Nepal | World Bank

Nepal - Nepal: Enhanced Vocational Education and Training : P104015 - Implementation Status Results Report : Sequence 04

2013-05-24T04:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal: School Sector Reform Program Additional Financing is now in the pipeline.

2013-05-22T04:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal: School Sector Reform Program Additional Financing is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The development objective of the Additional Financing for School Sector Reform Program Project for Nepal is to increase access to and improve quality of school education, particularly basic education (grades 1-8), especially for children from marginalized groups. The additional financing will support the Government of Nepal (GON) in the implementation of the 7-year School Sector Reform Program (SSRP) through the three original components. The additional financing will introduce: (i) Incentive Linked Indicators (ILIs) for program financing, as a topping-up fund to enhance service delivery and key quality, governance and accountability outcomes; (ii) changes to the results framework for further clarity and to include additional indicators related to access of disadvantaged students, governance and accountability; and (iii) extend the closing date by 19 months in order to fully implement the additional financing.

The project Kali Gandaki A Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project (KGAHPRP) has changed to Active

2013-05-21T04:00:00.000Z

The project Kali Gandaki A Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project (KGAHPRP) has changed to Active. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The development objectives of the Kali Gandaki a Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project for Nepal are to improve the reliability of power supply through rehabilitation and safety measures and to improve the response capacity of Nepal in case of an emergency. The project has four components. The first component is civil works. It consists of following three sub-components: (i) head works modifications; (ii) improving dam safety monitoring and instrumentation; and (iii) maintenance works. The second component is electro-mechanical works. This component consists of mechanical and electrical works divided into two sub-components, mechanical and electrical works. The third component is technical assistance and capacity-building. This component consists of the following five sub-components: (a) consulting firm; (b) asset management; (c) safeguard implementation; (d) capacity building; and (e) catchment area treatment plan. The fourth component is contingent emergency response. This component will draw resources from the unallocated expenditure category and allow the Government of Nepal (GoN) to request the Bank to re-categorize and reallocate financing from other project components to partially cover emergency response and recovery costs. This component can also be used to channel additional funds available as a result of the emergency. This component does not have results indicator in the results framework.

Nepal - Modernization of Rani Jamara Kulariya Irrigation Scheme - Phase 1 : P118179 - Implementation Status Results Report : Sequence 03

2013-05-17T04:00:00.000Z

Official Documents- Agreement for GAFSP Grant Agreement TF013719

2013-05-17T04:00:00.000Z

Official Documents- Disbursement Letter for GAFSP TF013719

2013-05-17T04:00:00.000Z

The project Strengthening PFM Systems in Nepal is now in the pipeline.

2013-05-17T04:00:00.000Z

The project Strengthening PFM Systems in Nepal is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

Nepal-Additional Financing for Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project

2013-05-14T04:00:00.000Z

Nepal - Nutrition at a glance

2013-05-10T04:00:00.000Z

Annually, Nepal loses nearly US dollar 190 million in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Scaling up core micronutrient interventions would cost less than US dollar 14 million per year. Nepal has high rates of stunting compared to countries in the same region and income group. African countries with similar per capita incomes exhibit lower rates of child stunting, which demonstrate the ability to achieve better nutrition outcomes despite low income.

The project Waste to Energy Market Development Project is now in the pipeline.

2013-05-09T04:00:00.000Z

The project Waste to Energy Market Development Project is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

2013-05-08T04:00:00.000Z

The objective of the Kabeli 'A' Hydroelectric Project for Nepal is to support the addition of new transmission capacity to evacuate an estimated 170 MW in the Kabeli river corridor in first phase and 30 MW of new generation capacity in second phase. Negative measures include: water quality, air quality, drainage, waste management, soil erosion, and noise pollution. Mitigation measures include: a) to minimize the effects of land use changes, the design engineers will be instructed to design the superstructures visible at the ground surface complementing to the surrounding topographic forms such that the general aesthetics of the area is similar to the exiting one; b) controlled blasting will be practiced at all times while excavating the surface or underground area to have a minimum vibration impact in the surrounding areas; c) the river bank erosion due to bed level rise and damage to the agricultural fields will be minimized by the river bank protection measures in the critical areas successively as the erosion potentials are noted or reported by the farmers; d) prohibition in the blowing of horns in critical stretches close to villages and near the school area along the road; Stockpiling and storage of the construction materials in designated sites only. Prohibition on the stockpiling of construction materials in other areas; and e) the access roads will be facilitated by permanent side drain structures to collect water from the slope area. The collected water of the side drains will be discharged to suitable natural waterways to avoid upstream and downstream erosion.

