Netherlands for the World Bank

Your guide to the World Bank Group

Netherlands for the World Bank

Now is the time to invest in South Asia’s future

A few years ago, Binita Biswokarma’s life took a sharp turn for the worse.35161860665_6f3a2b1999_k.jpg

With no skills, relatives, or farmland, the young woman from Kaski, a rural district in West Nepal, struggled to provide for her son’s education, buy food and necessities, let alone repair the roof of her home.

Then came an opportunity to work as a road maintenance worker—and find a way out of poverty.

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Dutch expertise welcome for West Africa coastal management

Coastal erosion and flooding in West Africa severely threaten communities, livelihoods, bb52c334-fea9-47f6-9eae-b5adc66a491dsafety and investment. There is an urgent need for international partners to mobilise financing through coordinated regional action. The World Bank and Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) are on their way to formalising their partnership to exchange knowledge, expertise and information, and to increase business opportunities for the Dutch water sector. Last week, NWP’s Josephine Damstra attended the first Finance Marketplace in Ivory Coast, which was organised as part of the World Bank’s West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program.

eC2: Lesotho Agriculture Insurance Feasibility Study

Deadline: 09-Dec-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)scaling-up-innovations-in-agriculture-lessons-from-africa-780x439

The objective of this assignment is to investigate the market potential for smallholder agricultural insurance in Lesotho. It will focus on the identification of insurance providers who would be willing to offer this type of insurance, existing factors that may enhance or limit their ability to enter into this market, as well as the potential for integrating insurance within the priority value chains. The priority value chains for the purposes of this study are grains, dairy, horticulture (fruit/vegetables), poultry, piggery, and fisheries/aquaculture.

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BladeRunner Energy Business Opportunities Fair experience

How participating in the World Bank Opportunities Fair on Climate-Smart

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Paul Vosbeek pitching at the B2B networking session

Energy Solutions is helping BladeRunner Energy to bring micro hydropower to the people: a perspective from Paul Vosbeek, co-founder and CEO of the cleantech startup, BladeRunner Energy.

“I had the pleasure to participate in the biennial Opportunities Fair organized by the World Bank from October 29-31, 2019 with this edition focused on Climate-Smart Energy Solutions.

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Rethinking density to build cities of the future

rethinking_density-by_krunja_shutterstock_650092282.pngReady or not, cities across the globe are about to enter a realm of rapid disruption brought about by a wave of transformational technological progress.  

The new informational, transactional, and operational technologies – popularly termed “Industry 4.0” – are likely to change the shape of cities, and may well require a rethinking of how we define “density.”

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eC2: Development of a Smart Mobility Implementation Guideline: Benchmarking and Piloting

Deadline: 04-Dec-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) index

1. Benchmarking the existing international smart mobility cases and best practice, including a diagnosis of the current situation (needs, challenges, and opportunities for sector reforms) associated with the performance of ITS/smart urban mobility systems in selected Bank’s client cities. 2. Develop a proposal for a smart mobility implementation guideline with the following dimensions: Implementation readiness assessment method – Transport systems and services, and dimensions, to be integrated – ICT architecture, data standards, and protocols 3. Develop detailed implementation action plans and recommendations for pilot activities in Panama on multi-modal and multi-provider payment system integration, integrated bus fleet management systems, well as advanced traffic monitoring and automated enforcement for strategic transit corridors, alongside the implementation of dynamic charging schemes for infrastructure cost recovery models. Carry out desk reviews for the application of the implementation guideline on these smart mobility topics for Vietnam/Turkey pilots. 4. Dissemination and capacity building for selected Bank’s client cities.

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eC2: Lesotho Agriculture Insurance Feasibility Study

Deadline: 02-Dec-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.) scaling-up-innovations-in-agriculture-lessons-from-africa-780x439

The objective of this assignment is to investigate the market potential for smallholder agricultural insurance in Lesotho. It will focus on the identification of insurance providers who would be willing to offer this type of insurance, existing factors that may enhance or limit their ability to enter into this market, as well as the potential for integrating insurance within the priority value chains. The priority value chains for the purposes of this study are grains, dairy, horticulture (fruit/vegetables), poultry, piggery, and fisheries/aquaculture.

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As climate and disaster threats rise, let’s double down on resilient infrastructure

From tsunamis in Asia and earthquakes in Latin America, to hurricanes in the Caribbeanvietnam_blog and cyclones in Africa, disasters caused by natural hazards claimed some 1.3 million lives between 1998 and 2017, and wreaked untold havoc on livelihoods and infrastructure worldwide.

We see no sign of the risk posed by natural hazards decreasing, particularly having witnessed the devastating impact of Cyclone Idai on families and communities in Africa earlier this year. What’s worse, climate change is making storms, floods, droughts, and heatwaves even more frequent, damaging, and deadly.

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Which countries reduced poverty rates the most?

One of the goals of the World Bank Group is to reduce extreme poverty—defined as indexliving on less than $1.90 per day in 2011 PPP—to less than 3% by 2030. We know that the world has seen tremendous progress in reducing extreme poverty since 1990. So, where in the world has poverty reduction been most successful?

The graph below shows 15 countries that experienced the largest annual average percentage point declines in extreme poverty rate between about 2000 and 2015, out of the 114 countries for which we can measure poverty in a comparable way over this period.

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eC2: Integrating Seismic Risk Considerations into Energy Efficiency Investments in North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro

Deadline: 27-Nov-2019 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)RISK

This project is anticipated to result in the following outcomes:
i. Improved understanding by task teams and counterparts on seismic vulnerability of buildings and consideration during preparation of new EE operations
ii. Seismic vulnerability considerations systematically integrated into eligibility criteria and building-specific assessments for EE investments.
iii. Knowledge on safer public facilities is deepened

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