Tag Archives: COVID

COVID-19 highlights unfinished business of ensuring equality for women entrepreneurs

Posted on by
1

The pandemic has been anything but business as usual for women entrepreneurs. Women gendercoventrepreneurs have sacrificed more time than men to undertake unpaid care during COVID-19, and their businesses have received less public support than those run by men.  Unsurprisingly, this uneven support and uneven share of care have gone hand in hand with a greater risk of women-led businesses closing down, a review of new data by World Bank economists shows. This has raised concerns that COVID-19 could undo years of progress for women entrepreneurs. Setbacks from COVID-19 for women entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries have been severe.

Continue reading →

COVID-19 vaccines: from rejection to shortage, how Côte d’Ivoire became a model for managing vaccine hesitancy

Posted on by
Reply

STORY HIGHLIGHTS A man being vaccinated against COVID-19 at the vaccination cente

  • In February 2021, Côte d’Ivoire’s efforts to vaccinate its population in order to save lives and stem the spread of the coronavirus were being stymied by a wave of misinformation and a low level of public acceptance of the vaccine
  • The government embarked on a nationwide awareness-raising campaign, deploying mobile clinics and enlisting the support of influencers and religious and community leaders
  • This strategy paid off for the country, which succeeded in increasing the number of people vaccinated by tenfold, from just 2,000 to over 20,000 per day in the following weeks

Continue reading →

We need healthier air for a healthier planet

Posted on by
1

Air pollution is a multifaceted problem – representing the world’s leading environmental risk to cahealth and costing the globe an estimated $8.1 trillion in 2019 , 6.1 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP).  

Air pollution is also deadly, causing or contributing to heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases and killing an estimated seven million people every year – with about 95 percent of these deaths occurring in low- and middle- income countries. COVID-19 is only making matters worse, with research finding links between air pollution and COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.

Continue reading →

Scaling up water reuse: Why recycling our wastewater makes sense

Posted on by
Reply

In Durban, South Africa’s third largest city, an amount of wastewater equivalent to 13ifc_water_shutterstock_1024670731_hero Olympic-sized swimming pools has been treated and reused for industrial use by a paper mill and a local refinery every day since 2001.

Continue reading →

World Bank Group Youth Summit 2021: Resilient Recovery for People and Planet

Posted on by

Established in 2013, the Youth Summit is an annual event hosted by the World Bank Group Screenshot_2021-05-27 World Bank Group Youth Summit 2021 Resilient Recovery for People and Planet(WBG) to engage with youth globally on the most pressing topics facing our generation. The WBG Youth Summit is an affiliate of the Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) network, the largest volunteer organization at the WBG, which aims to inspire and empower youth within and outside the institution.  The primary goals of the Youth Summit are to: 

  • Empower youth to explore innovative ideas to tackle development challenges​
  • Provide youth with the tools to build and engage in impactful projects​
  • Promote dialogue between youth, the WBG, and other key stakeholders globally

Continue reading →

Transitions at the Heart of the Climate Challenge

Posted on by

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • The World Bank Group is increasing its financing to help countries address the pandemic and climate change, because a sustainable future depends on the decisions countries make today.
  • To clean up energy systems, it will be important to drive action on multiple fronts including renewable energy, energy efficiency, and a just transition from coal.
  • To tackle food insecurity and protect forests, climate-smart agriculture and nature-based solutions will need to be scaled up.

Imagine a world where farms grow nutritious food and raise healthy livestock without harming the environment. Where every village, town and city are powered by clean energy and cities have safe, affordable, and non-polluting transit systems. Where people have jobs that drive the sustainable growth story of the future. This world is within our reach, but only if we confront the challenges we face today.

Continue reading →

Five reasons to be concerned about the shadow economy

Posted on by

Informal activity—sometimes dubbed the “shadow economy”—is widespread in emerging shutterstock_1091410604market and developing economies.  Its pervasiveness is of particular concern at the current juncture, because it may make it harder for these economies to achieve the inclusive development that is needed to undo the damage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continue reading →