PODCAST · education
Accelerating Development: Ideas for Impact
by World Bank Institute for Economic Development
An AI-powered, expert-led podcast on cutting-edge policy solutions for today’s biggest development challenges, direct from our global research network. 🌐 Listen to other languages: https://www.podbean.com/podcast-network/wbginstitute
Episodes
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Episode 53 External Assessments: What Really Drives Public Service Quality?
More schools, more healthcare workers, bigger budgets—but are public services actually getting better? This episode explores how external assessments reveal hidden gaps in public service quality and citizen trust. Drawing on examples from Peru, Finland, and Norway, we examine how tools such as…
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Episode 52 If You Build It, Will They Click? The Behavioral Science of Digital Government
Nearly 40% of users report difficulty navigating government websites. So why do well-built digital services still lose users? This episode explores how behavioral science can help governments close the “last mile” between making services available and getting people to actually use them. Through...
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Episode 51 The “So What?” of Employee Surveys: Turning Data into Action
Survey participation jumped from 37% to 69% when employees saw that their feedback could lead to real change. But collecting survey data is only the first step. This episode explores how governments can turn public servant surveys into action through better benchmarking, tailored reporting,...
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Episode 50 How Can Resource-Rich Countries Turn Windfalls into Resilience?
Around two-thirds of emerging market and developing economies—and about 90% of low-income countries—depend substantially on commodity exports. This episode explores how resource-rich countries can reduce boom-and-bust cycles, manage windfalls, strengthen fiscal institutions, and invest temporary...
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Episode 49 Administrative Data: The Government’s Hidden Asset
40% of Brazil’s federal civil servants were projected to retire by 2030, while tax auditors with similar experience showed a five-fold difference in gross pay. This episode explores how governments can use administrative data they already collect—from payroll and procurement to service-delivery...
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Episode 48 Raise Revenue Better: What Makes a Tax System Actually Work?
💰 Ghana doubled property-tax collections with digital tools, Ethiopia increased VAT revenue by almost 50%, and Sierra Leone raised tax payments by 20% by showing taxpayers what local services their taxes supported. This episode explores *Raising Revenue Right: A Roadmap for Domestic Resource...
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Episode 47 The Foundations: Are Governments Measuring What Matters?
Nearly 70% of the indicators used to assess public financial management reforms in Malawi measured changes in form—not whether the system actually worked. This episode, the second on the series from The Government Analytics Handbook, explores how misleading metrics can create an illusion of…
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Episode 46 The Overview: Unlocking the Data Governments Already Have
$10 billion in annual savings. A potential 40% increase in tax revenue. A 32% greater chance of completing public projects. This episode explores how governments can unlock these gains by using the administrative data they already collect. Drawing on *The Government Analytics Handbook*, it…
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Episode 45 Can South Asia Stay as the World’s Fastest-Growing Region?
South Asia remains the world’s fastest-growing region, but growth is expected to slow from 7.0 percent in 2025 to 6.3 percent in 2026 as global energy disruptions create new pressures. This episode explores how trade reforms and industrial policy could shape the region’s next phase of growth.…
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Episode 44 AI Is Ready—but Are Developing Countries? Insights from the World Development Report 2026
Nearly 1/3 of rural schools in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa lack reliable electricity, while more than two-thirds lack consistent internet access. This episode explores what developing countries need to turn AI’s potential into inclusive growth. Drawing on the World Development Report 2026, it...
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Episode 43 Monitoring, Managing, and Markets: Tools for Clean Air - Managing
Only 20 percent of monitored days met the WHO’s PM2.5 guideline—and children’s exposure varied sharply across cities, schools, homes, and commutes. This episode explores how personal sensors, GPS tracking, and socioeconomic data can reveal the hidden geography of air pollution. From paved school...
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Episode 42 Less Than a Dollar, Lasting Change: Building Growth Mindsets in Indonesia
For just $0.69 per student, a six-session program reached more than 2,000 schools in Indonesia. While it did not raise national exam scores, it strengthened students’ belief in effort, improved self-management habits, and created a more supportive classroom climate—especially in lower-performing...
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Episode 41 The Institutions Behind the Switch: Who Keeps the Lights On in Africa?
