The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
>> China has rejected a recent report of the International Energy Agency that had said the country would overtake the US as the world's biggest carbon dioxide emitter by 2008 (see
The author brings us face to face with the consequences of decisions taken by those far removed from the stench and struggle of slum reality. In his 1998 study, Cities in Civilization, the planner and scholar Sir Peter Hall endorsed an ancient optimism: belief in an umbilical link between urban …
Broadband connectivity is still poor in Africa. Since global optical fibre broadband infrastructure has not yet been introduced here, people in eastern and southern Africa cannot afford to make international calls. The Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Programme (rcip) supported by the World Bank, seeks to improve international connectivity in Africa. …
"Humne khule mein shauch jaane ki pratha chhod di hai (We have stopped defecating in the open)'. Painted against a whitewashed wall of the primary school in Baruki village, Uttar Pradesh's Bijnaur district, the slogan claims victory in the battle against this practice. But the reality is a little different: …
A fter nearly two years of arbitration, the contentious Baglihar power project over the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district has been given the green light. The World Bank's neutral expert submitted his final verdict clearing the project on February 12, at Berne, Switzerland. The hydel project
indonesia recently put forward a proposal asking rich countries to pay developing nations for preserving forests. The country plans to table the proposal at the next un climate change conference, which is scheduled for December this year in Bali. In a statement, Indonesian environment minister Rachmat Witoelar said, "Preserving our …
Malnutrition is the underlying cause of half of under-five child deaths. So even though the proximate cause of children dying may be measles, diarrhoea, diphtheria, jaundice or malaria, the real reason is that they are so weakened by malnutrition that their small bodies are unable to withstand infection. Half of …
This booklet attempts to present: key issues in privatisation and commercialisation of water; global experiences of the promises and practices of privatisation, an overview of privatisation projects in the country, a broad picture of the commercialisation of the water sector under the reforms program, impacts of privatisation and commercialisation and …
A World Bank-funded flood control project in southern Pakistan was replete with design errors, violated several operational policies and directives and resulted into devastating flood disasters putting downstream people at risk, concluded a recent report by Inspection Panel, bank's own independent investigative body. The investigation was initiated by the panel …
At least 300 Argentine ecologists recently protested after the World Bank indicated that it would go ahead with funding pulp mill projects in neighbouring Uruguay. In the second week of October, the bank announced that the pulp mills met its environmental standards. Protestors blocked roads in the town of Gualeguaychu …
• International finacial institutions (IFIs) are powerful. IFIs get into contractual agreements with borrowing governments and, in turn, the citizens of these countries are bound by the terms of these agreements. But citizens have virtually no say in the negotiations
www.devcomm.org/worldbank/public.asp DEVELOPMENTTALK The first World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD) will take place from October 25-27, 2006, in Rome, Italy. Organised by the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organization and the Communication Initiative Network, the congress will bring together communication professionals engaged in development initiatives, policy- and decision-makers, …
Big hydropower projects are poised to re-enter the good books of the World Bank (wb) and the Asian Development Bank (adb). In the early 1990s, the wb had stopped funding the Sardar Sarovar Project under pressure from the Narmada Bachao Andolan. That marked the beginning of a phase during which …
as the trustee of the Community Development Carbon Fund, the World Bank has agreed to buy carbon credits from two Indian companies ostensibly to promote projects with better technologies in the building material industry. The construction sector in India is considered one of the most carbon intensive sectors representing about …
Ending a six-month long suspension, the World Bank has agreed to continue financial assistance to Chad, after the country fell in with the bank's conditions on spending petrodollars. Under the agreement, Chad has said it will devote 70 per cent of its oil revenues to poverty reduction programmes in the …
The World Bank recently lifted its suspension of finances for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, an ambitious road and rail renewal plan to improve public transport in the city. On March 1, 2006, the bank had suspended funds to two components of the project following concerns regarding equitable resettlement and …
