Development Research Group

Health systems are central to building human capital, but expanding access alone does not guarantee better health outcomes.

This edition of Research Insights explores why increased coverage—through insurance, subsidies, or digital tools—often fails to translate into meaningful health gains.

Global evidence highlights the importance of provider incentives, quality of care, implementation capacity, and equity, while country-level research in Mali and Madagascar shows that while financial support and program integration can expand children’s access to care, persistent barriers and unequal participation limit impact.

Amidst slower global growth, a shifting labor market, and rising protectionism, governments around the world are increasingly turning to a once controversial policy. 

This report offers the first comprehensive guide to industrial policy for development in the 21st century, distinctive in four respects: it covers 15 policy tools; it provides practical guidance on design and implementation, including how to target industries and design effective institutions; it draws on new evidence from more than 60 economies; and it identifies targeted approaches for governments using industrial policy to pursue specific goals, from earning foreign exchange and creating jobs to reducing pollution and strengthening security and resilience.

Standards are the hidden infrastructure of modern economies—and they have never been more important. Developing countries today must contend with a thicket of increasingly stringent international standards, a product of globalization and rapid technological change. Using standards—and shaping them—is now a prerequisite for export growth, technology diffusion, and the efficient delivery of public services.

In this Policy Research Talk, World Development Report Director Xavier Giné will provide a deep dive into the World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development, which provides the most comprehensive assessment of the global landscape of standards today and how they can be used to accelerate economic development.

Over the next ten years, an estimated 1.2 billion young people will reach working age in low- and middle-income countries. Policymakers must ensure that labor markets can absorb these new job seekers while also delivering wage and productivity growth.

The March edition of the Research Newsletter takes a look at how the right mix of foundations, policies, and finance can rise to the jobs challenge of the next decade. New research on three pillars of jobs and growth—human and physical infrastructure, business environment and labor market policies, and mobilization of finance—provides fresh insights into how evidence-based policies and strategic investments can meet the aspirations of the next generation.