Can countries escape the debt trap? As global growth slows to 2.5% and government debt in developing economies has climbed from under 40% to over 70% of GDP since 2010, policymakers face increasingly difficult choices. This episode explores the findings of the latest Global Economic Prospects…
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Episode 40 Can Countries Escape the Debt Trap? Lessons from the Latest Global Outlook
Can countries escape the debt trap? As global growth slows to 2.5% and government debt in developing economies has climbed from under 40% to over 70% of GDP since 2010, policymakers face increasingly difficult choices. This episode explores the findings of the latest Global Economic Prospects…
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Episode 39 How a WhatsApp Game Helped People Resist Health Misinformation
Health misinformation is now ranked among the world's 32 most severe global risks, with an estimated economic cost of US$78 billion in 2019. But what if governments could help people recognize misleading information before they encounter it? In this episode, we explore a randomized study from...
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Episode 38 The Next Growth Model: How East Asia Can Thrive in an AI-Driven World
Global private investment in generative AI reached $34 billion in 2024, while AI-related exports account for 34% of GDP in Malaysia and 32% in Viet Nam. Yet growth in East Asia and Pacific is projected to slow from 5.0% in 2025 to 4.2% in 2026. In this episode, we explore how one of the world's...
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Episode 37 When One Shipping Route Stops: The Global Shock Behind Rising Prices and Slower Growth
What happens when a single shipping route that carries a large share of the world's energy supply suddenly stops functioning? In March 2026, global oil supply fell by an estimated 10 million barrels per day—roughly one-tenth of world consumption—the largest oil supply shock on record. This…
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Episode 36 The Return of Industrial Policy: What's Driving the Surge in Europe and Central Asia?
Europe and Central Asia has announced more than 2,600 industrial policies since 2009 — more than one new intervention every day for sixteen years. But have these policies actually delivered stronger growth, resilience, and diversification? In this episode, we unpack the findings of the World…
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Episode 35 WDR2025 Mini Series: 3 How Do Standards Help Us Breathe Cleaner Air?
Ninety-nine percent of people worldwide breathe air that fails to meet safety standards. In this episode of the World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development mini series, we explore why standards alone are not enough—and what happens when enforcement, data, and capacity fall short....
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Episode 34 Can Standards Make—or Break—Firms and Services?
47% fewer fatalities—just by using a simple surgical checklist. In this second episode of the World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development (WDR25) mini series, we explore how standards can make—or break—firms and the delivery of essential services. Drawing on Chapters 4 and 5 of the...
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Episode 33 How Can Standards Unlock or Block Development?
Two hundred thousand euros—sometimes more than a firm’s entire annual revenue—just to meet international standards. In this third episode of the World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development (WDR25) mni series, we explore how standards can either unlock growth or become costly barriers...
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Episode 32 From Dialogue to Direction: AGORA 2025 on Rethinking Agriculture as a System in Africa
Africa imports $70–80 billion of food each year—even for products it could often produce competitively. This episode revisits dialogues held at AGORA 2025 to explore why. We examine a key shift: viewing agriculture not as a sector, but as a system shaped by markets, infrastructure, technology,...
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Episode 31 From Dialogue to Direction: What AGORA 2025 Revealed About Africa’s Energy Future
Over 600 million people in Africa still lack access to electricity—but as discussions at AGORA 2025 made clear, access alone is no longer enough. This episode reflects on key conversations from the inaugural Africa Growth and Opportunity: Research in Action (AGORA 2025) conference, where...
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Episode 30 The Jobs Reinvention in Europe and Central Asia
By 2050, Europe and Central Asia will lose 17 million workers from its workforce — yet productivity growth has been stalled since 2008. This episode unpacks the demographic cliff threatening the region's prosperity and asks: how do you grow an economy when your labor force is shrinking? We…
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Episode 29 From Bananas and Pineapples to iPhones: A New Framework for Industrial Policy
Low-income countries target an average of 13 industries in their development plans—compared with just 5 in high-income economies. Yet many lack the fiscal space for large subsidies. In this episode we explore what’s new about industrial policy today. Rather than trying to “pick winners,” the...
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Episode 28 Research Currents: Africa’s Energy – 1 When the Lights Stay Off
Over 90% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa live within reach of electricity infrastructure—yet many homes remain dark. Why? Because access depends on more than just building the grid. This episode, the first in the three-part series “Research Currents: Africa’s Energy,” explores new research on why...
