Education is one of the most powerful forces we have for creating a more peaceful and prosperous future. Yet the children most in need of a good education are also at greatest risk of having their learning...
Learning poverty is the measure of the number of children who cannot read and understand a simple story by age 10. Half of the world’s children experience learning poverty, failing to acquire foundational...
The COVID-19 pandemic is, without a doubt, the greatest worldwide shock suffered by education systems in history. Ever since its outbreak at the start of 2020, most educational systems across the world...
In October 2019, the World Bank and UNESCO Institute for Statistics proposed a new metric, Learning Poverty, designed to spotlight low levels of learning and track progress toward ensuring that all children...
Education is a right with immense inherent value. As an essential building block for a country’s human capital, it is also a key driver of growth, competitiveness, and economic development. For societies...
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was living a learning crisis. Before the pandemic, 258 million children and youth of primary- and secondary-school age were out of school. And low schooling...
All children should be able to read by age 10. Reading is a gateway for learning as the child progresses through school—and conversely, an inability to read slams that gate shut. Beyond this, when children...
This paper re-examines the roles of changes in income and inequality in poverty reduction. The study provides estimates of the relative effects of inequality reduction versus growth promotion in reducing...
This paper studies the relationship between inequality of opportunity and development outcomes in a cross-country setting. Scholars have long debated the impact of inequality on growth, development, and...
This Inequality in Focus newsletter includes the following headings: Analyzing the World Bank’s goal of achieving “shared prosperity”; Managing risk is essential to reducing poverty and inequality.
This Inequality in Focus newsletter includes the following headings: Analyzing the World Bank’s goal of achieving “shared prosperity”; Managing risk is essential to reducing poverty and inequality.
This Inequality in Focus newsletter includes the following headings: Analyzing the World Bank’s goal of achieving “shared prosperity”; Managing risk is essential to reducing poverty and inequality.
Focusing on the welfare of the less well off as a measure of real societal progress is the fundamental principle underlying the WBG indicator of "shared prosperity", namely income growth of the bottom...
Demographics, labor income, public transfers, or remittances: Which factor contributes the most to observed reductions in poverty? Using counterfactual simulations, this paper accounts for the contribution...
This report provides operational guidance to maximize the impact of investments on nutrition outcomes for women and young children. The recommendations in this document build on evidence to date on issues...
This report provides operational guidance to maximize the impact of investments on nutrition outcomes for women and young children. The recommendations in this document build on evidence to date on issues...
This report provides operational guidance to maximize the impact of investments on nutrition outcomes for women and young children. The recommendations in this document build on evidence to date on issues...
Improvement in labor market conditions has been the main explanation behind many of the poverty success stories observed in the last decade, that is the primary conclusion of an analysis of changes in...
This paper quantifies the contributions of different factors to poverty reduction observed in Bangladesh, Peru and Thailand over the last decade. In contrast to methods that focus on aggregate summary...
This Inequality in Focus newsletter includes the following headings: Introduction to the Inequality in Focus series; An overview of global income inequality trends; Declining income inequality in Brazil:...