Realizing a Brighter Future for a Young, Energized, and Connected Africa

Deliver the future: Catalyzing opportunities for women, children and adolescents

Drones Deliver Medicines to Distant Health Centers in Rural Meghalaya

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Supplying inexpensive quality healthcare to hard-to-reach areas has long been aGirl-Putting-Medicines-Onto-The-Drone challenge for Meghalaya. People living in rural areas find it difficult to access health services, especially during the rainy season between June and September.
  • A new drone service was introduced by the Government of Meghalaya under the World Bank financed Meghalaya Health Systems Development Project, essential injections and medicines are brought over once a week by a drone from Jengjal District Hospital over 100 kilometres away.
  • Since 2021, the Meghalya Health Systems Strengthening Project with World Bank support of $40 million has been helping the north-eastern state of Meghalaya strengthen its public health system where access to quality health services remains a challenge, particularly in rural areas. More than 3 million people across all 11 districts of the Meghalaya are expected to benefit from the project.

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Water knows no borders: Transboundary cooperation is key to water security and avoiding conflict

As pressure mounts on the world’s freshwater resources, closer international cooperation is Albania_fishing_1140x500.jpgneeded to manage the world’s shared rivers, aquifers, and lakes. For decades, the World Bank Group has supported programs to foster cooperation over water as part of ensuring water security for all in support of sustainable development and job creation. Today, climate change and growing demand for scarce water resources are making proactive management of these transboundary waters both more complex and more urgent. 

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The Interlocking Challenges of Climate Change and Poverty | The Development Podcast

FEATURING: Richard Damania, Chief Economist for Sustainable Development, World Climate-Explainer-Series-bannerBank / Roselyn Fosuah Adjei, Director of Climate Change for the Ghana Forestry Co

The World Bank Group is aligning its financing with the Paris Agreement goals on climate change. This is important, as it keeps us focused on containing the warming of the earth to well below 2 degrees, and preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius, while achieving sustainable development and ending poverty. What does this mean and what will it take to achieve it? We asked Jennifer Sara, Global Director of the World Bank’s Climate Change Group; and Stephane Guimbert, Director of Operations Policy & Country Services to explain.

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IFC: Creating New Commercial Relationships in India

 

The National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB) is pleased to announce an upcomingpro-pic procurement information session aimed at raising awareness among the local, regional, and even the international market on essential aspects when bidding for Sint Maarten Trust Fund projects. This initiative seeks to promote transparency, inclusivity, and efficiency in the procurement process while enhancing the potential for participation of small companies in Sint Maarten.

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World Bank Names 15 Leading CEOs and Chairs to Join the Private Sector Investment Lab

LONDON, July 10 2023 – The World Bank today announced the 15 Chief Executive Officers and Chairs who will make up the Private Sector Investment Lab. The founding members comprise a core group charged with developing solutions to address the barriers to private sector investment in emerging markets. The quality of their individual – and combined – expertise, leadership, and success in business and finance underscores the growing momentum, and level of commitment, for public and private collaboration to address global challenges and urgently scale development solutions.  

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IFC: Creating New Commercial Relationships in India

Over one hundred participants converged in Mumbai for networking and to share lessonsindia learned from three years of TechEmerge sustainable cooling pilots. Leading corporates—including Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), Chalet Hotels, Tata Realty, and others—joined IFC India Country Head, Wendy Werner, and TechEmerge manager, Selcuk Tanatar, for a deep dive on the future of cooling and financing mechanisms to scale up these climate-smart solutions. A representative from our development partner, the UK’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, delivered opening remarks. The event also included the signing of an MoU among IFC, the Indian Institute for Technology in Jammu, and district-energy company Tabreed, our partner in the TechEmerge Cooling Innovation Lab in India.

Please keep an eye out for more TechEmerge events showcasing sustainable cooling innovations and financing tools, including a global summit in October in Birmingham in the UK.  

 
 
 

No more yellow sky: Reducing air pollution from smoke and dust

In early June, the sky turned yellow throughout much of the northeastern United States.shutterstock_2314342707_new_york_wildfires_pollution_blog.jpg People woke up to smog, haze, and a red sun, and were warned to stay indoors to protect themselves from a toxic cocktail of air pollutants. In New York City, the levels of particulate matter with 2.5 microns or less in size (PM2.5) were registered at a record-breaking 400 micrograms per cubic meter. This reading exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended 24-hour standard guidelines 11 times and was equivalent to every person in the city, including babies, smoking 5-10 cigarettes. Such unprecedented levels of air pollution made New York the most polluted of all big cities in the world on that day, displacing perennial record holders like New Delhi or Lahore.

The bad air in New York City and across the Northeast was carried by winds from Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Quebec – Canadian provinces experiencing record-high temperatures and droughts that have caused an unprecedented number of wildfires.

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