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Episode 27 Monitoring, Managing, and Markets: Tools for Clean Air - 1 Monitoring
This episode is the first in the three-part series “Monitoring, Managing, and Markets: Tools for Clean Air.” Over 90% of the global population lives in places where air pollution exceeds safe guidelines—and one in nine deaths worldwide is linked to polluted air. Yet pollution often remains...
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Episode 26 Unlocking Growth by Closing Gender Gaps: Insights from Women, Business and the Law 2026
Only 58% of women participate in the labor force vs. 76% of men—and no economy grants women the full set of legal rights measured today. In this episode, we unpack Women, Business and the Law 2026 and the growing “implementation gap” between laws on paper and reality on the ground. From safety…
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Episode 25 One Apple, Fifteen Rules: How Agrifood Standards Shape Markets
Nearly 90% of global trade is affected by non-tariff measures. Exporters face an average of more than 15 distinct compliance requirements per shipment. What looks like a simple apple on a grocery shelf is governed by a dense web of agrifood standards—covering safety limits, labeling, audits, and...
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Episode 24 Rethinking Growth: How Investing in Education Lifted the World’s Poorest
45% of global growth. Nearly 60% of income gains for the poorest. 📊 What if education has been one of the most powerful forces reshaping the global economy? This episode explores new evidence from Distributional Growth Accounting: Education and the Reduction of Global Poverty, 1980–2019, showing...
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Episode 23 Can Frontier Markets Deliver Jobs in Time for the World’s Next 2.6 Billion People?
1.8 billion people today—and 2.6 billion by 2050. Frontier Market Economies are countries that sit between low-income and emerging markets: more developed than the poorest economies, with some access to global financial markets, but still facing significant structural constraints. This episode...
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Episode 22 Resilient on the Surface, Fragile Underneath: Inside the Global Growth Downshift
Global growth looks resilient—but is it? In 2025, global GDP grew 2.7%, yet 1 in 4 developing countries is poorer than before the pandemic. This episode looks beyond the headlines to uncover a slowing global economy, deepening divergence, rising debt, and the race to create jobs for 1.2 billion...
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Episode 21 Sixty Dollars a Barrel: Turning a Global Oversupply into a Policy Opportunity
$60 a barrel. A 2.7 million-barrel-per-day surplus. The global oil market is heading into one of its biggest oversupply moments outside major crises. This episode unpacks what falling energy prices really mean for development—why cheaper oil can create fiscal space, support disinflation, and open...
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Episode 20 The Power of Standards: Why a Metal Box, a Checklist, and a Plug Socket Can Change an Economy
📦 A metal box boosted trade by 1,240%. 🩺 A simple checklist cut surgical deaths by 47%. 🔌 A plug that fits a socket keeps economies running. This episode unpacks the World Development Report 2025’s idea of standards as the “invisible infrastructure” behind growth, trust, and public goods. From...
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Episode 19 One Reform Won’t Do It: The Surprising Power of Policy Packages to Spark Growth
Investment accelerations can lift output growth to nearly 6% a year and cut poverty rates by 0.5 percentage points annually—but they’ve become far rarer. This episode uncovers why single reforms no longer spark growth and how coordinated policy packages—combining fiscal stability, openness, and...
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Episode 18 Rethinking Resilience: Why Households Are the Real Engine of Climate Adaptation
Can a simple bank account offer better protection than a sea wall? This episode challenges the top-down view of climate resilience, arguing that the most effective path to climate resilience starts with people - and it begins with economic growth . We explore why a 10% rise in GDP saves millions,...
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Episode 17 Engineering an Economic Miracle: A Roadmap for Ukraine's Recovery
Ukraine's recovery requires more than rebuilding bridges; it demands a restart of the economic engine itself. This episode explores how Ukraine can replicate West Germany's post-war "Wirtschaftswunder" (economic miracle) to break out of a low-dynamism trap. We diagnose why top firms control over...
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Episode 16 Breaking the Cycle: Conflict, Poverty, and a Path to Economic Recovery
By 2030, nearly 60% of the world's extreme poor will live in 39 specific economies. What do they have in common? They are all trapped in a vicious cycle of fragility and conflict. This episode breaks down the devastating human and economic costs, showing how high-intensity conflict can wipe out…
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Episode 15 The Silent Majority Awakens: Unlocking Collective Action for a Greener Future
Most people care deeply about climate change—but many don’t realize that almost everyone else does too. This episode explores the hidden behavioral forces shaping the green transition, from “pluralistic ignorance” that keeps people silent to the power of social norms that spark collective change....
