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Attention is increasingly being paid to the conceptualization of the sustainable development agenda that should guide global development efforts beyond 2015. New trends are shaping the international...

Continuation along current development pathways is not sustainable. Current technologies and production practices and the consumption patterns of modern societies are leading to global warming and...

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 book offers a critical appraisal of the conventional measures and analysis of poverty as well as of poverty reduction policies. Despite greater efforts in reducing poverty since the early 1980s...

This book studies the processes which lead to the explosion of civil strife and tries to spell out the policy options available to address the challenges faced by post-conflict economies. It calls for...

Despite the rise in recent decades in the average income level, economic insecurity has also increased. True for both developing and developed countries, this increasing economic insecurity is harmful...

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...

This book spells out, in more detail than usual, what can and should be done to avert the real risks of disaster. It summons us to an endeavour worthy of the resources and ingenuity of the twenty...

The transition countries in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia were hit harder than any other region in the world by the global recession of 2008–2009. Economic recovery started in the...

Whilst good governance is a worthy goal by itself, this book argues that it is not a prerequisite for economic growth or development. Challenging the conventional good governance paradigm favoured by...

This publication provides a whole new set of ideas on how to overcome the deficiencies in the ongoing process of globalization and in the existing mechanisms for global economic governance. It points...

This book assesses feasible financing strategies for policymakers to follow in pursuance of human development, taking as reference the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their...

The global economic crisis of 2008-2009 exposed systemic failings at the core of economic policymaking worldwide. The crisis came on top of several other crises, including skyrocketing and highly...