World Solve is a public institutional repository for identifying real unresolved problems across science, society, health, governance, economics, and local systems. Each entry is intended to be citable, inspectable, and actionable.
Sprawl cuts off wildlife movement. Green infrastructure and planning can mitigate fragmentation.
Millions of traders, many of them women, move goods informally across borders without access to finance, insurance, or formal logistics, limiting their growth potential. Digital trade facilitation tools and simplified customs regimes tailored to small traders could unlock inclusive growth.
Mortgage products often require formal employment and high down payments that many cannot meet, pushing families into informal housing. Micro-mortgage products and cooperative housing finance could extend access.
Millions of workers in transport, delivery, and informal retail have no protection against accidents or income shocks. Micro-insurance products linked to daily transactions could extend coverage.
Lack of formal addresses complicates delivery, emergency response, and financial inclusion. Digital addressing using GPS and community verification could solve this efficiently.
Complex, costly certification processes exclude many potential exporters. Shared certification centers and digital compliance tools could lower the barrier.
Minibus taxis and motorcycle cabs are central to mobility but often ignored in formal planning, causing congestion and safety issues. Data-driven integration of informal transport into city plans could improve systems.
Small workshops producing goods for local markets struggle to meet quality standards that would allow them to export or supply larger buyers. Shared testing labs and quality-training hubs could upgrade clusters.
Informal miners face high accident risks and receive low prices for minerals. Training programs and fair-trade mineral certification platforms could improve safety and incomes.
Crop failure, high-interest informal loans, and lack of insurance push indebted farmers into desperation. Weather-index micro-insurance and debt-restructuring platforms could ease this pressure.
Slum residents often rely on illegal, unsafe electricity connections due to lack of formal grid access. Pay-as-you-go solar kits designed for dense urban informal housing could offer safer alternatives.
Poverty forces families to send children to work instead of school, particularly in informal manufacturing and agriculture sectors. Conditional cash-transfer programs tied to school attendance have proven effective at reducing this.
Conflict-displaced populations, such as Rohingya refugees, frequently live for years without structured schooling options. Modular, portable classroom programs designed for refugee camps could restore learning continuity.
Cultural norms and lack of documentation keep many women and rural residents outside the formal banking system. Mobile-money platforms designed with simplified KYC for underserved groups have proven effective elsewhere.
Workers from countries like the Philippines, India, and Bangladesh lose significant income to transfer fees sending money home. Blockchain-based remittance corridors could dramatically cut these costs.
Farmers and small traders often turn to predatory informal lenders charging extremely high interest rates due to lack of formal alternatives. Digital microfinance platforms with fair rates could displace exploitative lending.
Most informal workers have no employer-based retirement savings, risking poverty in old age as populations age rapidly. Portable, mobile-based voluntary pension schemes could extend coverage to gig and informal workers.
Millions live in slums lacking secure tenure, clean water, or sanitation despite being near major urban economic centers. Incremental slum-upgrading programs are more effective and humane than demolition-based approaches.
Rising consumption and inadequate recycling infrastructure mean much of urban waste ends up in rivers, oceans, or informal dumps. Decentralized waste-to-value recycling ventures could turn this into an opportunity.
Discarded phones, computers, and batteries often end up in informal, toxic recycling operations that harm workers and the environment. Formal e-waste recycling ventures could recover valuable materials safely.