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Episode 14 The Gender Dividend: How Equality Fuels Economic Transformation
What if equality isn’t just the right thing to do—but the most effective path to growth? This episode explores new evidence from the African Center for Economic Transformation showing how closing gender gaps in access to land, finance, and care work drives productivity and resilience across...
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Episode 13 Turning the Tide: How to Revive Global Investment in a Fragmented World
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is drying up, and the implications are global. This episode unpacks the World Bank’s report Foreign Direct Investment in Retreat: Policies to Turn the Tide, revealing why capital flows to developing countries have fallen to half their 2008 peak. We explore how…
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Episode 12 The Psychology of Paying Taxes: How the Nudge, Budge and Trudge Create Big Revenue
Why do people pay taxes? The answer is more complex than just laws and penalties. This episode dives into the behavioral science behind tax compliance, revealing how governments can achieve staggering results without new legislation. We break down three key strategies: the "nudge" targeting...
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Episode 11 (Researchers edition). Tracking Inclusion: How Mobile Tech is Shaping Financial Access
Financial inclusion is a cornerstone of development, and since 2011, the Global Findex Database has been the definitive source of data on the ways in which adults around the world access and use financial services. The 2025 edition introduces a new component that measures access to and use of...
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Episode 11 Tracking Inclusion: How Mobile Tech is Shaping Financial Access
Financial inclusion is a cornerstone of development, and since 2011, the Global Findex Database has been the definitive source of data on the ways in which adults around the world access and use financial services. The 2025 edition introduces a new component that measures access to and use of...
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Episode 10 (Researchers edition). Beyond Borders: Rethinking Migration for Global Development
In this episode, we explore key insights from the World Bank World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies. With over 184 million people living outside their country of nationality—nearly half in low- and middle-income countries—the report highlights how migration, if managed...
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Episode 10 Beyond Borders: Rethinking Migration for Global Development
In this episode, we explore key insights from the World Bank World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies. With over 184 million people living outside their country of nationality—nearly half in low- and middle-income countries—the report highlights how migration, if managed...
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Episode 9 (Researchers edition). Global Economic Prospects: How to accelerate growth
Rising trade tensions and ongoing policy uncertainty are threatening to slow global growth to its weakest pace since 2008—outside of outright global recessions. In this episode, we unpack why growth forecasts have dropped for nearly 70% of economies worldwide, spanning all regions and income...
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Episode 9 Global Economic Prospects: How to accelerate growth
Rising trade tensions and ongoing policy uncertainty are threatening to slow global growth to its weakest pace since 2008—outside of outright global recessions. In this episode, we unpack why growth forecasts have dropped for nearly 70% of economies worldwide, spanning all regions and income...
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Episode 8 (Researchers edition). From Bytes to Better Lives: Unlocking the Power of Data for Development
In this episode, we dive into the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives and explore data's potential to drive development and improve lives. Join us as we unpack the report’s call for a new social contract on data to boost innovation and inclusion, protect privacy and trust, and...
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Episode 8 From Bytes to Better Lives: Unlocking the Power of Data for Development
In this episode, we dive into the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives and explore data's potential to drive development and improve lives. Join us as we unpack the report’s call for a new social contract on data to boost innovation and inclusion, protect privacy and trust, and...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
An AI-powered, expert-led podcast on cutting-edge policy solutions for today’s biggest development challenges, direct from our global research network.
🌐 Listen to other languages: https://www.podbean.com/podcast-network/wbginstitute
HOSTED BY
World Bank Institute for Economic Development
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How many episodes does Accelerating Development: Ideas for Impact have?
Accelerating Development: Ideas for Impact currently has 63 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Accelerating Development: Ideas for Impact about?
An AI-powered, expert-led podcast on cutting-edge policy solutions for today’s biggest development challenges, direct from our global research network. 🌐 Listen to other languages: https://www.podbean.com/podcast-network/wbginstitute
How often does Accelerating Development: Ideas for Impact release new episodes?
Accelerating Development: Ideas for Impact has 63 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Accelerating Development: Ideas for Impact is created and hosted by World Bank Institute for Economic Development.
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