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The 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.

A decade since the spark of the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to suffer from limited creation of more and better jobs. Youth face idleness and unemployment. For those who find jobs, informality awaits. Few women attempt to enter the world of work at all. Meanwhile, the available jobs are not those of the future. These labor market outcomes are being worsened by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Jobs Undone: Reshaping the Role of Governments toward Markets and Workers in the Middle East and North Africa explores ways to break these impasses, drawing on original research, survey data, wide-ranging literature, and young entrepreneurial voices from the region. The report finds that a prominent reason behind MENA's unmet jobs challenge is a lack of market contestability in the formal private sector. Few firms in the region enter the market, few grow, and those that exit are not necessarily less productive. Moreover, firms in the region invest little in physical capital, human capital, or research and development, and they tend to be politically connected. At the macro level, economic growth has been mediocre, labor productivity is not being driven by structural change, and the growth of the stock of capital per capita has declined. New evidence generated for this report shows that the lack of dynamism is due to the prevalence of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). They operate in sectors where there is little economic rationale for public activity and they enjoy favorable treatment--flouting the principles of competitive neutrality. Meanwhile, labor regulations add to market rigidity, while gendered laws restrict women's potential. To change this reality, the state must reshape its relationship toward markets, toward workers, and toward women. The region must create a level playing field between SOEs and the private sector, replace labor rigidities with appropriate social protection and labor market programs, and remove barriers to women's economic participation. Governments can also foster new sectors and occupations, gradually propelling market contestability and job creation. All reforms will have to rely on improved data capacity and transparency to create a new social contract between governments and the people of the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the most pronounced setback in the fight against global poverty since World War II.This report provides new data on the stark reversal of progress in the fight against global poverty. It explores how to optimize fiscal policy and identifies policies that can help correct course.

Over the past 40 years, the number of people in China with incomes below US$ 1.90 per day has fallen by close to 800 million. The report explores the key drivers for China's achievements in poverty, considers lessons for other developing countries, and puts forward suggestions for China's future policies.

The study supports policy makers in designing legal and operational frameworks and practices to enhance cooperation between tax authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies at the domestic and international levels, and to build on synergies between investigations and enforcement in the context of tax crimes, money laundering and corruption.

This study aims to raise policy makers' awareness of the business case for investing in gas flaring and methane reduction projects. It focuses on mid-sized flares that are too small to be prioritized by oil companies but represent 58 percent of global flare volumes.

This report discusses the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on migrants in the Mediterranean region, and on their sending and receiving countries. The report shows that policy interventions can help mobility continue safely in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak and better prepare countries to respond to future shocks.

This book shows that there is great potential to reduce the risks and maximize the benefits of temporary migration from South Asia. Building on rigorous analytics, it proposes policies to reduce vulnerability and enhance the benefits of temporary migration for migrants themselves, their families, and the home economy.

Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group Flagship Report. Published semiannually, the report includes analysis of topical policy challenges faced by developing countries through in-depth research in the January edition, and shorter analytical pieces in the June edition.

This report reviews the progress of the implementation of the health financing reform in Ukraine, in particular the funding, purchasing, and governance of the Program of Medical Guarantees (PMG).

While many countries pledge to phase out fossil fuels in 30-40 years, 6-7 million people die each year from air pollution. This report shows how to design coherent policies that harness synergies and manage tensions between air quality and climate mitigation and that put people's health first while paving the way for long-term decarbonization.

Private cities are an emerging reality in developing countries and are particularly important in South Asia. Weak urban governments are at the root of some of the challenges faced by cities in developing countries. This report seeks to assess the role private cities can play in the urbanization process of developing countries.

This report promotes a more inclusive development and COVID recovery by better understanding how policies can increase productivity and reduce vulnerability in the informal sector.

This report aims to identify and map air pollution hotspots in South Asia in terms of concentration and exposure, understand the various sources of pollution in hotspot areas (from Kabul to Dhaka), and help categorize policy actions and interventions based on a systematic analysis of costs and benefits.

This book provides an analysis of the complex issue of enforcing foreign confiscation and restraint orders, a crucial step in the process of asset recovery. It further outlines related challenges and offers practical recommendations. The study will be a useful tool for law enforcement, justice, and asset recovery practitioners.

This volume expands on the analysis presented in the 2020 World Bank book The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): Economic and Distributional Effects. This new volume examines the potential dynamic gains from trade, factoring in the foreign direct investment (FDI) that is expected to follow greater trade openness.

Overweight and obesity are a major challenge in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aim of this book is to provide new evidence and analysis in order to support planning efforts on obesity prevention in the country.

This Policy Research Report examines one specific policy approach to improving effective coverage: financial incentives in the form of performance-based financing (PBF) or financial incentives to health workers on the front lines.

Technology is a key driver of economic development. However, the extent to which firms adopt and use technologies and to what purpose is poorly understood. From a technological standpoint, firms largely remain black boxes. This report proposes a new approach to measure and understand the adoption and use of technologies by firms.

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has untapped potential for trade and global value chains (GVCs) to grow in the wake of COVID-19. This report, based on new data and evidence, shows that 'deep' trade agreements can drive policy reforms and help the region overcome some of its disadvantageous fundamentals.

The book contributes to the understanding of the complexities and dynamics that underlie the relationship between Africa and China, and how to make this relationship truly mutually beneficial.

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique event demonstrating the risks associated with global value chains as well as ways in which they are a source of resilience in trade. Efforts to reshore production would make all countries worse off and increase the number of people in extreme poverty.

This framework document provides a practical approach for designing representative studies and developing uniform sampling guidelines to support estimates of health outcomes that are explicitly linked to exposure to land-based contaminants from ASGM activities.

This framework document provides a practical approach for designing representative studies and developing uniform sampling guidelines to support estimates of health outcomes that are explicitly linked to exposure to land-based contaminants from ULAB activities.

Women, Business and the Law is a World Bank Group project which measures the laws and regulations restricting women's economic opportunities. WBL informs research and policy discussions about the state of women's economic empowerment and emphasizes the work still to be done to ensure economic empowerment for all.

This report estimates the global, regional, and national costs of health damage from exposure to PM2.5 ambient and household air pollution in 2019. While recognizing the various costs of air pollution to society, this report focuses on the cost of morbidity and premature death from air pollution, the world's leading environmental health risk.

Targeting is a commonly used but much debated policy within global social assistance practice. This book examines the well-known dilemmas in light of the growing body of experience, new implementation capacities, and the potential to bring new data and data science to bear.

The Arab Republic of Egypt was well on the path to achieving its demographic dividend at the turn of this century but has gotten temporarily off-track due to a reversal in its earlier fertility decline. Fortunately, the country has the political will, resources, and capacity to secure this dividend in the next decade.