Moldova has experienced rapid economic growth in the past decade, which has been accompanied by reductions in poverty and good performance in shared prosperity. Nonetheless, Moldova remains one of the poorest countries in Europe and faces challenges in sustaining the progress. The challenges for progress include spatial and cross-group inequalities, particularly because of unequal access to assets, services and economic opportunities.

Recent surveys show considerable progress in maternal and child health in Ethiopia. The improvement has been in health outcomes and health services coverage. The study examines how different groups have fared in this progress. It tracked 11 health outcome indicators and health interventions related to Millennium Development Goals 1, 4, and 5. These are stunting, underweight, wasting, neonatal mortality, infant mortality, under-five mortality, measles vaccination, full immunization, modern contraceptive use by currently married women, antenatal care visits, and skilled birth attendance.

This report summarizes the results, lessons and recommendations to the Government of Lao PDR from two Technical Assistance projects (TA) “Supporting Demand Creation for Sanitation through Community Led Total Sanitation” and “Sanitation Marketing in Lao PDR” carried out by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program between October 2012 and December 2015. The development objective of the TAs was to increase improved sanitation and hygiene practices and change community behavior to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status at the village level.

This note aims to provide information and analysis as a basis for a better understanding of the challenges and constraints of achieving gender equality in Bolivia, with a special focus on the intersectionality between gender and ethnicity. Combining and analyzing existing evidence and new data, it seeks to document gender-specific disparities in development outcomes, highlight opportunities and constraints to women’s empowerment, and identify areas in which continuing knowledge gaps are particularly important to understand and address gender inequalities.

Romania aims to be a country in which all citizens are provided with an equal opportunity toparticipate in society, where their basic needs are met and their differences respected, and whereall people feel valued and can live in dignity.Our society is still far from this ideal. One in every five Romanian people is income poor. Most of the people living in relative poverty in Romania are in persistent poverty, meening that they have been in poverty for at least the last three years.

In Romania, as well as in many other East European countries, transport sector Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are increasing fast and their growth is expected to continue into the future, accompanying the on-going economic convergence with the European Union (EU). The objective of the analysis was to assess the impact of green policies and investments on transport emissions. For this purpose, the Romania Transport Strategic Emission Prediction Tool (TRANSEPT) was developed.

The performance of the Malian economy is largely dependent on the performance of the agricultural sector. The overall good growth in the Malian economy over the last several years is attributed to the agricultural GDP growth. Since 1995, the economy grew at about 5 percent per year until 2010, but a global recession, the military coup and terrorist activity caused a noticeable slowdown in GDP to about 1.2 percent in 2011-2012. The economic growth has resumed at a slow pace since 2013 and is currently estimated around 4.5 percent for 2014-2015.

This report aims to extract lessons on slum upgrading and involuntary resettlement policies and practices learned from the process of addressing the Badia East case, which involved complex interactions between affected people, NGOs, the Bank and Lagos State Government.

This paper introduces a novel top-down approach to geospatially identify and distinguish areas of mixed use from predominantly residential areas within urban agglomerations. Under the framework of the World Bank’s Central American Country Disaster Risk Profiles (CDRP) initiative, a disaggregated property stock exposure model has been developed as one of the key elements for disaster risk and loss estimation. Global spatial datasets are therefore used consistently to ensure wide-scale applicability and transferability.

Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, congratulated the editorial team of National Geographic for the special issue on Africa. National Geographic has played a unique role in broadening the knowledge of the world. The World Bank partnered with National Geographic to produce a full-color wall map to raise awareness of the millennium development goals (MDGs) and to highlight each country's progress. We often hear about an Africa that is ravaged by poverty, disease and conflict. There is another face to Africa, one of hope, ambition, energy, intelligence and achievement.

In his speech, President A. W. Clausen reviews the economic and debt crisis of the last five years and shares his expectations for the next five years. The World Bank will play a vital role in a successful transition from recession to sustained economic growth. The Bank’s operational strategy rests on twin pillars: assisting borrowers in formulating adjustment programs, and helping mobilize external resources to sustain these programs. Heavily indebted middle-income countries need help to grow out of their debts.

This is the address to the Board of Governors, delivered by Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, in Hong Kong, China, on September 23, 1997. This year's core theme is the challenge of inclusion, bringing people into society who have never been part of it before, the main reason why the World Bank Group exists. On reviewing the state of development circa 1997: despite improved social indicators, the rapid rise in life expectancy levels, and freedom ascending, much still needs to be improved.