The World Bank's annual World Development Report provides a wide international readership with an extraordinary window on development economics. Each year, the report focuses on a specific aspect of development.
Now on DVD! All past World Development Reports on a single searchable platform.
Also, a new book features an essay by Shahid Yusuf on the series and commentaries by Angus Deaton, Kemal Dervis, William Easterly, Takatoshi Ito, and Joseph Stiglitz.
Climate change is one of many challenges facing developing countries – but unless it is tackled soon, it will reverse development gains. Looking at both the challenges and the opportunities presented by climate change, the upcoming WDR 2010 will tackle three questions: (i) What does climate change mean for development? (ii) What does development mean for climate change? (iii) What does all this mean for policy?
Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. WDR 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions of density, distance, and division are essential for development and should be encouraged.
In the 21st century, agriculture continues to be a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction. WDR 2008 concludes that agriculture alone will not be enough to massively reduce poverty, but it is an essential component of effective development strategies for most developing countries.
Developing countries which invest in better education, healthcare, and job training for their record numbers of young people between the ages of 12 and 24 years of age, could produce surging economic growth and sharply reduced poverty, according to this report.
Inequality of opportunity, both within and among nations, sustains extreme deprivation, results in wasted human potential and often weakens prospects for overall prosperity and economic growth, concludes this report.
Accelerating growth and poverty reduction requires governments to reduce the policy risks, costs, and barriers to competition facing firms of all types - from farmers and micro-entrepreneurs to local manufacturing companies and multinationals - concludes this report.
This report warns that broad improvements in human welfare will not occur unless poor people receive wider access to affordable, better quality services in health, education, water, sanitation, and electricity. Without such improvements, freedom from illness and from illiteracy - two of the most important ways poor people can escape poverty - will remain elusive to many.
Without better policies and institutions, social and environmental strains may derail development progress, leading to higher poverty levels and a decline in the quality of life for everybody, according to this report.
Weak institutions--tangled laws, corrupt courts, deeply biased credit systems, and elaborate business registration requirements--hurt poor people and hinder development, according to this report.
This report notes that localization--the growing economic and political power of cities, provinces, and other sub-national entities--will be one of the most important new trends in the 21st century.
This report analyzes the risks and opportunities that the global information revolution is creating for developing countries, and concludes that access to financial, technical, and medical knowledge is crucial to improving the health and living standards of the poor.
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