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 …
IN SPITE of the worldwide controversy over the continuing use of pesticides, the World Bank (WB) has diluted its norms related to pesticides and pest management policy. The wb's attitude was roundly criticised by a group of over 100 environmental, consumer and developmental organisations belonging to different countries on the …
in a study titled, The World Bank's ( wb ) experience with large dams: a preliminary review of impacts dated September 1996, the Operations Evaluation Department ( oed ) of the wb has concluded from a desk assessment of 50 Bank-financed large dams that the wb should continue to conditionally …
terming all World Bank ( wb ) projects as being basically destructive, some of India's most important non-governmental organisations ( ngo s) boycotted a wb president- ngo meet in Delhi, unequivocally demanding that wb quit India. They stated that India was capable of raising funds required for development, and there …
an estimated 2,750 Bangladeshi villagers who lost their homes in heavy floods last May, have petitioned the World Bank ( wb ) for redress. They opine that the floods in central Bangladesh were more due to the digging of a diversion channel in the area and the construction of new …
the ecodevelopment project that is proposed for seven protected areas in India in the pilot phase has been facing severe criticism from all quarters. This is being funded jointly by the World Bank (wb) (us $28 million in form of loans) and the Global Environment Facility (us $20 million in …
the World Bank's ( wb ) attempts to sneak in funds for the potentially ruinous ecodevelopment projects in seven national parks in the country has finally been exposed. The Bank officials and those from the Global Environmental Facility had no answers to one honest challenge from the people who have …
Participation is a lovely word. For long it has been twisted around to mean anything according to the whims and fancies of the user of the word. A recent study on participatory approaches to wildlife management currently being tried out in Africa, called Whose Eden? presents a wonderful list of …
in 1993 , Manmohan Singh, India’s then finance minister, had proudly proclaimed that the country’s economic growth rate over the last year was around four per cent. India’s minister of state for environment and forests in the same government, Kamal Nath, could have easily pointed out to his ministerial colleague …
To estimate the health costs arising out of air or water pollution, economists calculate the costs of increased mortality (valuing premature deaths resulting from pollution) and increased morbidity (estimating the medical expenses incurred and wages lost due to sickness). Epidemiological studies carried out in cities in developed countries have revealed …
The major environmental costs that have not been calculated by Brandon and Hommann (B&H;) are those arising out of biodiversity loss, pollution due to hazardous wastes and the rapidly rising costs of providing clean water as a result of growing pollution of surface and groundwater sources. No attempt has also …
Delhi, the proud capital of India, is today being blasted by the severest health effects of air pollution amongst the country's cities, according to the Brandon and Hommann (B&H;) study carried out for the World Bank. The study concludes that some 7,500 people die a premature death every year in …
"We need high growth, but not at the cost of the environment or health. We have sufficient laws to ensure a cleaner industrial development. But do the entrusted agencies do their jobs? Industry says its purpose is creation of wealth; environmental damage depletes this wealth. What we need is an …
a mega eco-development project in seven protected areas of the country funded by the World Bank ( wb ) has come under fire from environmentalists. The wb had recently approved a us $28 million-loan and a us $20 million-grant from the Global Environment Facility for the project. It aims at …
Nepal will receive a US $18.28 million World Bank (WB) credit for a rural water supply and a sanitation project. The fund will deliver sustainable health and hygiene benefits to the rural population, according to WB officials. The project will also provide for water and sanitation schemes for the Nepalese. …
A new afforestation programme is on the anvil in Bangladesh. Involving US $72 million, the plan includes the development and establishment of new nurseries, tree plantation along the highways and experimental afforestation in sea beaches. A total of 10 coastal districts, including Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar, have been selected for …
After months of dispute between the World Bank (wb) and the government over the funding of the controversial us $1.2 billion Nam Thuen ii dam, both parties have evolved a consensus (Down To Earth, Vol 5, No 2). Laos and the wb have agreed to revise the terms of reference …
The World Bank has sponsored an international project aimed at developing disease-free bananas involving researchers from Australia, the US and Belgium. James Dale of Queensland University of Technology heads the operation in Australia. His research ear-lier had led to the discovery of banana bunchy top, a major destructive virus in …
in late June, when the approval of the us $59.6 million loan from the World Bank (wb) for the Uttar Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Project (uprwsesp) was announced, it did not sound like the beginning of something new. But the staff appraisal report (sar) of the project …
women in India are an unhealthy lot. According to a recent World Bank report, Improving Women's Health in India , the female population of India is left behind when it comes to health care even though the country has made significant progress in social and health monitors like life expectancy, …
