World Development Report 2025

STANDARDS FOR DEVELOPMENT

About

Standards make everyday life run smoothly. You rarely notice them: the credit card that works in any corner of the world, the Wi-Fi signal that connects a remote village to the cloud, or the vaccine vial that fits syringes from Dakar to Delhi. When standards work, they build trust. They free people and firms to focus on creating, trading, and innovating, confident that the systems around them will hold. When standards fail, the effects are immediate and draining. Payments are declined, signals drop, vaccines spoil—and instead of being productive, people spend their energy just meeting their basic needs.

Standards, in short, 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. Yet standards are too often overlooked by policy makers, especially in developing countries.

World Development Report 2025 provides the most comprehensive assessment of the global landscape of standards today and how they can be used to accelerate economic development. It offers a practical framework for countries at all stages of development. Countries at the earliest stage should adapt international standards to suit local conditions when needed, whereas at more advanced stages, they should aim to align domestic markets with international standards. Meanwhile, all countries should author international standards in priority areas.

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Main Messages

Standards are the hidden foundations of prosperity. They are the shared rules that make plugs fit sockets, medicines work safely, and digital systems connect seamlessly. Standards embody collective knowledge, build trust, and enable economies to function efficiently. When they fail, markets fragment; when they work, prosperity follows.
For low- and middle-income countries, standards have never mattered more. Nearly 90 percent of world trade is now shaped by nontariff measures, most linked to standards. From digital systems for payment to charging stations for electric vehicles, new technologies can deliver economywide benefits only when standards exist. Mastering them can enhance national competitiveness and protect against technological, financial, and environmental risks.
Standards are a versatile tool of economic policy. Governments can use voluntary standards to drive innovation and give technical guidance on compliance with regulations. They can also make them mandatory when uniform compliance is necessary to protect health, safety, or the environment. In addition, governments can deploy standards as an instrument of industrial policy without reference to specific technologies or firms.
Ambition must match capacity. Countries should follow a trajectory that takes into account their stage of economic development, first adapting international standards to local realities when needed, then aligning with them as institutions mature, and actively participating in authoring standards in priority areas as capabilities grow. Rwanda’s Zamukana Ubuziranenge (“Grow with Standards”) program exemplifies this path, helping micro, small, and medium enterprises progress step by step towards compliance with international standards.
Investing in quality-enhancing infrastructure makes standards work well. The system of testing, certification, metrology, and accreditation in a country is what makes standards effective. Such systems are expensive to build and easy to neglect. Countries should start with public provision of quality-enhancing services in key sectors, then gradually open these services up to private participation. In many places, capacity gaps are stark: Ethiopia has fewer than 100 accredited auditors for compliance with standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), compared with 12,000 in Germany.
To make standards a springboard for development, countries should do the following:
- Create incentives for firms to upgrade the quality of their exports rather than imposing unrealistic mandates.
- Adapt and sequence standards to align with the national capacity to enforce them.
- Participate actively in international forums for setting standards.
- Invest in and share quality infrastructure resources regionally.
The global community, for its part, must do the following:
- Support participation by low- and middle-income countries in developing international standards and design tiered standards that reflect diverse capacities among countries.
- Deepen regulatory cooperation and reduce fragmentation.
- Develop credible standards for emerging technologies and actions to prevent or mitigate climate change.
- Expand research and data on the economic and social impacts of standards.
Standards matter for development. Countries that take them seriously are getting ahead. Countries that ignore them risk falling behind.

Chapter Summaries

Chaper 1. A History of Standards
Chapter 1 examines the history of standards, from ancient systems of measurement to modern digital protocols, demonstrating how standards have served not only as technical tools, but also as means of coordination, authority, and exchange, supporting the governance of empires, the expansion of trade networks, and the advancement of science and industry. Developments in these areas have significantly contributed to nation building, market integration, and international cooperation, acting as catalysts for economic transformation.
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- SPOTLIGHT 1
Chapter 2. Using Standards as a Catalyst for Development
Chapter 2 offers guidance on the different ways that both voluntary and mandatory standards can serve as tools of public policy, highlighting how standards differ from regulations and how they complement other instruments such as market-based policies. It also presents a conceptual framework showing how low- and middle-income countries can move toward higher standards for quality, adapting international standards to local capacity when necessary, while gradually raising the ambition of their standards and their ability to meet those standards.
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- SPOTLIGHT 2
Chapter 3. Reaching the Full Potential of Standards with Quality Infrastructure
Chapter 3 explains how countries can increase their ability to comply with standards by developing effective quality infrastructure. It discusses how to strengthen institutions, sequence reforms, and allocate roles between the government and the private sector.
Chapter 4. Standards for a Better Economy
Chapter 4 discusses how adopting voluntary standards raises the quality of a country’s products and services and how international trade accelerates the diffusion of such standards. It documents the proliferation of increasingly complex and stringent standards and regulations over the past two decades and explains how low- and middle-income countries acquire tacit knowledge through foreign direct investment. The chapter also highlights the growing role of technology standards and how these countries can strategically leverage them.
Chapter 5. Standards for Better Human Capital
Chapter 5 focuses on standards in health care and education, especially during early childhood, to improve lifelong outcomes. It shows how process standards, such as procedural checklists and standardized treatments, enhance the quality of health care, whereas standards regarding teacher qualifications, attendance, and pedagogy increase educational quality. Measurement standards are also key to driving educational reform and improving learning outcomes.
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Chapter 6. Standards for a Better Environment
Chapter 6 examines how countries can use environmental standards to support green growth by reducing pollution and fostering adaptation to climate change, while balancing the economic costs and benefits of such standards.
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Chapter 7. Standards for Better Governance
Chapter 7 discusses how governance standards in three core functions—personnel, payments, and procurement—enable governments to implement policies effectively and deliver public goods and services. Leveraging such standards strengthens institutional capacity and ensures greater efficiency, fairness, and accountability.
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Chapter 8. Using Standards to Shape Development and Manage Global Challenges
Chapter 8 provides a set of recommendations for how policy makers in low- and middle-income countries—and elsewhere—can use standards most effectively for development. Policy makers in low- and middle-income countries should be sure to use standards as a springboard for development, not a straitjacket. Regarding the global community, more effort is needed to ensure that international standards align with the realities in low- and middle-income countries from the beginning of the development process.
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