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Water for Shared Prosperity
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-21) Zhang, Fan; Borja-Vega, Christian
In 1997, thousands of people gathered in Marrakesh, Morocco, for the first World Water Forum to address an urgent problem: the global water crisis. The meeting resulted in the Marrakech Declaration, a pledge that called on the World Water Council to develop a “World Water Vision” for the 21st century. In 2024, thousands are convening in Bali, Indonesia, for the 10th World Water Forum. Indonesia and Morocco are worlds apart in many ways. As the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia is surrounded by water. On the other hand, Morocco is partly occupied by the Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert. However, one reality these (and many other) countries share is water stress. The 10th World Water Forum is an invitation to consider the collective water issues in countries as different as Indonesia and Morocco and to draw parallels among them. But it is also about finding solutions This report makes three major contributions. It (1) provides a conceptual framework to illustrate the relationship between water and shared prosperity; (2) presents new empirical evidence on the drivers, extent and costs of inequalities in water access, as well as disparities in the impacts of climate-related water shocks; and (3) identifies policy responses to improve water access, strengthen climate resilience, and promote shared prosperity on a livable planet.
MIGA Annual Report 2023
(Washington, DC, 2023-10-17) Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
Celebrating thirty-five years since its founding, in FY23 MIGA issued a record 6.4 billion in new guarantees across forty projects. Through these projects, the Agency remained focused on encouraging private investors to help host governments manage and mitigate political risks. In FY23, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, MIGA demonstrated its agility to respond to crisis, employing multiple products during the year to assist the embattled people of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. An institution of the World Bank Group, MIGA is committed to strong development impact and supporting projects that are economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. MIGA helps investors mitigate the risks of restrictions on currency conversion and transfer, breach of contract by governments, expropriation, and war and civil disturbance. It also offers trade finance guarantees, as well as credit enhancement on obligations of sovereigns, sub-sovereigns, state-owned enterprises, and regional development banks.
The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: Institutional Solutions
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-04-26) de Waal, Dominick; Khemani, Stuti; Barone, Andrea; Borgomeo, Edoardo
Despite massive infrastructure investments, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to face unprecedented water scarcity due to climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic development. Current policy regimes for managing water across competing needs are primarily determined by state control of large infrastructure. Policy makers across the region understand the unsustainability of water allocations and that increasing investments in new infrastructure and technologies to increase water supply place a growing financial burden on governments. However, standard solutions for demand management—reallocating water to higher value uses, reducing waste, and increasing tariffs—pose difficult political dilemmas that, more often than not, are left unresolved. Without institutional reform, the region will likely remain in water distress even with increased financing for water sector infrastructure.The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: Institutional Solutions confronts the persistence and severity of water scarcity in MENA. The report draws on the tools of public economics to address two crucial challenges facing states in MENA: lack of legitimacy and trust. Evidence from the World Values Survey shows that people in the region believe that a key role of government is to keep prices down and that governments are reluctant to raise tariffs because of the risk of widespread protests. Instead of avoiding the “politically sensitive” issue of water scarcity, this report argues that reform leaders and their external partners can reform national water institutions and draw on local political contestation to establish a new social contract. The crisis and emotive power of water in the region can be used to bolster legitimacy and trust and build a sustainable, inclusive, thriving economy that is resilient to climate change.
