As per a recent poll conducted by ILO and Gallup, when women across the globe were asked if they preferred to work in paid jobs, care for their families, or do both, a staggering 70% of women – regardless of their employment status – preferred to work. Despite this astonishing willingness to work, we see that women’s participation in the workforce has remained stagnant, and even declined in South Asia, over the last three decades, marking a gender gap of 30 percentage points between men and women in the workforce (see Figure 1). Among those who are employed, for every dollar a man makes, a woman makes 77 cents. Closing these gaps can be a central driver of inclusive economic growth. Countries can gain as much as a 20 percent increase in GDP per capita and a 14 percent increase in wealth, on average, if women’s employment was as much as men’s and if women earned as much as men, respectively.

As we mark World Food Safety Day, it is important to consider that consumers in many developing countries are not so lucky. For many low- and middle-income countries, food safety standards are primarily for exports to stack the shelves of wealthier nations' supermarkets. But beyond that, domestic food safety has received relatively little policy attention and action is normally reactive — to major foodborne disease outbreaks or trade interruptions — rather than preventative. In practice, this means that there are few measures in place to ensure that domestically traded food remains uncontaminated throughout production, transportation, storage, and processing. Regulations, where they exist, are often not unenforced due to limited resources and capacity. Moreover, many consumers buy from informal markets and unregulated vendors: wet markets, roadside kiosks, and street food sellers. But such retailers do not maintain food safety, are seldom subjected to enforced standards, and typically lack training in food hygiene practices. Within households, ensuring hygiene during food preparation is challenging when safe and clean water is not always easily accessible.

On the eve of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact convened later this month by the government of France, many of the world’s poorest countries face a host of competing policy priorities while struggling to raise the funds to address them. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, developing countries need to regain losses in health and learning, arrest increases in hunger and poverty, and counter climate change. Yet, most developing economies have not returned to their pre-pandemic growth path, and in many of them, government spending is expected to stagnate or contract for years to come. As both public debt and interest rates have increased, interest payments divert increasingly large shares of government funding from critical investment priorities. The summit will explore options to increase financial solidarity with the global south, supporting countries to increase their fiscal space, help resolve debt challenges, and aim to move rapidly to address national development goals. One of the summit’s focus areas is health, for three decades recognized as a mainstay of long-term growth, in many places, however, insufficiently funded to make any meaningful progress toward the health-related sustainable development goals. To turn the tide, we must forge a new path with three critical changes in the way we finance health.

Hiroshima, a name synonymous with unimaginable destruction and human suffering, has become a symbol of hope and rebirth. Today, the city stands as an inspiring testament to resilience, adaptation, and the power of community-driven reconstruction. With its commitment to sustainable urban solutions and civic engagement, Hiroshima has transformed from a war-torn ruin into a vibrant regional economic hub in western Japan, home to 1.2 million people.The World Bank's Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) recognized Hiroshima's extraordinary journey by hosting a symposium to promote learning and dialogue, "Housing and Urban Recovery: Knowledge Exchange in Japan on Urban Crises." The event brought together delegates from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and representatives from the World Bank to discuss urban recovery strategies and share their experiences.

South Asia is home to some of the largest natural coastal habitats such as mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass. The world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest - the Sundarbans - located between Bangladesh and India, is home to unique flora and fauna including tigers and rhinos and sustains more than 4 million people who directly depend on them. The coral reef systems that make up the more than 1,000 islands of the Maldives are the seventh largest coral reef area in the world. Protecting such natural coastal habitats is imperative for the environment and the region’s biodiversity. Sound natural resources management practices, such as protecting, restoring and replanting native species and coral reef rehabilitation can protect these resources and at the same time boost people’s livelihoods and economic opportunities.