World Bank Opens 2026 Funding Year with GBP 1.5 Billion 5-Year Benchmark

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 7, 2025 – The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, Aaa/AAA) today priced a 5-year British pound sterling (GBP) benchmark maturing in October 2030. The Sustainable Development Bond raised GBP 1.5 billion from investors globally to support the financing of the World Bank’s sustainable development activities in member countries. 

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When we know we’re seen: How transparency nudges outcomes at the World Bank Group

Jorge Luis Borges once imagined an infinite library, a space housing every book ever written and every book that could ever be written. A man wanders through this library in search of truth, only to increasingly lose his way. Until one day, he discovers a cracked mirror behind a forgotten shelf and ultimately finds himself. He realizes that true insight emerges from self-reflection.

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The world needs radical debt transparency

Over the past two decades, many developing countries have made remarkable progress in reducing poverty, expanding access to education and health care, and investing in infrastructure. These gains were the result of sound national policies and coordinated efforts by the international community, often financed through responsible borrowing.

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Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations: Intertwined Crises, Multiple Vulnerabilities

Economies in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) are burdened by weak institutions and are particularly vulnerable to overlapping shocks—including conflict, natural disasters, commodity price swings, and global downturns. Nearly three-quarters of FCS economies have remained classified as such for over a decade, highlighting the persistence of their challenges and underlying fragility. Limited fiscal space further constrains these economies from responding to shocks and investing in essential services such as education, health, and infrastructure.

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World Bank Group, IAEA Formalize Partnership to Collaborate on Nuclear Energy for Development

PARIS, June 26, 2025—The World Bank Group and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sealed an agreement today to work together to support the safe, secure and responsible use of nuclear energy in developing countries. The partnership agreement, signed by World Bank Group President Ajay Banga and IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, formalizes multiple engagements between the two institutions over the last year, and marks the World Bank Group’s first concrete step to reengage with nuclear power in decades.

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How AI can support anticipatory action to address forced displacement

Refugee crises are often seen as unpredictable emergencies.  In a context of acute suffering, assistance is often rushed to those who have just fled conflict and violence and delivered within the communities that receive them. But what if refugee movements could be forecasted? What if hosting countries and their partners had the time to prepare for large inflows of people?  With more than 122 million forcibly displaced people worldwide — double that of ten years earlier — these questions are pressing.

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Power More With Less: Scaling Up Energy Efficiency for Growth and Energy Security

Energy efficiency is a transformative, low-cost solution that can fast-track access to affordable and secure energy and boost economic growth. Amid soaring power demand, driven in part by air conditioners, heavy industry, and, increasingly, data centers needed to power artificial intelligence, energy efficiency can help countries avoid overspending on new energy infrastructure, importing fuels, and taking on more debt for their energy sectors.  

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Foreign Direct Investment in Retreat: Policies to Turn the Tide

Foreign direct investment (FDI)—an important source of external financing for emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs)—has weakened since the global financial crisis, heightening the challenges of filling vast infrastructure gaps, reducing poverty, creating new jobs, and addressing climate change. This study provides a broad perspective on the evolution of FDI inflows to EMDEs since 2000, including patterns across regions and changes in sectoral composition.

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Reinventing Rice as Countries Cultivate Change

Rice feeds over half of the world’s population and sustains 144 million people—80 percent of them smallholder farmers. With a projected 30 percent surge in demand by 2050, the rice industry will only grow in importance. But the crop’s vulnerability to climate change and slowing productivity gains, its environmental footprint, and its limited nutritional value make it clear that business as usual is no longer an option.

Many rice-producing countries are already taking this challenge seriously—introducing reforms, innovations, and investments to bring the sector into a new era of higher returns, lower emissions, and better nutrition.

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