Main report

2013-05-02T04:00:00.000Z

The objectives of the Additional Financing for Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (NIETTP) are to: (a) establish cross-border transmission capacity between India and Nepal of about 1,000 MW to facilitate electricity trade between the two countries; and, (b) increase the supply of electricity in Nepal by the sustainable import of at least 100 MW. Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: i) regular maintenance will be done for all equipment and vehicles as per the manufacturer's specification. Construction work shall be schedule in day hours. Working hours will be limited in more environmentally sensitive areas for e.g. near settlements; ii) vehicle utilized for construction shall comply with Government of Nepal (GoN) mass emissions standards. Regular checkup and up keeping and maintenance of the equipment will be carried out as per the manufacturer's specifications to meet the emission standards. Air mask will be provided to labor force working in areas susceptible to dust pollution; iii) the waste generated from the mixing concrete will be disposed in pits and filled with soil. Such pits will be made in barren land at approximately 500 meter distance from the water bodies. Dykes are proposed around the storage tanks to avoid water pollution; and iv) selective felling of trees in right of way of the transmission line will be done to minimize the forest loss. Similarly, the trees in the gully and valley will be avoided from felling as far as possible.

Initial environmental examination of Dhalkebar-Bhittamod 400 kV transmission line

2013-05-02T04:00:00.000Z

Nepal - Additional Financing for Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project : indigenous peoples plan

2013-05-02T04:00:00.000Z

The objectives of the Additional Financing for Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (NIETTP) are to: (a) establish cross-border transmission capacity between India and Nepal of about 1,000 MW to facilitate electricity trade between the two countries; and, (b) increase the supply of electricity in Nepal by the sustainable import of at least 100 MW. Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: a) priority attention to vulnerable communities in these benefits; b) institutional arrangements and human resources will be in place for consultation, liaison, land acquisition, resettlement and monitoring to ensure the effective resettlement implementation prior to commencement of the sub-project; c) physical works will not commence on any portion of land before compensation and assistance to the affected population have been provided in accordance with the policy framework; e) compensation, resettlement, rehabilitation, mitigation and enhancement measures for the project affected families have been categorized in two broad categories defined in entitlement matrix; f) the project proponent will provide high priority for gender and vulnerable groups for employment during the construction of the project. Special training program will be provided from the project affected vulnerable people; and g) the compensation of the affected homesteaded and associated structures will be provided as the current market price.

Nepal - Additional Financing for Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project : resettlement plan

2013-05-02T04:00:00.000Z

The objective of the Additional Financing for Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project for Nepal was to assess adverse social impacts of the transmission line project and prepare a RAP to address the adverse social impacts. The specific objectives of this study were to: (i) assess private and community resources affected by the project components and activities (i.e. loss of land, houses/property, infrastructures etc.) and the entitlements required for effective resettlement and rehabilitation;(ii) conduct census survey of identified affected households and individuals including their socio-economic status and assets loss; and (iii) provide cost estimation for compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation activities Matrix method has been used to assess impact of the project. The significance of both identified and predicted impacts were evaluated. Based on the evaluation each significant impact was further categorized as high, medium and low in terms of magnitude, short term, medium term and long term in terms of duration and local, site specific and regional in terms of extent. The magnitude, extent and duration were categorized as per national Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Guideline 1993. Considering the impacts appropriate mitigation measures have been developed

Nepal - Additional Financing for Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project

2013-05-02T04:00:00.000Z

Nepal - Additional Financing for School Sector Reform Program Project

2013-04-29T04:00:00.000Z

Nepal - Kali Gandaki a Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project

2013-04-29T04:00:00.000Z

Guidelines for environmental risks identification and management

2013-04-29T04:00:00.000Z

The objective of the Second Additional Financing for the Poverty Alleviation Fund Project for Nepal is to improve living conditions, livelihoods and empowerment among the rural poor, with particular attention to groups that have traditionally been excluded by reasons of gender, ethnicity, caste and location. Negative impacts include: loss of land, solid waste, noise and odour, diseases, child labor, pollution, occupational hazard, and land degradation and damage to crops. Mitigation measures include: (1) disposing bird waste properly and not storing near the source of water; (2) cleaning birds pen regularly; (3) waste water should not drained to the drainage or open area; (4) storing waste wool and clothes in closed chamber in the industry; (5) proper ventilation and lighting of working areas; (6) collecting waste water on concrete lined sedimentation or oxidation tank; (7) covering milk products to protect from flies; and (8) covering of wetting tank to control odour, flies and mosquitoes.

