As the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis continues to spread, the amount of money migrant workers send home is projected to decline 14 percent by 2021 compared to the pre COVID-19 levels in 2019, according to the latest estimates published in the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief. The foremost factors driving the decline in remittances include weak economic growth and employment levels in migrant-hosting countries, weak oil prices; and depreciation of the currencies of remittance-source countries against the US dollar.
World Bank
For almost 25 years, extreme poverty was steadily declining. Now, for the first time in a generation, the quest to end poverty has suffered its worst setback due to COVID 19, conflict, and climate change. Communities, countries and continents are facing these daunting challenges. A new report — Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020: Reversals of Fortune — sheds new light on the threats to poverty reduction and provides recommendations to navigate this tough terrain.
: 2020 has brought an unprecedented challenge to the fight against poverty.
A family of livestock herders seasonally move their herds from one place to another, along with some 800,000 herders in Senegal and millions of others throughout the Sahel. It is a months-long journey that pastoralist populations often take with several families. In recent years long periods of drought, growing insecurity in some countries of the Sahel and restrictions on the movements of herds and herders have seriously disrupted traditional herd management methods. A World Bank- supported project aims to protect pastoral systems by improving resource management and animal health, facilitating access to markets, diversifying sources of income for pastoral households and managing conflicts.
Just after the world came together for the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, the Bank Group unveiled an ambitious to ramp up financial and technical support to developing countries to step up climate action. The committed to increasing climate finance from 20% of lending in 2016 to 28% by 2020. This target was exceeded each year for the last three consecutive years. In total, over the duration of the Action Plan, the Bank Group has delivered over $83 billion in climate finance.
One of the most striking images of the coronavirus pandemic is the contrast between farmers dumping milk, smashing eggs, and ploughing vegetables back into the soil and consumers facing empty store shelves and long lines at food distribution centres. How is it possible to have over-abundance on one hand and scarcity on the other? The argues that the digital revolution can accelerate the shift towards a more sustainable food future by collecting, using, and analysing machine-readable data.
Everyone Equal: Making Inclusive Growth a Priority for Ethnic Minorities
The assigns the world’s economies to four income groups—low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. The classifications are updated each year on July 1 and are based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. In each country, factors such as economic growth, inflation, exchange rates, and population growth influence GNI per capita. To keep the income classification thresholds fixed in real terms, they are adjusted annually for inflation.
The Africa Human Capital Plan sets out clear targets and commitments to boost Africa's potential through its human capital.
Ethiopia’s Kafa zone is known as the birthplace of wild Arabica coffee.
Two farmers in Ethiopia share their story on how looking after the land strengthens communities and helps biodiversity.
If you take care of the land, it will take care of you, says Tsefaye Kidane, a coffee farmer in southwest Ethiopia. When he took over the farm from his father, Kidane said the soil quality was poor and crops erratic, their irregularity exacerbated by the ravages of climate change and decades of land degradation. With support from the , Kidane has turned the situation around. He has addressed soil erosion with a host of measures, including terracing the steep landscape.
The is committed to help countries respond to the health emergency, contain economic damage, and start planning for long-term recovery. We have set up fast-track financing for COVID-19 response efforts and have these underway already in over 60 client countries. Through a combination of new projects, restructuring and emergency components of existing projects, and deployment of our disaster finance instruments, we expect our COVID-19 work to reach 100 countries.
The economic effects of suspending almost all activity have immediately impacted the world’s commodity markets and are likely to continue to affect them for months to come as countries contend with the health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. The warns the pandemic has the potential to lead to permanent changes in the demand and supply of commodities, and especially to the supply chains that move those commodities from producers to consumers.
Learn about the definition of and explore how different countries are taking on the critical role of investing in education, health, and resilience.