In the 35 years since I joined the World Bank, there have been vast changes in development. The reduction in the rate of poverty was never as sharp as in the first part of the 2000s, along with notable improvements in various social indicators. Striking has been the rise of...

The Horn of Africa is facing a humanitarian catastrophe from the worst drought in 60 years. The United Nations estimates that more than 11 million people need urgent assistance to stay alive. International donors, including the World Bank with its recent pledge of $500 million, are...

Economic development today has to deal with multiple shocks in greater measure than at any time in recent memory. The financial, food and fuel crises as well as climate-related disasters have dominated the global stage in the past five years. And unless we recognize the interconnectivity among these events, responses...

A striking difference between the recent financial, food, fuel and economic crises of previous decades is the attention some nations -- Colombia, Georgia, Ethiopia, and Mexico among them -- have been able to give this time around to the plight of the poor from the outset. The handle these countries...

Whether development work has a real impact and leads to strong outcomes has been a topic of discussion for quite some time, and more so in the past few years as the recent financial, food and natural crises further stress the world's poor. The question is, what explains the wide...

This blog is co-authored by Sanjay Pradhan, Vice President, World Bank Institute.

Three interlinked global crises -- food, economic, climate -- were high on the agenda of this year's spring meetings held by the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. At a conference organized by the Independent Evaluation...

The global financial crisis and the spike in food prices have pushed millions of people into poverty worldwide. By the end of 2010, the financial crisis is estimated to have added some 64 million people to the ranks of the poor who live under $1.25 a day. Meanwhile,...

Food prices hit record highs in January, sparking fears of a new global food crisis. The World Bank's food price index rose by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011. This is 29 percent above its level a year ago and only 3 percent below its 2008...

In the past year, humanity faced global disasters of unprecedented magnitude and impact. With tragic earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, and floods in Pakistan and West Africa, all in only one year, countries and international aid organizations are dealing with enormous human suffering. The UN Office for the Coordination of...

This week the UN opened its summit on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This summit has convened at a time when the world is emerging from one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression, facing the harsh consequences of multiple natural disasters, and grappling with how...

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters have been rising sharply in recent decades. Today Pakistan is witnessing the loss of lives and livelihoods from the deadliest flooding in decades, the full impact of which is yet to be fathomed. The World Bank pledged $900 million for recovery programs and...