Improving the effectiveness and traction of IMF surveillance could enable timely responses to climate-related crises. Overseeing the international monetary system and the policies of its member countries—an activity known as “surveillance”—is a key function the IMF performs to promote global economi...

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set ambitious targets for high-quality, universal education by 2030. But existing efforts to “cost the SDGs” return unattainable price tags. In this chapter, we first review approaches to costing the SDGs in the education sector.

Long-term care workers have, in many countries, become the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Asian region is no different. As the region grapples with an increasingly aging population, the pandemic has prompted new policies that aim to support long-term care workers, particularly migrants, in suppo...

When sudden shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic cripple an economy’s ability to rapidly raise revenue and reallocate limited resources, multilateral development banks (MDBs) can lead the crisis response. MDBs provide a range of instruments that support countries in different ways and at different peri...

Ongoing and looming global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change have brought renewed attention to the delivery of global public goods (GPGs)—goods that benefit the entire world and can only be provided through cooperation between countries, like public health, climate action, and ...

Africa’s informal sector remains the largest in the world. According to the International Labor Organization, it claims almost 90 percent of the economy in sub-Saharan Africa and about two-thirds in North Africa (although there is significant heterogeneity in its size across countries).