By Olivier Monnier and Abdoul Maiga
Tired of seeing plastic waste littering the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, engineer Calvin Tiam took matters into his own hands.
With the help of Burkinabé and French research institutes, Tiam developed a technique for making furniture, roofing, and beacons from recycled polyethylene plastic packaging.
These are certainly challenging times. And in these challenging times, in Africa, the private 
sector is doing interesting things.
The nine stories in this second edition of IFC Insights Africa, published for the 2023 Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, showcase the innovative ways African businesses—both large and small—are addressing some of the continent’s most pressing challenges, and improving lives and creating jobs while doing it.
Ministers of Finance and global thought leaders came together to champion investments in people to build resilience, help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and accelerate the green transition.
The deterioration of economic conditions over the past few years and the growing
depreciation pressures facing developing countries have led to a rise in the number of countries with active parallel currency markets. Currently, around 24 emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) have active parallel currency markets. In at least 14 of them, the exchange rate premium—the difference between the official and the parallel rate—is a material problem, exceeding 10 percent (see the table).
It feels like a lifetime ago, but somehow also like it was yesterday, that the COVID-19 crisis
descended upon our lives. It caused unimaginable upheaval—reversing gains and creating colossal new demands. As well-resourced countries worked quickly to protect their people, the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) stepped up to ensure the poorest people were not left behind in this race to recovery.
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 – The Executive Directors of the World Bank today selected Ajay Banga as President of the World Bank for a five-year term beginning June 2, 2023.
Cities, as engines of prosperity, are major contributors to climate change, generating about 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, as home to more than half of humanity, cities are on the front lines of climate change.
New analysis from the World Bank examines the two-way relationship between cities and climate change, concluding that cities also hold one of the keys to solving the climate crisis. With data from more than 10,000 cities, the report offers insight into how to help cities become greener, more resilient, and more inclusive – in other words, on how to help their cities thrive – in a changing climate.
As the U.S. continues to experience historically high inflation rates and increasing risks to its economy, it also faces a number of global geoeconomic challenges. These include the end of the era of globalization, rising financial instability and pressures to increase the production of certain strategically important goods for domestic use or export to friendly neighbors. Meanwhile, the U.S. and other countries are also contending with the economic implications of social, political and technological developments, such as population aging, greater competition from abroad, growing inequality, innovation and its impact on the labor market, and the global transition to cleaner energy sources.
On May 22 at Baker Hall, World Bank Group President David Malpass joined John W. Diamond, Director of the Center for Public Finance at the Baker Institute, to discuss the geoeconomic challenges — and opportunities — facing the United States and the world, and how to navigate them.
This event was sponsored by the Baker Institute Center for Public Finance.
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