World Bank Group

A Path to Jobs for the Urban Poor

A rapidly urbanizing world presents enormous economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable but also significant barriers to economic inclusion. This report provides an overview of the urban context and challenges, describes a framework for fostering urban economic inclusion, and examines the current landscape of economic inclusion programs, starting with the policy impetus driving their emergence.

Closing Gaps, Increasing Opportunities : A Diagnostic on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Nigeria

This World Bank report draws on data from the most recent Nigeria General Household Survey to makes five critical contributions towards improving gender inclusion in Nigeria: (1) highlighting the gender gaps in labor force participation; (2) documenting the magnitude and drivers of the gender gaps in key economic sectors; (3) diving deep into three contextual constraints: land, livestock, and occupational segregation; (4) measuring the costs of the gender gaps; and (5) offering policy and programming recommendations of innovative options to close the gender gaps.

What Do You Want to Be? : Youth Aspirations in the Time of the COVID-19 Crisis - Evidence from Three Sub-Saharan Countries

This World Bank report incorporates youth aspirations and employment module of High-Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) into multi-topic household surveys to present the differences in education and career aspirations across Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Malawi. The data collected is nationally representative, and age distribution is similar across countries. Understanding the aspirations and goals of the youth is expected to lead to the development of effective employment policies.

Jobs Undone : Reshaping the Role of Governments toward Markets and Workers in the Middle East and North Africa

This World Bank report argues that the lack of market contestability in the MENA region makes it hard for new firms to start up and expand—so employment cannot grow fast enough to keep up with the growth of the working-age population. In addition, the report underlines the limited market dynamism and stunted job creation that continues to depress MENA's private sector. Finally, the report highlights the importance of understanding the policies and regulations hindering market contestability.

Women, Business and the Law

This report provides an overview of the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. It presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they progress through their lives and careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. Finally, the report identifies the barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages the reform of discriminatory laws.

 

Remote Learning During the Global School Lockdown : Multi-Country Lessons

This study includes three main sections that have been organized in chronological order within this report: the first one, “What can we learn from education emergency responses in low- and middle-income countries?” analyzes the emergency education responses to the COVID-19 pandemic of over 120 governments from April until May 2020.