Partnerships, cornerstone to achieve Indonesia’s sustainable peatland restoration targets

Article published on http://www.worldbank.org.

“Peatlands are sexy!” They aren’t words you would normally associate with peatlands, but judging from the large audience that participated in the lively discussion on financing peatland restoration in Indonesia at the “Global Landscapes Forum: Peatlands Matter” conference, held May 18 in Jakarta, it seems to be true. The observation was made by Erwin Widodo, one of the speakers in the World Bank-hosted panel discussion at the event.

Mapping and Valuing Ecosystems Services, and Prioritizing Investments in Select Watersheds in Nepal and Pakistan to support Sustainable Hydropower

Deadline: 20-Apr-2017 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) HYDRO

To help Nepal and Pakistan promote smart hydropower development through catchment area management in support of countries green growth strategies, the World Bank is initiating an activity whose main components are to: (i) create awareness and influence among policymakers across energy, water resources, and forestry ministries on the role of catchment area management and PES schemes in promoting sustainable hydropower and as a source of green and inclusive growth; (ii) generating know-how on how integrated catchment area management can promote smart hydropower development and green inclusive growth through (a) the application of ecosystem services-based modeling tools to map and value ecosystem services and to develop cost-effective catchment area management plans in selected catchments; and (iii) strengthen capacity of technical officers to apply catchment area management tools.

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Why the World Bank’s venture capital arm is investing in Silicon Valley

Article posted on devex. 26 May, 2016

It might seem off mission for investors who say they want to drive prosperity in 7R38yLAmxJ1aGXpk3ZbEQh08ROPnttoyPQQxmSZLaj5OhmpWDNPRN0W3iLuSAqBhdz4PjGBThqqzeVVrM97XQRxKKbeEGhugd5VpmIeKMyJbO9K5sEE3msIZhHfqdOJNl2pF370zdeveloping countries to support entrepreneurs based in the city with the most concentrated venture capital in the world.

Most of the more than $100 million the venture arm of the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. will invest this fiscal year will go to the emerging markets, including tech hubs such as Nairobi, Kenya — dubbed the “Silicon Savannah”. But recently the IFC has also invested in Silicon Valley companies such as the cloud-based software company Ayla, the satellite company Planet Labs and the online education company Coursera.

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