-Director - Global Economy and Development

Shanta Devarajan

Senior Director, Development Economics - World Bank

Shanta_WB

Wolfgang Fengler

Lead Economist, Trade and Competitiveness - World Bank

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 »