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2024-10-22, World Bank

This Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) Update assesses the evolution of Panama’s development challenges and policy priorities since the publication of the SCD in 2015. During the last eight years, Panama has experienced three major changes in its economic and social landscape: (i) economic growth, though still high, has structurally slowed down, affecting job creation and employment quality; (ii) human capital formation has not improved substantially, and the country is struggling to address the significant deterioration in education and health indicators that occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (iii) the government has demonstrated an increasingly acute awareness of the country’s vulnerability to climate change. In addition, Panama’s income per capita had the highest level of convergence within the region, reflecting its strong economic performance over the last three decades. However, the country’s remarkable gains in per capita income have not been accompanied by a commensurate improvement in economic inclusion and institutional quality. In this context, the SCD Update begins by providing an overview of Panama’s recent growth dynamics and poverty trends, before analyzing the country’s development challenges and discussing key policy priorities for achieving sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth.

2022-11, World Bank Group

The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.

2018, World Bank

This report examines perceived and actual gender differences in the use and management of natural resources and the challenges of integrating women into activities related to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) or other natural resource management projects in Mexico. The report applies a behavioral science lens to uncover key psychological, cultural, social, and non-material barriers to women’s participation in natural resource projects. Women use natural resources differently than men, which sets the stage for a variety of structural barriers. Differentiated resource use makes women vulnerable to economic, social, and external environmental influences, especially in rural areas. The study’s qualitative analysis also reveals activities that rural women in Mexico will prefer to undertake in light of the upcoming forestry programs to be implemented in Mexico by CONAFOR (Mexico’s National Forest Commission) and the World Bank. The report concludes with a gender action plan (GAP). The GAP provides concrete recommendations for the inclusion of a gender perspective and female empowerment in policies, practices, and projects, especially those related to emission reduction programs, natural resource management, and REDD+. When designed to take into consideration gender differences, REDD+ related activities and natural resource management programs can offer important opportunities for women’s empowerment, sustainable resource management, and shared prosperity.

2005-12-20, Wolfowitz, Paul

Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, shared his thoughts about how the global community can face the double challenge of protecting our environment and strengthening our economies. Brazil is working to turn this double challenge into a double dividend, by meeting energy needs that are essential for growth and fighting poverty, while leaving a smaller environmental footprint. Investing in the environment is investing in the future of the poor. To improve the lives of the poor and to create job opportunities for them, the developing countries need much more energy than they use today. The second and much greater challenge lies in slowing the threat of deforestation. The World Bank Group’s mission is to support economic development and policies that helps the poor. He concluded saying that we can and will continue to work with Brazil to raise global consciousness about our shared responsibility toward our environment.

2023-11-30, World Bank Group

The Dominican Republic has made significant progress in boosting economic growth and reducing poverty, but it still faces challenges to achieve inclusive and equitable development, increase productivity, and improve the competitiveness and sustainability of primary sectors like agriculture, water, tourism, and energy. The National Development Strategy (NDS) and the National Multi‑Year Public Sector Plan (NPSP) aim to address development and climate challenges and promote a green, inclusive and resilient future. The DR is highly vulnerable to climate change, which is likely to compound existing development challenges. By 2050, climate change impacts are expected to decrease labor productivity and affect health, crop yields, tourism, infrastructure capital, and natural ecosystems such as forests and coastal areas. Climate change also poses risks to the financial system such as the banking sector's heightened credit exposure to tropical cyclones and droughts. Although the DR has a small carbon footprint, the country's GHG emissions have been rising, mainly in the energy, waste, and agricultural sectors. Fostering a low‑carbon growth path can support the country's climate change goals while bringing important development co‑benefits. The Dominican Republic CCDR employs a version of the MANAGE model. This CCDR further extends the model to incorporate the path of emissions from key sectors (transport, energy, AFOLU), and to incorporate DR‑specific climate damage functions to introduce the impact of climate change on the economy.

2022, World Bank

The Annual Report is prepared by the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)--collectively known as the World Bank--in accordance with the by-laws of the two institutions. The President of the IBRD and IDA and the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors submit the Report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.

