Category Archives: WBG News & Reports

Long before the asphalt is laid, making sure roads work for everyone

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Roads are fundamental to economies and social well-being. They connect people with Meghalayatopopportunities and everyday essentials. But despite their essential nature, one billion people globally still live more than 2 kilometers from an all-season road. The need for roads is immense and building them requires strategic planning. 

Long before the asphalt is actually laid, the right choices need to be made regarding road construction. One tool that helps authorities make critical decisions is The Highway Design and Maintenance Standards Model (HDM), a software package developed by the World Bank and partners that is as important to road projects as asphalt or medians. 

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World Bank Scales Up its Financing for Food Security with Additional $315 Million to Strengthen the Resilience of Food Systems across West Africa

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WASHINGTON, July 29, 2022 – Some additional 2 million people will benefit from a second ghana-food-securityphase of the West Africa regional Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP-2) approved today for a total amount of $315 million in International Development Association (IDA*) financing. FSRP-2 will support Chad, Ghana and Sierra Leone to increase their preparedness against food insecurity and to improve the resilience of their food systems. This comes at a moment where it is projected that approximately 38.3 million people in West Africa are projected to be in food security crisis.

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World Bank Group Outlines Global Crisis Response Package to Help Developing Countries Navigate Multiple, Compounding Crises

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WASHINGTON, August 3, 2022 – The World Bank Group (WBG) today announced details of its global crisis response package to help developing countries navigate multiple, compounding crises that are hitting the poor and most vulnerable the hardest.

“Multiple crises – including rising inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, large macroeconomic imbalances, and the shortages of energy, fertilizer and food – are hammering developing countries” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “The World Bank Group is responding with speed, scale and impact with financing to respond to food insecurity, protect people, preserve jobs, strengthen resilience, and restore growth.”

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Women, Business and the Law 2022

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Women, Business and the Law 2022 is the eighth in a series of annual studies measuring9781464818172.pdf the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. Amid a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality, ‘Women, Business and the Law 2022’ identifies barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages reform of discriminatory laws. This year, the study also includes pilot research related to childcare and implementation of the law. By examining the economic decisions women make throughout their working lives, as well as the pace of reform over the past 50 years, Women, Business and the Law makes an important contribution to research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic empowerment. The indicators build evidence of the critical relationship between legal gender equality and women’s employment and entrepreneurship. Data in ‘Women, Business and the Law 2022’ are current as of October 1, 2021.

 

 

 

What You Need to Know About the Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) of Carbon Credits

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A wide array of programs and markets around the world offer to deliver, buy, and sell  emissions reduction credits (ERCs) —commonly known as carbon credits—with mixed reactions and results. How can buyers know that the carbon credits they purchase are real? And how does the World Bank ensure that its emission reductions programs are fully inclusive and benefit the people and communities participating in them? We asked Andres Espejo, Senior Carbon Finance Specialist in the World Bank’s Climate Change Fund Management Unit, to explain the role of Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) in calculating carbon credits.

What is MRV and why is MRV important to mitigation efforts?Climate-Explainer-Series-banner-with-WBG-COP27-branding

Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) refers to the multi-step process to measure the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduced by a specific mitigation activity, such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, over a period of time and report these findings to an accredited third party. The third party then verifies the report so that the results can be certified and carbon credits can be issued.

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The Future of Government: What does it mean for infrastructure finance?

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Recognizing that governments across the globe find themselves at an important inflectionsolar_porwe_wb point—with overlapping crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, sharp economic slowdown, and the effects of climate change that will touch us all—the World Bank recently launched a report on The Future of Government.

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How to manage the world’s fertilizers to avoid a prolonged food crisis

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Hidden behind the worst global food crisis in a decade, fertilizer prices have skyrocketedag_blog_july_22_1140x500_1117767635_9d624e5836_o and remain volatile . This poses a serious threat to food security, as the planting season starts this summer. So far, the war in Ukraine has mostly affected countries importing wheat and corn. But many countries, including some major food exporters, are net fertilizer importers. Persistently high fertilizer prices may spread to a broader variety of crops including rice, a staple which has not yet seen war-related price hikes. We must act now to make fertilizers more accessible and affordable to avoid prolonging the food crisis.   

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We won’t reach our climate goals without cleaner mobility

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No scenario to contain global warming is possible without urgent and distinct action in thebr-vlt rio de janeiro=-wri brasil flickr transport sector.  This is a sector that is often overlooked in the climate equation, but it shouldn’t be. Currently responsible for 20% of global GHG emissions and rapidly increasing, transport is something that impacts everyone, everywhere.

The good news is that the tools needed to curb emissions from transport already exist. Some of them – such as enhanced public transport options, active mobility, zero-emission vehicles, and green fuels – are being implemented in many countries. Global sales of electric cars doubled between 2020 and 2021, reaching 6.6 million vehicles, nearly 9% of the global auto market.

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For poor countries already facing debt distress, a food crisis looms

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The war in Ukraine could soon deliver a tragic blow to many of the world’s poorest countries: shutterstock_2138413595_food_crisis_1140x500many of the countries at greatest risk of a debt crisis are now grappling with the threat of a food crisis as well.  

Food-import bills are surging fastest for poor countries that are already in debt distress or at high risk of it , the World Bank’s latest data show. Over the next year, the tab for imports of wheat, rice, and maize in these countries is expected to rise by the equivalent of more than 1 percent of GDP. That is more than twice the size of the 2021-2022 increase—and, given the relatively small size of these economies, it’s also twice as large as the expected increase for middle-income economies.

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