Women, cities, and opportunity: Making the case for secure land rights

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Lets talk development blog by Klaus Deininger images

Land and property lie at the center of many of today’s pressing development challenges. Consider that at most 10% of land in rural Africa is reliably registered. At this week‘s annual Land and Poverty Conference here at the World Bank, we will hear how this vast gap in documentation of land gap blunts access to opportunities and key services for millions of the world’s poorest people, contributes to gender inequality, and undermines environmental sustainability.

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Event:Launch of Progress Toward Sustainable Energy: Global Tracking Framework 2017

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April 3-5, 2017 ; Online and New York Citygtf-2

Now in its third edition, the Global Tracking Framework (GTF) is well-established as a global dashboard documenting progress towards the three Sustainable Energy for All objectives for 2030: universal access to energy, doubling both the rate of progress on energy efficiency, and the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

The previous version of the report concluded that we need to accelerate our efforts on each one of those fronts. How has the world fared since then?

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World Bank Group Announces Record $57 Billion for Sub-Saharan Africa

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Funds will scale up investments and de-risk private sector participation for accelerated growth and development

BADEN BADEN, Germany, March 19, 2017— Following a meeting with G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today announced a record $57 billion in financing for Sub-Saharan African countries over the next three fiscal years. Kim then left on a trip to Rwanda and Tanzania to emphasize the Bank Group’s support for the entire region.

The bulk of the financing – $45 billion – will come from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s fund for the poorest countries. The financing for Sub-Saharan Africa also will include an estimated $8 billion in private sector investments from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private sector arm of the Bank Group, and $4 billion in financing from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, its non-concessional public sector arm.

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eC2: Food Fortification Best Practices Study

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Deadline: 11-Apr-2017 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) food_waste_garbage
Compile and list by criteria to be defined by IFC Industry Specialists where fortification using micronutrient is currently recommended to be used along the food value chain; Extend the research to ingredients that might enhance the nutritional value/profile of other foodstuffs (such as whey in dairy products, pulses in bakery, etc.); Investigate and list whenever possible industrial/processing best practices to improve foodstuff nutritional content/profile (e.g. how to correctly fortify flour) in the main industries IFC Agribusiness invests in; or to avoid potentially harmful content.
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Feeding the world from Nigeria, one fish at a time

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When I was growing up in rural Nigeria in the ‘80s and ‘90s, agriculture was already a central part of my life.  As a child, I gained farm experience working with my father, who was a veterinarian.  My mother, a teacher, would send me off to school each day with the parting words, “Go out there and be the best amongst equals.”  This is still the motto by which I try to live.

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“Forest-Smart” Strategies Deliver Benefits for People and the Environment

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“Smart” approaches aren’t just for cell phones.

It’s time to take some of the qualities of J-Capela-260_Mozambique_World-Banksmart technology – capable, cross-cutting and transformative – and apply them to the way we manage one of our most fundamental natural resources: forests.

What does it mean to be “forest smart”? In essence, it has to do with taking a comprehensive look at landscapes to understand how forests are being affected by activities in other sectors, and how to enhance the benefits that we derive from forests.

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eC2: Feasibility study (Regulatory and Market analysis) for a 500 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine

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Deadline: 03-Apr-2017 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) gas.jpg
The Feasibility Study (the Study) shall be comprised of the Regulatory and Market Analysis. It shall be performed by extensive research of publicly available information, regarding the Albanian and regional markets, on regulatory and market developments and assessment of those markets. The results of the Regulatory Analysis will be synthesized in plausible regulatory cases for Albania within the region depending on the withdrawal of coal fired capacity, in RES and sustainability obligations; the gas market developments and; the degree of harmonization of cross-border trading. The Study will also develop plausible macroeconomic scenarios for Albania and the region but with granularity of assumptions on a country by country level. The macroeconomic scenarios will be combined with the regulatory cases to produce combination of scenarios which will then form the basis of the subsequent Market Analysis.

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World Water Day: Take Action around the World to Tackle a Water Crisis

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Today we celebrate World Water Day around the world.WWD17-feature

  • In Marseille, young people are coming together to promote innovative projects by entrepreneurs for recycling water in households, agriculture, industry and the environment, and to focus attention on the shared responsibility to build water security for the future of the Mediterranean Region.
  • In Durban, the UN is launching the 2017 World Water Development Report (WWDR) titled “Wastewater: The Untapped Resource” and the High Level Panel on Water is unveiling the initiative on “Access to water and sanitation for 10 billion people” to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • In Rome, an unprecedented conversation is happening at the Vatican to shift how the world values and understands its single most precious resource: water.
  • In Indonesia, national television is focusing on good practices in fecal sludge management, highlighting the link between poor sanitation and stunting, and discussing how to meet the country’s target of universal access to water and sanitation by 2019.

World Water Day is about taking action around the world to tackle a water crisis.

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eC2: Advisory services for the development of a 225 MW Nepal hydro project

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Deadline: 06-Apr-2017 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) HYDRO

IFC Advisory hopes to sign soon an agreement to assist in the development of a 225 MW private hydro project in Nepal. The project is still at the prefeasibility level. The detailed project feasibility study will start sometimes in the spring. IFC Advisory will retain Consultants who will be included in a Panel of expert to review various milestone reports. The Consultant will also be performing certain other tasks. The project is quite challenging, being located at high altitude with no road construction for head works and more than 1400m of head. The assignment should last approximately 14 months

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Improving Vocational Education Brings Opportunities for Young People in Yunnan

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Yunnan Province, on China’s southwestern border, is well known for its beautiful natural landscape and rich ethnic culture. Yet it is also one of the country’s poorest provinces. Its per capita GDP in 2010 was only half of the national average. With 84% of mountainous land, the majority of its 45 million people live in rural areas – 1/3 of them belongs to 25 ethnic minority groups.

The labor force in Yunnan generally possesses low levels of education and skills. Most have completed just nine years of compulsory education or less, and professional and technical workers often lack skills certificates.

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