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Standards and regulations are an integral, if easily overlooked, part of our daily life. They determine whether a plug fits into a socket, whether food is safe for human consumption or whether a bank...

This report looks at the missing link to inclusive growth for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which are less productive relative to large firms in the developing world than in the developed world...

This year’s report focuses on regional trade, the most common form of trade for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It contains 50 country profiles, featuring detailed SME competitiveness...

This SME Competitiveness Outlook assesses the impact of conflict and fragility on business performance. It unveils a Fragility Exposure Index, and shows that fragility, as experienced by firms, can be...

Our services sectors are key to an economic transformation. This report calls them ‘connected services. Transport and logistics, financial services, information and communication technologies, and...

The SME Competitiveness Outlook 2021 analyses how small businesses can rebuild from the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic so they are better prepared to face the looming crisis of climate change. It...

Increasing annual investments in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries by $1 trilling would yield disproportionate dividends in terms of progress towards the Sustainable...

New technologies like advanced robotics, 3-D printing, big data and the internet of things are rapidly changing the way in which firms do business. A strong business ecosystem is necessary to manage...

This publication is released at a time where the world is carefully moving out of the 'great lockdown' stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, a partial or complete lockdown of the majority of...

No longer can policies on population or development fail to take the needs and rights of women and girls into consideration. Such policies have not succeeded, cannot succeed nor are they just or...

Too often, the fight for women's empowerment is viewed as one for women to wage alone. This publication offers a discussion on the subject showing men to be essential partners in this struggle by...

Narrowing the gap between women's aspirations and their reproductive experiences will benefit both women and society. This publication offers a discussion in such areas as: poverty and inequality...

The challenge of the 21st century is to feed a world of between 8 and 10 billion people. Only the full involvement of women as equal partners can guarantee success. This publication offers a...

This publication takes a look at population and sustainable development five years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). It discusses such areas as new visions...

Agenda 21, the United Nations Programme of Action from the Rio Conference, notes in Chapter 5 that demographic trends and factors and sustainable development have a synergistic relationship. This...