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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...

Five years after the start of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), governance issues remain at the forefront. The COVID-19...

This report examines the role that national institutional and governance innovations and changes that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic can play in advancing progress towards the 2030 Agenda for...

This report looks at national-level developments in relation to several concepts highlighted in the targets of Goal 16, which are viewed as institutional principles: access to information...

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...

The World Public Sector Report 2003 provides an analysis of the status of e-government in the world today. It adopts the UN Millennium Declaration as its analytical framework and presents global...

The main objective of the 2010 World Public Sector Report is to analyze challenges, strategies and practices in rebuilding public administration after conflict. It is unique in that it provides key...

The conditions of globalization, including economic integration, fiscal discipline, introduction of information communications technologies and democratic governance, have increasingly forced states...

This report examines how the public sector can foster integrated approaches to implementing the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It examines challenges and opportunities for...

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...

The World Public Sector Report, one of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs(UNDESA) Flagship Reports, aims to capture the emerging issues, concerns and innovations in...

This publication is based on highlights of the discussion held during the 12th Session of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA), in 2013, on “The Role of Responsive and...

It is increasingly being acknowledged that the State is a key actor in the development process. It has a major role to play in making globalization work for all; in alleviating poverty and income...