Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will require massive
investment in developing countries.
Blended finance has grown in the past decade. In 2021 it represented an aggregated financing of over $160 billion, with annual capital flows averaging approximately $9 billion since 2015. With this small infusion of concessional funding, pioneering investments become attractive to private investors.
Continue reading
The World Bank’s commitment to helping countries control corruption dates to 1996 
when then President James Wolfensohn made his “cancer of corruption” speech. It was the first time the issue was given such prominence by a World Bank President and put squarely on the agenda of the institution.
Next week, I’ll attend the climate summit hosted by the United Nations as part of the 74th session of the General Assembly. A range of environmental challenges—including pollution, the degradation of forests and biodiversity, marine plastics, and extreme weather events—are putting sustainable economic growth and inclusive development at risk. While international discussions have a place in looking for results, one of the great strengths of the World Bank Group is in partnering with countries to find local solutions and deliver good outcomes.
Post-disaster assessments changed my life by starting my career in disaster risk 
management. Three months after arriving in Indonesia as the World Bank’s environment coordinator, the Indian Ocean tsunami and related earthquakes struck Aceh and Nias at the end of 2004. I was asked to pull together the economic evaluation of the disaster’s environmental impact as part of what was then known as a damage-and-loss assessment. Subsequently, the World Bank, United Nations and European Union agreed on a joint approach to crisis response in 2008, including a common methodology for post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA).
The risk of famine continues to threaten millions of people. Today, 124 million people 
experience crisis-levels of food insecurity, and over half of them are in situations affected by conflict. The magnitude of need has grown significantly over the last few years, testing the limits of an already overburdened and underfunded international humanitarian system.
There are about 68.5 million forcibly displaced people in the world today, of which more
than 25 million are considered refugees.
Almost 85 percent of them are hosted by low or middle countries with limited resources such as Jordan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Turkey, and Bangladesh. These countries face enormous challenges in meeting the needs of refugees while continuing to grow and develop themselves.
Billions of people are connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing 
power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge — foreshadowing stunning possibilities. This potential is multiplied by technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, big data processing, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, blockchain, etc.
Blog post by Tony Elumelu ( Entrepreneur and philanthropist )
Across the globe, the private sector has an important role to play in the achievement of the SDGs. With slow global growth and the end of the commodity supply cycle, many governments do not have resources required to fully pursue their development goals. And this is where the resources of the private sector become very critical. Through partnerships, the private and public sector can discover areas of alignment, especially in critical areas such as infrastructure, power, and agriculture, to mention but a few.
NEW YORK, September 20, 2017 – United Nations Secretary General António Guterres 
and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today announced plans to accelerate the flow of finance for climate action through a new platform dedicated to identifying and facilitating transformational investments in developing countries.
I’m pleased to announce that applications are now open for the second round of a new 
data innovation fund which was announced last month at the UN’s High Level Political Forum. The fund will invest up to $2.5 million in Collaborative Data Innovations for Sustainable Development – ideas to improve the production, management and use of data in poor countries. This year the fund’s thematic areas are “Leave No One Behind” and the environment.
Details on eligibility, criteria and how to apply are here: bit.ly/wb-gpsdd-innovationfund-2017
Netherlands for the World Bank 
You must be logged in to post a comment.