The pandemic is an important reminder of how precious and productive an investment human capital is. One year after the launch of the World Bank’s Africa Human Capital Plan, there has not only been a significant scale-up, but also a shift in World Bank support to African countries.
The World Bank Group is now supporting 100 countries in their fight against coronavirus, helping strengthen health systems, protect the poorest and support jobs. This is the largest and fastest crisis response in our history, and is critical in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating a recovery.
The economic impact of #COVID19 will hit developing countries hard. What can be done to support companies and preserve jobs? Join IFC’s Chief Operating Officer, Stephanie von Friedeburg, for discussion on the topic.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is uncharted territory for every country in the world. It has unleashed both a global health emergency and an unprecedented economic crisis of historic magnitude. That is substantially bigger than South Asia’s entire regional economy (which is about $3.5 trillion), and as if we somehow wiped both Germany and Belgium off the economic map. Worse still, the fall from where we expected to be in 2021 if COVID-19 hadn’t hit is closer to $7.5 trillion dollars—equivalent to 40% of the entire U.S. economy, as well as larger than the combined GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean plus the Middle East and North Africa.
Digital technologies are vital tools for helping people cope with stay-at-home orders and 
social distancing requirements during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Digital technologies are instrumental in supporting health care systems, not only though telemedicine and COVID screening apps, but also through Big Data and artificial intelligence analytics for mobility patterns, epidemiological models, and contact tracing. And in many other sectors, digital is also the new normal for individuals, governments, and businesses around the world.
Pandemic on CommoditiesWhy and how are developing countries particularly vulnerable to volatility in commodity prices?
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through ConnectAmericas, launches an 
interactive map whose objective is to centralize the supply of goods and services globally that are relevant to serve the COVID-19 emergency in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
We invite companies that offer goods or services that could contribute to mitigate the emergency in the region, to register by providing their data and the nature of products or solutions they offer using this form.
Much more is still needed to help developing economies in the wake of the COVID-19 
crisis. If we don’t scale up our efforts now, the damage will require a much larger response later.
The Republic of Korea was one of the first countries to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. Facing a rapid, exponential increase in infections after the first positive case w
as identified on January 20, the country took decisive action to contain the virus. Although the total number of cases is high, daily increases have been declining steadily from a peak of just above 900 in late February to around 100 by the second week of March (Figure 1). Recovered cases now far outnumber new cases, and deaths have been kept just above 100 as of this writing.
Figure 1. Coronavirus cases in Korea
