Global trade will play a critical role in driving economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,
ensuring the flow of food, medical supplies, and vaccines, and contributing to poverty reduction. But policies must be in place to ensure that gains from trade are spread across regions, industries, and workers in developing countries.
As of May 13, 2021, the World Bank Board approved operations to support vaccine
rollout in 22 countries amounting to $2.4 billion. See the latest project financing, project documents and procurement information in the list below. More information will be shared here as it becomes available. We expect to reach 50 countries amounting to $4 billion by mid-year.
Climate change is challenging our status quo as the frequency of extreme weather events 
keeps increasing. Water scarcity could cost some regions up to 6% of GDP and floods could force hundreds of millions of people from their homes by 2050. At the same time, we’re facing a $15 trillion infrastructure finance gap.
In the case of pandemics, billions of dollars in prevention are worth trillions of dollars for the 
cure. But how do we translate that simple insight into effective action that saves lives?
Countries, influential stakeholders and institutions have largely failed to take preventative action, despite clear evidence of need following the SARS and avian influenza outbreaks. The consequences are clear, and the world is now paying the price for failing to take advantage of past opportunities to make prevention a priority.
A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of 
sight of governments in emerging markets and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes—including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity. Continue reading
Thousands of 
municipalities are facing increased pressures to provide essential services while simultaneously coping with dramatic revenue declines. The situation is particularly severe in emerging markets where resources are sparse.
economic cost of air pollution on health in the Greater Cairo area alone is about 1.4 percent of Egypt’s Gross Domestic Product.Healthy citizens are the cornerstone of every country’s development and are integral for sustainable economic growth. Given the many health hazards of pollution—from cancer to respiratory ailments and much more—it is increasingly becoming recognized as an impediment to growth and development. Recent global efforts to minimize pollution, through initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and The Paris Agreement, aim to set global guidelines for countries in order to reduce pollution.
Netherlands for the World Bank 
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