Research

Where do caregivers of school children stand on the perennial debate on cash versus in-kind transfers for social protection and human capital development? This paper explores the predictors of parental preferences for alternative modalities in the context of Ghana’s national school feeding programme...

This note assesses how large tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) companies navigated the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of sales and profits, in order to provide evidence for raising health taxes on these products.

Drawing on extensive research and consultations with adolescent girls, policy makers, and practitioners, this report reveals that investing in adolescent girls can yield a tenfold return in economic impact. It outlines six key areas for targeted action: building human capital, enhancing economic suc...

In recent decades, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have turned to health technology assessment (HTA) to prioritize health care interventions in pursuit of universal health coverage. HTA has demonstrated its value through significant cost savings, as demonstrated by Thailand and Brazil, whe...

How committed is each country to tackling climate change at home and to helping developing countries? We consider nine key indicators on the world’s major economies spanning their climate contributions in three areas: international finance, policy, and emissions. Indicators are calculated to be comp...

There is a strong case for investing in education. It is a key driver of economic growth and fosters productivity gains, as seen by recent experiences in several Asian countries. While the benefits of education are well recognized, realizing these outcomes depends on the availability of fiscal space...

A major shortcoming of the $100 billion climate finance goal agreed in 2009 was the absence of a clear baseline. With draft negotiating text for a new climate finance goal now available, we set out some relevant starting measures and amounts to inform the negotiations going into COP29 and make recom...