With vast, untapped renewable resources, East Asia can accelerate its clean energy transition—boosting competitiveness, creating millions of jobs, and strengthening energy security. A new World Bank report charts how.
East Asia’s industrial rise has been powered by coal in recent decades – delivering rapid growth – but also making the region a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Today, the economics and the imperatives have shifted. A new World Bank Group report, Green Horizon: East Asia’s Sustainable Energy Future, finds that the region’s enormous, but largely untapped, renewable energy potential can fuel the next wave of growth, secure affordable energy, and enhance competitiveness.
Advancing women’s economic participation is a key driver of growth and job creation. Estimates suggest that removing barriers to women’s economic participation could raise global output by 15–20 percent. Yet progress remains uneven, with many countries facing persistent gaps in legislation, implementing policies and institutions, and legal enforcement.
Join us online or in person in the Preston Auditorium at the World Bank Group Headquarters in Washington, DC, for the global launch of Women, Business and the Law 2026,a flagship World Bank Group report that examines the legal and policy factors shaping women’s access to economic opportunities. Drawing on data from 190 economies, the report benchmarks progress across 10 dimensions of women’s economic life, including pay, assets, entrepreneurship, childcare, and workplace protections. This event will explore where gaps remain, which reforms have proven effective, and how legal and policy choices can support more inclusive and competitive economies. Policymakers, researchers, business leaders, and development practitioners will discuss the evidence behind women’s economic rights and their implications for growth and jobs.
Welcome and Opening – Sumi Somaskanda, Chief Anchor, BBC News – Indermit Gill, Chief Economist and Senior VP of Development Economics, WBG – Paschal Donohoe, Managing Director and Chief Knowledge Officer, WBG
Key Messages of Women, Business and the Law 2026
– Tea Trumbic, Manager, Women, Business and the Law, WBG Voice of an Entrepreneur – Lina Maria Useche Jaramillo
Panel — Legal reforms and actions needed to accelerate inclusive growth – Gargee Ghosh, President of Global Policy and Advocacy, Gates Foundation – Norman Loayza, Director, Policy Indicators Group, WBG – H.E. Wafa Bani Mustafa, Minister of Social Development, Jordan – Moderated by: Sumi Somaskanda Closing Remarks
Today’s development challenges are broader, more complex, and more interconnected than ever before. At the same time, resources are increasingly constrained. This moment demands a more coordinated response. The question is no longer whether we work together, but how effectively—and how quickly—we can do so.
New World Bank report calls for more investment in better waste management and circular economy
WASHINGTON, January 27, 2026 — The Middle East and North Africa region generates more waste per person than the global average and causes an estimated US$7.2 billion in environmental damage each year, according to a new World Bank report: Waste Management in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 2017, a ransomware spread across multiple countries, causing an estimated $10 billion in damage to businesses worldwide. More recently, in Costa Rica, a major incident in 2022 forced the government to declare a national state of emergency and resulted in losses up to 2.4% of GDP.
Digital technologies are reshaping economies and public services, but they also introduce new and persistent risks. Cyber incidents can disrupt essential services, undermine trust in public institutions, and erase development gains built over years.
Cybersecurity, therefore, is no longer a narrow technical concern. It is a foundational element of economic growth, national security, and inclusive digital development.
The World Bank’s flagship report, “Waste Management in the Middle East and North Africa,” reveals that the region currently generates over 155 million tons of waste each year, a figure projected to nearly double to 294 million tons by 2050. Poor waste management costs the region around US$7.2 billion each year in environmental damage. Food waste alone causes US$60 billion in losses, in a region where one in six people faces severe food insecurity. The report analyzes the challenges and opportunities in the waste sector across the region. Through new data from 19 countries and 26 cities, the report recommends pathways to advance waste management systems, tailored to high-income, middle-income, and fragile/conflict-affected countries. It calls for investment to modernize waste systems, reduce food loss and promote measures in line with the principles of circular economy. The report highlights that up to 83 percent of the waste collected in MENA could be reused, recycled, or recovered for energy. Transitioning to a circular economy could also create better jobs, particularly in waste services and recycling, while turning today’s waste crisis into a driver of sustainable growth. The report analyzes the challenges and opportunities in the waste sector across the region. Through new data from 19 countries and 26 cities, the report recommends pathways to advance waste management systems, tailored to high-income, middle-income, and fragile/conflict-affected countries. It calls for investment to modernize waste systems, reduce food loss and promote measures in line with the principles of circular economy. The report highlights that up to 83 percent of the waste collected in MENA could be reused, recycled, or recovered for energy. Transitioning to a circular economy could also create better jobs, particularly in waste services and recycling, while turning today’s waste crisis into a driver of sustainable growth.
New World Bank Group guidebook presents evidence-based strategies for designing effective labor programs, especially in low- and middle-income countries facing job creation challenges.
The most effective labor programs in low- and middle-income countries deliver earnings and employment improvements four to five times greater than the average, at times providing up to ten years lasting benefits, and returns far exceeding the initial investments.
Five core principles—contextual tailoring, comprehensive scope, incentive alignment, private sector engagement, and social protection integration—are key to creating lasting, inclusive impacts in the labor market.
Education is the foundation to skills development and jobs, and the surest way out of poverty, empowering generations to earn an income and drive economic growth. A good education equips learners with key foundational skills—literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional competencies—which are essential for work and life. These skills help today’s children become tomorrow’s productive workers and enable workers to reskill or upskill later in life. The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, with a $26.4 billion portfolio across 81 countries, supporting 324 million students to date with better education.
On this International Day of Education, we look at why education works, and how it helps propel people out of poverty, putting economies on a path to growth.
Netherlands for the World Bank 