blogs.worldbank.org

3 days ago | blogs.worldbank.org | Monica Bennett |Will Davies |Khafi Weekes

In 2018, after 3 years of droughts, the city of Cape Town in South Africa faced severe water shortages. Dam reservoir capacity had dropped to critical levels and the city was fast approaching “Day Zero” of no water availability. Desalination, new dams, strict water usage limits – all solutions were on the table. Solving the water crisis in Cape Town required a variety of activities, including gray infrastructure, behavioral change, pricing changes, and a massive communications campaign.

3 days ago | blogs.worldbank.org | Paolo Agnolucci |Nikita Makarenko

This blog post is part of a special series based on the April 2025 Commodity Markets Outlook, a flagship report published by the World Bank. This series features concise summaries of commodity-specific sections extracted from the report. Explore the full report here. The first four months of the year have been turbulent for oil markets. Brent crude oil plunged by more than $12 per barrel ($/bbl) in the four trading days following April 2.

1 month ago | blogs.worldbank.org | Matthew Welch |Brian A. Stacy |Divyanshi Wadhwa |Umar Serajuddin

世界发展指标 （简称WDI） 是跨国时间序列发展统计数据的主要来源。《世界发展指标》涵盖 217 个经济体的近 1500 项指标。自从在《1978年世界发展报告》中作为一组不起眼的表格首次亮相以来，《世界发展指标》已有了显著发展。随着时间的推移，《世界发展指标》已成为一项开放的、易访问的资源，其用户遍布全球，既有经济学家、政策制定者和社会科学家，也有卫生、贫困、气候、教育等不同领域的从业人员。《世界发展指标》特别有价值的一点是其指标覆盖的质量、相关性和广度，方便用户进行跨国比较，长期分析可上溯至上世纪60 年代，并可进行快速的政策核查。 然而，随着全球发展挑战的日益多样化和数据产生的不断扩大，《世界发展指标》中可能纳入的指标清单也在扩大。从能源和数字接入到专业化劳动力市场统计数据，《世界发展指标》每年都会收到更多可能纳入的指标。归根结底，这是一个我们的数据和知识体系发展的机遇。但是，无节制的扩展也存在质量下降或使用户感到困惑的风险。...

2 months ago | blogs.worldbank.org | Chakib Jenane

2 months ago | blogs.worldbank.org | Tatiana Didier |Ana Fiorella Carvajal

Access to alternative financing sources is particularly critical in turbulent times, when bank credit might tighten, leaving SMEs exposed to shocks. Today, capital-market financing for SMEs is almost non-existent in most EMDEs. Capital markets have more significance for SMEs in High-Income Countries (HICs) and a few EMDEs.