2025 has been a year of steep ups and downs for the global economy—at least where growth forecasts have been concerned. The consensus forecasts of economists have swung from optimism to pessimism and back again. Yet actual economic activity has remained remarkably resilient. Forecasters now expect global growth of about 2.7 percent—broadly in line with expectations at the start of the year (figure 1A).
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Every day, millions of children are robbed of their potential before they even start school. This is not a distant tragedy—it’s a global emergency. Malnutrition is one of the most critical, yet often overlooked, development challenges of our time. Although some progress has been made in recent years, the global fight against malnutrition has stalled, continuing to impact millions, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
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The G20 has delivered a strong message that multilateral development banks (MDBs) need to be “better, bigger, and more effective.” That’s the headline of the G20 reform plan adopted in November 2024, which not only sets out the future path but also establishes how to get there with a detailed roadmap of 13 recommendations and 44 actions.
Continue readingUnequal access to jobs and finance. Limited access to education and healthcare. Exclusion 
from decision-making. Risks of gender-based violence.
Women all over the world face these challenges, but even more so in countries facing fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) where restrictive gender norms are often amplified and entrenched.
While urbanization has fueled significant economic expansion across the region, it has also brought a variety of challenges, including a significant rise in the demand for motorized transport. The impact on people’s lives is hard to overstate: for the residents of African cities, more vehicles on the road often translates into chronic traffic congestion, longer commutes, as well as increased traffic fatalities and injuries.Before COVID-19, many countries were making significant gains in human capital, improving 
health and education outcomes for girls and boys and empowering women to reach their potential. Between 2010 and March 2020, the World Bank’s Human Capital Index 2020 Update found an average increase of five percent in the human capital index across countries.
The pandemic is an important reminder of how precious and productive an investment human capital is. One year after the launch of the World Bank’s Africa Human Capital Plan, there has not only been a significant scale-up, but also a shift in World Bank support to African countries.
If you take care of the land, it will take care of you, says Tsefaye Kidane, a 40-year-old coffee farmer from the Kafa Biosphere Reserve, a protected area in southwest Ethiopia that is also regarded as the birthplace of wild Arabica coffee.
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A few years ago, Binita Biswokarma’s life took a sharp turn for the worse.
With no skills, relatives, or farmland, the young woman from Kaski, a rural district in West Nepal, struggled to provide for her son’s education, buy food and necessities, let alone repair the roof of her home.
Then came an opportunity to work as a road maintenance worker—and find a way out of poverty.
Netherlands for the World Bank 