Communities and Human Settlements - Land Administration Communities and Human Settlements - Land Use and Policies Environment - Sustainable Land Management Rural Development - Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction Gender - Gender and Development

Land is a key economic resource inextricably linked to access to, use of and control over other economic and productive resources. Recognition of this, and the increasing stress on land from the world’s growing population and changing climate, has driven demand for strengthening tenure security for all. This has created the need for a core set of land indicators that have national application and global comparability, which culminated in the inclusion of indicators 1.4.2 and 5.a.1 in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda. Having indicators on land ownership and rights in the SDG framework is an opportunity to routinely generate comparable, sex-disaggregated data to support evidence-based decision making on responsible land governance for sustainable development. The custodians of SDG indicators 1.4.2 (UN-Habitat and the World Bank) and 5.a.1 (FAO) have joined forces to develop a standardized and succinct survey instrument designed to collect the essential data for computation of both indicators simultaneously.

Gender - Gender and Development Gender - Gender and Economic Policy Gender - Gender and Education Gender - Gender and Poverty Governance - International Governmental Organizations

The World Bank is committed to addressing gender equality in energy operations as part of both its new gender strategy and its gender monitoring system,known as the Gender Tag. The World Bank Group Gender Strategy (FY16–23) focuses on four main objectives: (i) Improving Human Endowments; (ii) Removing Constraints for More and Better Jobs; (iii) Removing Barriers to Women’s Ownership and Control of Assets; and (iv) Enhancing Women’s Voice and Agency and Engaging Men and Boys; The Gender Tag asks teams to establish strong links among gender analysis, actions, and monitoring and evaluation. It expects teams to establish a logical results chain to demonstrate how they will address gender gaps identified in the analysis through particular actions, and how they will monitor the progress of these actions. These one-pagers provide hands-on, practical guidance to help task teams close gender gaps in energy operations. They address four energy subsectors—energy access, energy policy, renewable energy, and transmission and distribution—and provide entry points for achieving objectives of the Gender Strategy. The guidance is designed to help task teamsstart the dialogue about how they could close gender equality gaps in their operations both internally as well as with clients. The entry points draw on lessons learned from World Bank energy operations that successfully closed gender equality gaps, as well as from the literature on gender and energy.

Environment - Natural Disasters Finance and Financial Sector Development - Insurance & Risk Mitigation Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Fiscal & Monetary Policy Public Sector Development - Public Financial Management

Large-scale catastrophic and smaller recurrent disasters generate considerable economic losses. Over the past thirty years, damages from major disasters have increased significantly. In the last ten years alone, both high-income and fast-growing middle-income economies have experienced an estimated 1.2 trillion US dollars in economic costs from disruptive shocks due to hazards such as storms or floods. The costs of disasters are often largely shouldered by governments, particularly where insurance coverage for these costs is limited. Often governments are not only responsible for the costs related to restoring public assets and services, but are also asked to provide financing for other explicit and implicit commitments made prior to a disaster. The costs that disasters impose on governments, and ultimately on taxpayers should be considered contingent liabilities or, when disasters lead to reductions in public revenues, contingent revenue losses. These expenses and revenue losses arise only if an uncertain event, such as a disaster, actually happens. Disaster-related contingent liabilities are one type of government contingent liability. This report presents the findings of a comparative study that assesses how effectively governments manage disaster-related contingent liabilities, and the potential fiscal risks arising from them, within public finance frameworks. The report documents and compares the policies and practices of a set of nine selected middle- and high-income economies focusing on their response to and plans for disasters from a public financial perspective. Economies were selected on the basis of their exposure to and regular experience of natural disasters, and with the aim of including economies of different sizes and fiscal capacity. Part 1 of the report first describes the economic impacts, and more specifically the fiscal impacts, arising from disasters in the selected economies. The nine detailed case studies are included as part 2 of the report.

International Economics and Trade - Export Competitiveness Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Economic Development Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Economic Growth Poverty Reduction - Employment and Shared Growth Science and Technology Development - Technology Innovation

After more than three decades of average annual growth close to 10 percent, China's economy is transitioning to a 'new normal' of slower but more balanced and sustainable growth. Its old drivers of growth -- a growing labor force, the migration from rural areas to cities, high levels of investments, and expanding exports -- are waning or having less impact. China's policymakers are well aware that the country needs new drivers of growth. This report proposes a reform agenda that emphasizes productivity and innovation to help policymakers promote China's future growth and achieve their vision of a modern and innovative China. The reform agenda is based on the three D's: removing Distortions to strengthen market competition and enhance the efficient allocation of resources in the economy; accelerating Diffusion of advanced technologies and management practices in China's economy, taking advantage of the large remaining potential for catch-up growth; and fostering Discovery and nurturing China's competitive and innovative capacity as China approaches OECD incomes in the decades ahead and extends the global innovation and technology frontier.