2013-06, World Bank

Pollution management is at the top of the development agenda of Bolivia, and this program helps address it in a cross-sectoral manner. In the context of the implementation of the program environmental management in Bolivia: innovations and opportunities which was conducted from September 2010 until October 2012, the World Bank has implemented a technical assistance program and supported a multisectoral analysis in order to help the Bolivian government improve environmental management in four specific areas: (a) water resource pollution by mining and mitigation of the pollution; (b) evaluation of potential wastewater reuse in agriculture with case studies from Cochabamba and Tarija; (c) improvement of waste management; and (d) evaluation of health benefits through adequate water supply and basic sanitation. The program s overall objective is to help strengthen environmental management in critical areas of the pollution management agenda. This report summarizes the outcomes of the pillar of the program on analytical services and is divided into five chapters: (1) improved water supply, sanitation, and hygiene: health impacts; (2) innovation in solid waste management: options for the future; (3) reuse of wastewater to mitigate water scarcity: case studies in Cochabamba and Tarija; (4) cooperative gold mining: dynamics and challenges in a rapidly growing sector; and (5) mining and water: the benefits of integrated water resource management at the watershed level. In every instance, the focus has been on identifying the windows of opportunity for policy action and investment in what is an often complex social and economic setting. The findings and recommendations carried out as part of the program have been consulted upon with a broad range of stakeholders in Bolivia through the series of workshops on each of the topics, and the recommendations presented in this report are limited to a range of options that are feasible and yet innovative in the current context, hence the reference in the title of this report to innovations and opportunities.

2022-11, World Bank Group

The Peru Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) provides analysis and recommendations on integrating the country’s efforts to achieve economic development with the pursuit of emission reduction and climate resilience. The CCDR explores opportunities and trade-offs for aligning Peru’s development path with its recent commitments on climate change. Peru is highly vulnerable to climate change and needs urgent adaptation action. Peru can benefit from decarbonization policies, thanks to its mining, forestry and agriculture, and renewable energy resources. Peru has many opportunities to develop and implement comprehensive climate policies that also increase productivity and reduce poverty. A low-carbon, resilient development for Peru would require substantial institutional reforms, in addition to public and private investments.

2018-03-19, Rigaud, Kanta Kumari, de Sherbinin, Alex, Jones, Bryan, Bergmann, Jonas, Clement, Viviane, Ober, Kayly, Schewe, Jacob, Adamo, Susana, McCusker, Brent, Heuser, Silke, Midgley, Amelia

This report, which focuses on three regions—Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America that together represent 55 percent of the developing world’s population—finds that climate change will push tens of millions of people to migrate within their countries by 2050. It projects that without concrete climate and development action, just over 143 million people—or around 2.8 percent of the population of these three regions—could be forced to move within their own countries to escape the slow-onset impacts of climate change. They will migrate from less viable areas with lower water availability and crop productivity and from areas affected by rising sea level and storm surges. The poorest and most climate vulnerable areas will be hardest hit. These trends, alongside the emergence of “hotspots” of climate in- and out-migration, will have major implications for climate-sensitive sectors and for the adequacy of infrastructure and social support systems. The report finds that internal climate migration will likely rise through 2050 and then accelerate unless there are significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and robust development action.

2010, Johnson, Todd M., Alatorre, Claudio, Romo, Zayra, Liu, Feng

One of the most compelling reasons for pursuing low-carbon development is that the potential impacts of climate change are predicted to be severe, for both industrial and developing countries, and that reducing greenhouse gas emissions can reduce the risk of the most catastrophic impacts. The challenge of reducing emissions is sobering: leading scientific models indicate that limiting the rise in global mean temperatures to less than two degree Celsius will require that global greenhouse gas emissions peak within the next 10-15 years and then fall by 2050 to levels about 50 percent lower than in 1990. Although many countries recognize the need to curtail carbon emissions, there is considerable uncertainty about how much this will cost in individual countries, what measures can be undertaken in both the short and longer term, and how cost-effective specific interventions are in reducing emissions. This study analyzes a range of energy efficiency options available in Mexico, including supply-side efficiency improvements in the electric power and oil and gas industries, and demand-side electricity efficiency measures addressing high-growth energy-consuming activities, such as air conditioning and refrigeration. It also evaluates a range of renewable energy options that make use of the country's vast wind, solar, biomass, hydro, and geothermal resources.