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Half a century after independence, Bangladesh has achieved impressive progress. The country has transformed from one of the poorest nations into a global textile manufacturing hub capable of meeting its medical needs almost entirely through domestic pharmaceutical production. The country will graduate from the least developed country (LDC) category in 2026 and aspires to be a high-income nation through industrialisation by 2041. Meeting this challenge requires accelerating economic transformation through diversification and innovation. This Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR), implemented with the support and collaboration of the European Union (EU), and in partnership with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), identifies concrete options for supporting Bangladesh’s development. It calls for leveraging digitalisation to address persistent fragilities and it advocates for a new pact based on shared responsibilities between the national government, the private sector and international partners to shift to a new development phase and ensure sustainable, smooth and irreversible graduation.

What are the root causes of gender inequality? Building on the fifth edition of the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), the SIGI 2023 Global Report provides a global outlook of discriminatory social institutions, the fundamental causes of gender inequality. It reveals how formal and informal laws, social norms and practices limit women’s and girls’ rights and opportunities in all aspects of their lives. Globally, 40% of them continue to live in countries where gender-based discrimination is assessed as high or very high. The report stresses how discriminatory social institutions curtail women’s and adolescents’ fundamental access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. It also sheds light on the gendered impacts of climate change and underlines how women can play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. To accelerate efforts aimed at achieving SDG 5 and eliminating the underlying and structural factors that hamper women’s empowerment, the report offers concrete policy actions. It calls for a gender-transformative approach to leverage crises and challenges into windows of opportunity to establish women and men as agents of change.

Located in the mid-Atlantic, the archipelagos of the Azores is an autonomous region of Portugal and an European Union Outermost Region. Once central to global trade routes, the Azores are aspiring to regain a prominent international role by leveraging their unique geographical, natural and historical attributes. To that end, this Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR) Spotlight identifies priority actions in several areas, including scientific research and collaborations, the ocean economy, agro-food and renewable-energy value chains. It shows the importance for EU Outermost Regions, as well as for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), of building resilient international ties. It benefited from an extensive peer review process involving public and private stakeholders from Brazil, Iceland and the United States.

Des inégalités sociales et économiques persistent entre les genres dans les pays de l’OCDE. Les femmes jeunes atteignent souvent un niveau d’études supérieur à celui de leurs homologues masculins, mais restent sous-représentées dans les secteurs offrant les rémunérations les plus élevées. Les femmes consacrent plus de temps au travail non rémunéré, sont fortement pénalisées lorsqu’elles ont des enfants, se heurtent à des obstacles en matière d’entrepreneuriat, et ont globalement de moins bons résultats sur le marché du travail. Elles sont aussi sous-représentées en politique et aux postes de direction dans le secteur public. On retrouve ces caractéristiques dans de nombreux domaines d’action et secteurs économiques (du commerce international à l’aide au développement en passant par l’énergie et l’environnement) où les questions de genre sont peu prises en compte dans l’action publique. La violence à l’encontre des femmes, expression la plus abominable des inégalités entre les genres, reste un enjeu de portée mondiale. Cette publication analyse les évolutions et les mesures en faveur de l’égalité des genres, comme la prise en compte de la dimension du genre dans les politiques et les budgets, les réformes visant à accroître la participation des pères aux congés parentaux et à la garde des enfants, les initiatives en faveur de la transparence salariale pour lutter contre les inégalités de rémunération entre les genres, ou les systèmes de lutte contre les violences basées sur le genre. Elle vise à élargir la vision de l’égalité entre les genres, afin d’inclure l’investissement direct étranger, l’énergie nucléaire et les transports. Faire progresser l’égalité entre les genres n’est pas seulement un impératif moral : en cette période marquée par un vieillissement démographique rapide, des taux de fécondité en berne et des crises qui se multiplient, les actions dans ce domaine contribueront à favoriser une croissance économique et une cohésion sociale plus respectueuses de l’égalité des genres à l’avenir. Il s’agit d’une version abrégée de la publication d’origine, composée du résumé et du chapitre 1 intitulé Mettre l’égalité des genres au cœur de toutes les politiques publiques, qui est le chapitre de synthèse.

Globalisation and rapid technological change have radically transformed labour markets, affecting the lives and prospects of billions of workers. Those in the informal economy, the vast bulk of the workforce in the Global South, have been bearing the brunt. This report is for policy makers seeking to address the factors that make those workers in informality vulnerable. It provides them with a distinctive cross-country comparison of recent informality trends, and how they were affected by the recent crises such as the COVID-19 epidemic, casting light on the impacts of sub-contracting models in global value chains, and digital labour platforms. It argues that an inclusive recovery and greater resilience to future crises necessitate that many countries renew their social contracts, to make them more inclusive of informal workers and their families.

El Salvador has made significant development progress in the past 30 years. The end of the civil war in 1992 marked the establishment of a liberal democracy and an open export-led development model, which led to a reduction in poverty and inequality. However, with economic growth averaging a modest 2.4% in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and productivity growth of 0.1% over the past decade, the post-war model has not generated the economic momentum or the jobs that the country needs. Decisive action is necessary to kickstart more robust, inclusive and sustainable development. Based on a multi-dimensional analysis of development in El Salvador, this report makes four priority recommendations: 1) build the conditions for a productive transformation and modernisation of the economy; 2) increase the quantity, quality and relevance of education; 3) manage water resources better to deliver water and sanitation for all in a sustainable manner; and 4) modernise the State so it can effectively deliver key public goods, from security to education to health, and successfully steer the next stage in the country’s development.

Recalling the centrality of transport infrastructure in any development strategy and economic recovery and resilience plan, the paper stresses the importance of increasing territorial connectivity in Colombia to sustain future progress. It describes the variety of financing models for transport infrastructure in the country and globally and identifies five key factors that Colombia should take into account when choosing between models in the future.

The Dominican Republic has made strides on many socioeconomic fronts over the years. The country has been one of the leading economies in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of GDP growth, reaching upper middle-income status in 2011. However, progress on the different dimensions of well-being has been insufficient. In particular, socioeconomic and territorial disparities are still important, and public institutions remain insufficiently solid. For the Dominican Republic to embark on a more prosperous development path, three critical dimensions must be tackled. First, providing quality jobs for all, with particular emphasis on boosting formalisation and productive transformation. Second, mobilising more public and private finance for development, with more progressive and effective taxation systems, more efficient public expenditure and deeper capital markets. Third, accelerating digital transformation to boost productivity, enhance inclusion and support job creation.

The consequences of climate change in developing countries are worsening fast: many ecosystems will shortly reach points of irreversible damage, and socio-economic costs will continue to rise. To alleviate the future impacts on populations and economies, policy makers are looking for the spaces where they can make the greatest difference. This report argues that intermediary cities in developing countries are such spaces. Indeed, in the context of fast population growth and urbanisation, these small and medium-sized cities silently play an essential role in the rapid transformation of human settlements, not least by supporting the massive flows of population, goods and services between rural and metropolitan areas. Most of those intermediary cities are still growing: now is therefore the time to influence their dynamics, and thereby the entire design of urbanisation in those regions, in ways that limit the exposure of urban dwellers to climate shocks and avoid carbon lock-in. To that end, based on fresh evidence and policy analysis on the challenges faced by these agglomerations in the context of climate change, the report makes the case for new development approaches to avoid the unsustainable paths followed by too many cities in the recent past.