Public Sector Development - Public Sector Management and Reform Governance - Governance and the Financial Sector Governance - Governance Diagnostic Capacity Building Private Sector Development - Legal Regulation and Business Environment Conflict and Development - Conflict and Fragile States Infrastructure Economics and Finance - Infrastructure Regulation

Countries exiting conflict and fragility face many urgent priorities and almost invariably suffer from substantial infrastructure deficits. There is typically very little infrastructure investment during periods of fragility and conflict, and existing installations are often damaged or destroyed. The purpose of this manual is to contribute to improvements in the quality of infrastructure regulation. It does so by identifying key principles for the governance of infrastructure regulators and by suggesting how these principles can be introduced successfully and maintained over time. The introduction of cross-cutting governance principles for regulators is based on the assumption that a uniform set of governance principles can be less costly and complex for governments to implement and enforce and will provide potential investors with a more consistent and predictable regulatory environment to navigate. The manual also discusses the process of implementing regulatory governance reforms in fragile contexts. Improvements in governance frameworks for infrastructure regulators will support better and accountable regulatory decision-making, as well as increased investment and overall economic development. Case studies from relevant country experience complement and provide context to the discussion on principles.

Finance and Financial Sector Development - International Financial Markets International Economics and Trade - Capital Flows Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Business Cycles and Stabilization Policies Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Economic Conditions and Volatility Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Economic Forecasting Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Economic Growth

Global growth has continued to soften this year. A modest recovery in emerging market and developing economies continues to be constrained by subdued investment, which is dampening prospects and impeding progress toward achieving critical development goals. Downside risks to the outlook remain elevated, and policymakers continue to face major challenges to boost resilience and foster long-term growth. In addition to discussing global and regional economic developments and prospects, this edition of Global Economic Prospects includes analytical essays on the benefits and risks of government borrowing, recent investment weakness in emerging market and developing economies, the pass-through of currency depreciations to inflation, and the evolution of growth in low-income countries. Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report that examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies, on a semiannual basis (in January and June). The January edition includes in-depth analyses of topical policy challenges faced by these economies, while the June edition contains shorter analytical pieces.

Transport - Roads & Highways Transport - Ports Infrastructure Economics and Finance - Infrastructure Economics Infrastructure Economics and Finance - Infrastructure Finance Infrastructure Economics and Finance - Private Participation in Infrastructure International Economics and Trade - Trade and Regional Integration International Economics and Trade - Trade and Transport Poverty Reduction - Migration and Development Social Protections and Labor - Labor Markets Transport - Transport and Trade Logistics Transport - Transport Economics Policy & Planning

China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 to improve connectivity and cooperation on a transcontinental scale. This study, by a team of World Bank Group economists led by Michele Ruta, analyzes the economics of the initiative. It assesses the connectivity gaps between economies along the initiative’s corridors, examines the costs and economic effects of the infrastructure improvements proposed under the initiative, and identifies complementary policy reforms and institutions that will support welfare maximization and mitigation of risks for participating economies.

Agriculture - Commodity Risk Management Energy - Energy Markets Energy - Oil & Gas Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Commodities Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Economic Conditions and Volatility Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Economic Forecasting

Commodity Markets Outlook provides market analysis for major commodity groups -- energy, metals, agriculture, precious metals, and fertilizers. The report forecasts prices for 46 key commodities, including oil. It is published in April and October. The April 2019 report has a special focus on food prices.

Gender - Gender and Development Gender - Gender and Economics Gender - Gender and Poverty Poverty Reduction - Inequality Poverty Reduction - Living Standards

The Little Data Book on Gender 2019 illustrates the progress towards gender equality for 217 economies around the world. It provides comparable statistics for women and men for the years 2000 and 2017 across a range of indicators covering education, health and related services, economic structure, participation and access to resources, public life and decision making, and agency, enabling readers to readily compare economies. This edition also features online country tables—to be updated quarterly—making it easier than ever to see how women and men are faring across a range of global indicators and to track progress over time. The data reveal remarkable progress in recent decades towards gender equality, notably in education and health. The most recent data show global primary school completion rates at 91 percent for boys and 90 percent for girls, with lower secondary completion rates at 76 percent for boys and 77 percent for girls. Gains, however, have been distributed unequally between richer and poorer countries. Gender gaps to the detriment of girls emerge in low-income countries, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, while in some Latin American countries, boys are less likely than girls to complete primary and secondary school. Both women’s and men’s lifespans have shown marked global improvements: for women, the increase was from 70 years in 2000 to 74 in 2017, compared to an increase from 66 to 70 years for men. In every country in the world, women outlive men. Increases in female life expectancy have been driven in part by a decline in the risk of mortality during childbirth. Globally, there were an estimated 303,000 maternal deaths in 2015, a decline of 31 percent from 2000. Nonetheless, maternal mortality remains high in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate stood at 547 per 100,000 live births in 2015.