Collapse and Recovery: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Eroded Human Capital and What to Do about It
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023) Schady, Norbert; Holla, Alaka; Sabarwal, Shwetlena; Silva, Joana; Yi Chang, Andres
Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an enormous shock to mortality, economies, and daily life. But what has received insufficient attention is the impact of the pandemic on the accumulation of human capital—the health, education, and skills—of young people. How large was the setback, and how far are we still from a recovery? Collapse and Recovery estimates the impacts of the pandemic on the human capital of young children, school-age children, and youth and discusses the urgent actions needed to reverse the damage. It shows that there was a collapse of human capital and that, unless that collapse is remedied, it is a time bomb for countries. Specifically, the report documents alarming declines in cognitive and social-emotional development among young children, which could translate into a 25 percent reduction in their earnings as adults. It finds that 1 billion children in low- and middle-income countries missed at least one year of in-person schooling. And despite enormous efforts in remote learning, children did not learn during the unprecedentedly long school closures, which could reduce future lifetime earnings around the world by US$21 trillion. The report quantifies the dramatic drops in employment and skills among youth that resulted from the pandemic as well as the substantial increase in the number of youth neither employed nor enrolled in education or training. In all of these age groups, the impacts of the pandemic were consistently worse for children from poorer backgrounds. These losses call for immediate action. The good news is that evidence-based policies can recover these losses. Collapse and Recovery reviews governments’ responses to the pandemic, assessing why there was a collapse in human capital accumulation, what was missing in the policy architecture to protect human capital during the crisis, and how governments can better prepare to withstand future shocks. It offers concrete policy recommendations to recover losses in human capital—programs that will end up paying for themselves in the long term. To better prepare for future shocks such as climate change and wars, the report emphasizes the need for solutions that bring health, education, and social protection programs together in an integrated human development system. If countries fail to act, the losses in human capital documented in this report will become permanent and last for multiple generations. The time to act is now.
Unlocking Sustainable Private Sector Growth in the Middle East and North Africa: Evidence from the Enterprise Survey
(Luxembourg City: European Investment Bank; London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022) World Bank; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; European Investment Bank
Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been weak since the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. Achieving higher and sustainable growth is particularly important in view of other economic challenges facing the region: public debt in MENA countries has increased considerably over the last decade, accompanied by declining investment. This report seeks to understand what lies beneath that relatively slow growth, with a particular focus on the reasons for stagnating productivity and inadequate accumulation of human capital and physical capital in the region’s private sector. To this end, the report summarizes the main findings from nine background papers based on enterprise survey data. It also draws conclusions for policy, not only for promoting stronger firm performance, but also for addressing the challenge of climate change by pursuing sustainable growth.
The World Bank Annual Report 2022: Helping Countries Adapt to a Changing World
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 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.
The World Bank Annual Report 2021: From Crisis to Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Recovery
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-10-01) 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 submits the Report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.
Remarks at the Venice Climate Conference
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07-11) Malpass, David
World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the devastating economic losses. The World Bank Group is providing maximum support to developing economies to respond to the crisis, and working to help them recover in ways that will be sustainable, greener and more prosperous. The Bank Group financing is aligning with the Paris Agreement goals. The Group will help client countries in their efforts to develop and implement their Nationally Determined Contributions and Long-Term Strategies. The Group is enhancing core analytical products such as the recently launched Country Climate and Development Reports and a facility on climate-informed Public Expenditure Reviews. He expressed the need for diagnostics, and a data-driven approach to help prioritize action. There is also need for a parallel effort to protect our natural capital and biodiversity, so that solutions work for people and the planet. IFC and MIGA that are mobilizing private sector financing and helping companies lower their emissions.
Remarks at the G7 Leaders’ Summit Media Briefing
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-13) Malpass, David
World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed talks with G7 leaders about the World Bank Group’s work on health and preparedness. The World Bank will have approved vaccination programs in over 50 countries by the end of June. He talked about the Bank’s joint work with the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) vaccination program. The Bank is convening a task force with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), and World Health Organization (WHO) to help track supplies, coordinate delivery, and accelerate deployment. He noted he would talk with G7 Leaders about the World Bank Group’s work on climate, nature-based solutions, and biodiversity.
Remarks at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-22) Malpass, David
David Malpass, President of the World Bank, discussed the core plan of the World Bank’s climate change action plan. The World Bank Group has reached its highest-ever levels of climate finance in the past two years. The Bank plan commits to big increases in spending, focused on results, plus active private sector mobilization through International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the private sector focused entities. Also, the Bank is aligning the financing flows with the Paris Agreement. The Bank goal is to provide support, and take prompt action, in ways that create the most positive impact toward green, resilient, and inclusive development.