This report examines progress and challenges in reducing poverty in Lesotho. Lesotho's poverty rate is lower today than it was 15 years ago. However, with a poverty rate of 49.7 percent in 2017, poverty remains widespread. Economic vulnerability is high, with more than 75 percent of the population either poor or vulnerable to poverty.

Malnutrition, which encompasses both undernutrition and overnutrition, presents a significant human capital as well as economic development challenge across most ASEAN Member States.A healthy, well-nourished, well-educated and skillful population provides the foundation for a productive life and enables future workers to compete in the dynamic l

Nigeria continues its recovery from the 2016 recession, sustaining an estimated 2 percent growthrate in 2019. The collapse of global oil prices during 2014–16, combined with lower domestic oil production, led to a sudden slowdown in economic activity.

With Malawi’s economic growth recovering and single digit inflation, the Government has a key opportunity to rein in fiscal deficits and reduce domestic debt.

Land management in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) is facing important challenges with degradation and needs to learn from others in order to make progress at scale.

With nearly 71 million refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), and asylum-seekers as of 2018, forced displacement is a developing world crisis. However, evidence-based planning for IDPs is challenging because of a lack of data on their numbers, locations and socioeconomic characteristics.

In this paper, the impact of salinity on maternal and child health in Bangladesh is analyzed using data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Surveys. A U-shaped association between drinking water salinity and infant and neonatal mortality is found, suggesting higher mortality when salinity is very low or high.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions are increasingly recognized as essential for improving nutritional outcomes in children. Emerging literature describes the negative effects of poor sanitation on child growth. However, limited evidence has shown a link between water quality and nutritional outcomes.

Over a decade has passed since the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers marked the onset of the largest global economic crisis since the Great Depression. The crisis revealed major shortcomings in market discipline, regulation, and supervision, and reopened important policy debates on financial regulation.

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital is one of the world’s fastest growing megacities, but many are breathing polluted air. This report estimates that in 2018, air pollution caused more than 11,200 premature deaths in Lagos. Children under five are the most affected accounting for about sixty percent of the deaths.