In spite of a commendable decline in stunting rates over the past 30 years, 148 million children 
worldwide remain stunted. The condition impairs their growth, health, development, and education and has long-term consequences for their future wellbeing.
Tag Archives: Foreign aid
Powering progress: How Digital Public Infrastructure is transforming Latin America and the Caribbean
As the digital revolution sweeps across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Digital Public 
Infrastructure (DPI) is at the heart of this shift. DPI refers to the essential systems that make digital services accessible to everyone. It’s the common digital plumbing that supports digital identities, payment systems, and data-sharing networks. But how is the LAC region progressing in building these critical digital services?
Financial system trends in six charts
Financial sector vulnerabilities in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) are largely divided along income lines. While vulnerabilities are low to moderate in higher-income EMDEs, half of lower-income countries face much higher risks. In addition, progress on financial development goals such as local capital market deepening has stalled in many countries. Advances, however, have been made on financial inclusion for individuals and in efforts to green the financial sector.
Five Ways the World Bank Group Will Achieve “Mission 300”
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Roughly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity.
- The World Bank Group, together with the African Development Bank, has committed to providing access to electricity to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.
- Known as “Mission 300,” this ambitious plan is attracting widespread support.
High-Level Retreat in New Hampshire as part of Bretton Woods at 80 Initiative
WASHINGTON, September 24, 2024 – As part of the previously announced Bretton Woods at 80 Initiative, the IMF and the World Bank Group are hosting a high-level retreat at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, on September 26‒27, 2024.
This two-day Chatham House Rules event will bring together a small and diverse group of global thinkers—including individuals prominent in the fields of history, international relations, political science, finance, and business—at the location of the 1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (the “Bretton Woods Conference”).
Why inclusive finance must be central to the climate response
As we approach the high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly and the UN climate change conference COP29, the global climate agenda is being defined by intense discussions around climate finance. But largely missing from this debate is the question of who has access to this funding.
The need to channel climate finance into the hands of those most affected by climate change is well recognized. The issue is at the heart of the loss and damage talks and was central to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s speech on World Environment Day, where he underscored how it’s “a disgrace that the most vulnerable are…struggling desperately to deal with a climate crisis they did nothing to create,” and argued that “the global financial system must be part of the climate solution.” It has also been key to COP negotiations ever since the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage was established in 2013.
Continue readingFrom investment accelerations to growth miracles
The 2020s were supposed to be the decade in which significant progress would be made 
toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Instead, the 2020s have delivered the weakest half-decade of global growth of the past 30 years. Weak investment growth is a major reason for this disappointing outcome.
Four innovative ways the World Bank is fighting corruption
Corruption has a disproportionate impact on the world’s most poor and vulnerable, increasing 
costs and reducing access to basic services. It erodes trust in governments and is a driver of conflict and fragility. It enables environmental and safety controls to be bypassed, contributing to pollution, environmental damage, and sub-par infrastructure. Corruption also affects private sector trust and investor confidence. And it reduces local revenue collection through tax erosion, depriving governments of resources for funding public goods.
In the global development math, multiplication beats division
Concessional finance—that is, grants and low-interest loans—is more important than ever for 
the world’s poorest countries. Yet today’s aid architecture is highly complex, fragmented, and offers limited concessionality. In this context, it’s important to find ways to leverage the available resources for the biggest, most effective impact.
Remarks by World Bank Group President Ajay Banga at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia
As Prepared for Delivery
Thank you for the kind introduction.
For me, this moment marks the culmination of a journey that began over a year ago—when I first started at the World Bank and promised to visit every region where we operate.
Netherlands for the World Bank 
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