Mari Pangestu represented the World Bank at the International Union for Conservation of 
Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in September 2021, speaking at a high-level dialogue on Unlocking a Nature-Smart Recovery from the pandemic and also an event recognizing the progress made on climate and nature through the One Planet Summit. This blog was originally published as an open letter to the IUCN Congress on September 4.
Tag Archives: GDP
We need healthier air for a healthier planet
Air pollution is a multifaceted problem – representing the world’s leading environmental risk to 
health 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.
The Global Economy: on Track for Strong but Uneven Growth as COVID-19 Still Weighs
A year and a half since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy is poised to
stage its most robust post-recession recovery in 80 years in 2021. But the rebound is expected to be uneven across countries, as major economies look set to register strong growth even as many developing economies lag.
Empowering local people to engineer their own futures: a new infrastructure planning approach
Climate change is challenging our status quo as the frequency of extreme weather events 
keeps increasing. Water scarcity could cost some regions up to 6% of GDP and floods could force hundreds of millions of people from their homes by 2050. At the same time, we’re facing a $15 trillion infrastructure finance gap.
Debt Service Suspension Initiative could save countries around $12 billion
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, developing economies have suffered unprecedented capital outflows. The World Bank Group has created a virtual one-stop for the latest information about Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). It highlights the potential savings for each eligible country—both in dollar terms and as a percentage of GDP. Explore the data!
eC2: Blue Economy Assessments
Deadline: 27-Apr-2020 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) 
a. Preparation of Blue Economy Roadmaps, including a rapid Blue Economy diagnosis (quantitative) of the contributions of selected productive sectors to the blue economy jobs, GDP, and gender; and Institutional assessment of policy and regulatory frameworks.
b. Assessment of regional marine monitoring and forecasting; and preparation of a OECS Marine Research Agenda and action plan.
How to rekindle productivity growth, in five charts
There has been a broad-based slowdown in productivity growth since the global 
financial crisis, affecting the majority of advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Productivity growth is the primary source of lasting income growth, which in turn is the main driver of poverty reduction. Whereas the one-quarter of emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) with the fastest productivity growth have reduced their extreme poverty rates by an average of more than 1 percentage point per year since 1981, poverty rates rose in EMDEs with productivity growth in the lowest quartile. The broad-based slowdown in labor productivity growth over the past decade has raised concerns about progress in achieving development goals.
How important are Global Value Chains for development? Read the new WDR2020 draft report and comment
Following an intense research and writing process over the last 10 months, I am pleased 
to announce that a draft of the World Development Report (WDR) 2020 – Trading for Developing in the Age of Global Value Chains is now available online for public comment.
Why Global Value Chains (GVCs) and why now?
The World Bank’s last report on trade was more than thirty years ago – WDR 1987 Industrialization and Foreign Trade. In the meantime:
To balance debt and development, transparency and purpose are key
Unsustainable debt. Debt distress. Debt trap. These dire terms are once again back in the
headlines, just a decade after the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.
In the past five years alone, public debt in the poorest countries has increased from 36 percent of GDP to 51 percent of GDP. In addition, debt-service ratios in some countries are rising at an alarming pace, threatening countries’ ability to invest in much-needed infrastructure, education, health and many other needs crucial for lifting their citizens out of poverty and achieving the international community’s Sustainable Development Goals by their 2030 deadline.
Making remittances work for the poor-Three lessons learned from three Greenback 2.0 Remittance Champion Cities in Southeast Europe
“Mother, you shall not fear as long as your sons live in Germany” goes a popular folk 
song in Kosovo. Its equivalent in Bosnia and Herzegovina says “I am from Bosnia, take me to America” and in Albania the most famous morning show goes by the motto “Love your country, like Albania loves America”. In these countries, migration and remittances are synonyms of economic prosperity in the homeland. More than 40 percent of the population of these countries lives and works abroad for decades, and regularly sends money to their families back home. Remittance inflows in 2018 are estimated to range from $1.3 to $2.3 billion in these countries, exceeding foreign direct investment and accounting for 10 to 16 percent of the GDP.[1]
Netherlands for the World Bank 
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