“Author Archive”
Stories written by WorldBankBlogs
By WorldBankBlogs
Last week, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography released data showing that CO2 atmospheric levels had briefly passed 400 parts per million (ppm) and were close to surpassing that level for sustained periods of time. This is bad news. At 450 ppm, scientists anticipate the world will be 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times, and world leaders have agreed that’s a point of dangerous consequences. Along with this grim news came important new research findings from Professor V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution at the University of California, San Diego, and other researchers regarding short-lived climate pollutants – black carbon, methane tropospheric ozone and some hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
May 2nd, 2013 | Posted in Noncommunicable Disease | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Standing atop a disused amphitheater in a disused airforce base, we could see over the surrounding area. On the right, a sea of shacks nuzzled together in hope and desperation. On the left, stretches of cracked concrete with just one shack here, one shack there.The emptying expanse to the left was the story of success. More than three years after the massive earthquake that shattered so much of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, rental subsidies were moving households quickly out of camps to houses in the community. read more
April 24th, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development,Disaster Relief,Hub Selects,Human Rights | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Steve Knack “No single national score can accurately reflect contrasts in the types of corruption found in a country.” Michael Johnston, 2001 Corruption comes in various forms – administrative corruption being one example, state capture (a.k.a. “grand corruption”) being another. Although administrative corruption is not necessarily the most damaging form for economic growth and private sector development in Russia, and while its occurrence appears to be declining in Russia, perceptions of “state capture” are worsening. read more
April 23rd, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development,Corruption | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Gender equality is smart economics. That’s an observation that has gained wide acceptance, if not equally wide application. But for 19 countries in the Equal Futures Partnership, breaking down barriers to women’s economic and political empowerment has become a commitment. read more
April 20th, 2013 | Posted in Women & Children | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Fixing Fraud in Public-Private Projects What’s a cash-tight government to do when it wants to modernize a hospital, build a railway, or expand the power grid to reach underserved areas? It might explore outside, private sources of financing—that’s where public-private partnerships (PPPs) come in. The acronym has a promising ring to it, yet going back to the 1970s, its impact has been mixed. At their best, PPPs can provide rapid injections of cash from private financiers, delivery of quality services, and overall cost-effectiveness the public sector can’t achieve on its own. But at their worst, PPPs can also drive up costs, under-deliver services, harm the public interest, and introduce new opportunities for fraud, collusion, and corruption
April 19th, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development,Corruption | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
These are exciting days at the World Bank Group. We are getting ready to receive delegates from our 188 member countries, who will gather in Washington for the WBG-IMF Spring Meetings.It is an especially important time for the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the disaster risk management team at the World Bank, as we prepare to host – together with the European Union, the Government of Japan, and USAID – the fourth round of the Resilience Dialogue. This round we are focusing on the role disaster and climate resilience can play in the post-2015 development framework.Disaster and climate risks were not addressed as part of the original framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Recent experience has provided countless examples of the devastating impacts of disasters – impacts that go well beyond dollar signs or GDP statistics. It has become evident that disaster and climate risks are impediments to the achievement of poverty reduction and sustainable development goals, and should therefore be integrated in the development framework that will replace the MDGs.
April 18th, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Speaking ahead of the upcoming World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings, Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim called on the international community to seize the historic opportunity presented by favorable economic conditions in developing countries and end extreme poverty by 2030. This is an exciting goal, and success in achieving it has become possible. Kim pointed to the International Development Association, or IDA, the Bank’s fund for the poorest, as central to the tremendous effort needed to make this happen. Every three years, development funders and borrowing country representatives meet to deliberate and agree on IDA’s strategic direction, financing, and allocation rules, and we just kicked off this process for the 17th “replenishment” of IDA (which provides development financing for the period July 1, 2014-June 30, 2017).
April 17th, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development,Financing | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
With the World Bank Group’s 2013 Spring Meetings just around the corner, we’ve compiled a guide to the many live events happening. No matter where you are around the world, you can join the conversation all week via #wblive. Several featured events will be webcast and covered in multiple languages. Make sure to follow and participate in the week’s events in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. Your thoughts and questions will help make the conversations happening both online and offline at this year’s Spring Meetings rich and diverse
April 12th, 2013 | Posted in #GHDevent,Aid & Development | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
MADRID — One thousand days. That’s all we have left to meet the Millennium Development Goals, a series of commitments to improve the lives of families in the developing world. I was just in Madrid to attend the United Nations’ Chief Executives Board — the heads of the UN agencies — and we talked about the importance of setting targets to spur urgent action. Watch the video blog blow to learn more. read more
April 10th, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development,MDGs | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Video Platform Video Management Video Solutions Video Player On Tuesday I traveled to the United Nations to talk to UNICEF’s Executive Board and also to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on moving forward with the important work that we do together. These meetings are key to delivering results because our UN colleagues and we are committed to working closely together. Making that happen requires many things, including a big dose of humility. Please watch the video for more on this. read more
February 6th, 2013 | Posted in Featured Videos,Featured videos and pod casts | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Find a good longread on development? Tweet it to @worldbank with the hashtag #longreads. Middle class gained on Twitter, with many people taking note of Thomas Friedman’s The Virtual Middle Class Rises. Friedman’s op-ed is about how cheaper computing is enabling people who earn only a few dollars a day to access the “kind of technologies and learning previously associated solely with the middle class.” Such access is driving social change and social protest, he says.
February 5th, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development,Technology | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Can emerging markets make economic growth compatible with climate action? Can the trade-off between growth and rising emissions be influenced by policy? For a country like Turkey – with the lowest carbon footprint in the OECD (around 5 tons per person in 2008), but also one of the highest rates of growth of carbon emissions over the past two decades – these are not idle questions. A recent talk with a senior Turkish policy maker about how Turkey is adjusting its policies to meet the challenge of growing green left me feeling optimistic about the role Turkey can play in this discussion. I believe that for Turkey, growing green is an opportunity
January 31st, 2013 | Posted in Technology | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
Find a good longread on development? Tweet it to @worldbank with the hashtag #longreads. Satellite images of Beijing’s smog have been popping up on Twitter and blogs as the city suffers shockingly high air pollution levels. Some bloggers point out Beijing’s black skies aren’t so different from pre-1960s London or Pittsburgh in their industrial heyday. Even so, a new study warns that the heat-trapping effect of “black carbon,” or soot, is second only to CO2
January 28th, 2013 | Posted in Women & Children | Read More »
By WorldBankBlogs
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January 28th, 2013 | Posted in Delivery | Read More »
