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 …
The world is headed "down a dangerous path" with disruption of the food system possible within a decade as climate change undermines nations' ability to feed themselves, according to a senior World Bank official. Rising urban populations are contributing to expanded demand for meat, adding to nutrition shortages for the …
Scientists have warned about the precarious state of the world's primary forests, as a new study shows that say just 22 percent of these forests are located in protected areas, equivalent of only five percent of the original ones. Brendan Mackey, Director of the Climate Change Response Program at Griffith …
The extreme poverty rate still persists at 21 percent in Pakistan and posing a significant challenge given its large population, revealed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) report. The Bank has issued its latest report "Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2014, Poverty in Asia" which states that most of …
Four of the world's emerging economies have claimed that they are far ahead of developed countries in their efforts to slow climate change. Brazil, South Africa, India and China are known as the BASIC bloc in international climate negotiations. They have also accused developed nations of keeping their carbon emission …
Brazil, South Arica, India and China seek to craft a common position for climate negotiations. Meeting for the first time since the UN-sponsored climate change negotiations in Warsaw last November, ministers of the four BASIC countries—Brazil, South Arica, India and China—sought to craft a common position for the next round …
The amount of mercury near the surface of many of the world’s oceans has tripled as the result of our polluting activities, a new study has found, with potentially damaging implications for marine life as the result of the accumulation of the toxic metal. Mercury is accumulating in the surface …
Purchasing power parity revision set to alter poverty estimation; fall won't be so steep once the global poverty line is revised too The number of poor people in India, as counted by the world, will soon change dramatically. The World Bank has revised the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) index and …
The objective of the study was to quantify maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality in low- and middle-income countries, to identify when deaths occur and to identify relationships between maternal deaths and stillbirths and neonatal deaths. A prospective study of pregnancy outcomes was performed in 106 communities at seven sites in …
The 2015 Millennium Development Goal to reduce by 50 percent the share of the world’s population living in extreme poverty was met early. The number of individuals in developing countries who live in extreme poverty had decreased from 43 percent in 1990 to 21 percent by 2010. Yet, with 1.2 …
As the world approaches the target year of the Millennium Development Goals and passes into the new, post-2015 era, the development community has made a call for a new international development goal of eradication of extreme poverty by 2030. How feasible is that? For most of the developing world, the …
Climate change adaptation has become a policy priority in most developing countries, despite limited resourcing. With climate finance soon becoming available, countries need to demonstrate that they can absorb, track and assess adaptation investments through effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E;) systems. Climate change adaptation M&E; is relatively new and the …
This study uses household models based on detailed expenditure and agricultural production data from 31 developing countries to assess the impacts of changes in global food prices on poverty in individual countries and for the world as a whole. The analysis finds that food price increases unrelated to productivity changes …
The debate around the role that agriculture should play in mitigating climate change and sequestering greenhouse gases is politically complex and technically complicated. In many countries, and particularly in developing countries with a large smallholder population, the agricultural sector faces competing priorities, such as national food security goals, poverty alleviation, …
The International Fuel Prices report provides an overview of the retail prices of gasoline and diesel in over 170 countries. It further explores recent trends and case studies on fuel prices and fuel pricing policies in developing countries. The 2012/2013 International Fuel Prices report provides an overview of the retail …
Big oil and gas companies are shifting their focus to wealthier countries after decades of exploring and producing in developing nations, lured by political stability and more predictable returns. At least two governments – Britain and New Zealand – are aiming to capitalize on the switch. On Monday, the U.K. …
Japan and Mexico have signed a deal for Japanese companies to earn carbon credits by investing in technology to cut greenhouse gas emissions in Mexico - in Japan's 12th bilateral carbon agreement. The programme, known as the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), lets companies in Japan, the world's fifth-biggest greenhouse gas …
A cheap lighting concept which creates solar lanterns from plastic bottle waste is being trialled by designers in the hope it can be scaled up for commercial production. Turkish creative firm Designnobis has developed what it calls 'Infinite Light' - a lantern made by reusing an empty plastic bottle and …
Australia’s position as one of the best places in the world to live was reaffirmed last week with the release of the 2014 United Nations Human Development Report, which saw Australia ranked second only to Norway among all nations in the world. The report, conducted by the UN Development Report …
In a possible change of stance, India might finally relent on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) trade facilitation agreement (TFA), provided it gets an “assurance” from 160 member countries, especially the developed nations, that issues concerning food security would be addressed along with TFA. Meanwhile, the WTO General Council has …
Indian officials indicated that they would not be able to support the implementation of the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) unless they see their concerns on food security addressed, according to multiple media reports. The news, coming just ahead of a key WTO meeting, has reignited old tensions among the …