Guideline for micro irrigation projects

2013-04-29T04:00:00.000Z

Guideline for river training projects

2013-04-29T04:00:00.000Z

Nepal - Poverty Alleviation Fund II : P105860 - Implementation Status Results Report : Sequence 10

2013-04-28T04:00:00.000Z

Nepal - Rural Access Improvement and Decentralization Project : procurement plan

2013-04-25T04:00:00.000Z

Procurement plan for Barun multiple campus

2013-04-25T04:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal: Adolescent Girls Employment Initiative (AGEI) has changed to Closed

2013-04-02T04:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal: Adolescent Girls Employment Initiative (AGEI) has changed to Closed. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The development objective of the Adolescent Girls Employment Initiative Project is to increase employment and incomes of young women aged 16-24 years by strengthening an existing model for training and job placement in Nepal. The project includes the following components: (i) skills provision and job training (US$ 1,719,643); and (ii) institutional strengthening, monitoring and evaluation (US$ 150,974). The development objectives remain fully consistent with the World Bank's Interim Strategy Note (ISN) for Nepal. The project has been successful along several dimensions and is currently rated as satisfactory on both implementation progress and development objectives. Under component (skills provision and job training), progress includes completion of skills training to nearly 2500 beneficiaries over 2010 and 2011. Beneficiaries also have to appear for an independent skills test carried out by the National Skills Testing Board (NSTB) and nearly 90 percent of beneficiaries have successfully completed their skills test. Beneficiaries have also received optional additional packages on psychosocial training, awareness on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, links to prospective employers, business and enterprise skills training, and links to credit schemes. In 2012, the project aims to train 2007 young women across 36 trades. The extension is necessary to correct a mistake made during project preparation where there is a discrepancy in the closing date between the project paper and the grant agreement where the former identifies closing date as December 31, 2011, while the latter identifies the closing date as December 31, 2012. There is a clear plan for completion of all project activities.

The project Enhancing Resilience of Endangered Species to Climate Change is now in the pipeline.

2013-03-09T05:00:00.000Z

The project Enhancing Resilience of Endangered Species to Climate Change is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The project Building Resilience to Climate Related Hazards has changed to Active

2013-02-27T05:00:00.000Z

The project Building Resilience to Climate Related Hazards has changed to Active. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The main objective of the Building Resilience to Climate Related Hazards Project for Nepal is to enhance government capacity to mitigate climate related hazards by improving the accuracy and timeliness of weather and flood forecasts and warnings for climate-vulnerable communities, as well as developing agricultural management information system services to help farmers mitigate climate-related production risks. There are four components to the project, the first component being institutional strengthening, and capacity building and implementation support of Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM). This component aims to develop and/or strengthen DHM's legal and regulatory frameworks, improve institutional performance as the main provider of weather, climate and hydrological information for the nation, build capacity of personnel and management, ensure operability of the future networks, and support project implementation. The second component is the modernization of the observation networks and forecasting. The third component is the enhancement of the service delivery system of DHM. The objective of this component is to enhance the service delivery system of DHM by creating a public weather service that provides weather and impact forecasts, and information services for climate-vulnerable communities and the key weather dependent sectors of economy. Finally, the fourth component is the creation of an Agriculture Management Information System (AMIS) at the Ministry of Agriculture Development (MoAD).

The project Extending Mobile Applications in Asia through Social Networking - Nepal (Young Innovations Pvt. Ltd.) has changed to Active

2013-02-27T05:00:00.000Z

The project Extending Mobile Applications in Asia through Social Networking - Nepal (Young Innovations Pvt. Ltd.) has changed to Active. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The project Nepal Agriculture and Food Security Project has changed to Active

2013-02-27T05:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal Agriculture and Food Security Project has changed to Active. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The project Output-Based Aid for Municipal Solid Waste Management is now in the pipeline.

2013-01-04T05:00:00.000Z

The project Output-Based Aid for Municipal Solid Waste Management is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The development objective of the Output-Based Aid for Municipal Solid Waste Management Project for Nepal is improve access to high quality and financially sustainable solid waste management services in participating municipalities in Nepal. Success in achieving the project development objective will be measured by the following indicators: (i) improved quality of services; (ii) improved financial sustainability. There are three components to the project: Component 1 which deals with the service delivery subsidy will be disbursed based on outputs. TDF will make disbursements directly to municipalities upon independent verification of outputs. For Component 2 dealing with implementation support and Component 3 dealing with project management, monitoring and verification, a special Designated Account will be opened which can be used to make direct payments to consultants or to reimburse the pre-financed expenses such as incremental operating costs and training.

The project Additional Financing for the Project for Agriculture Commercialization and Trade has changed to Active

2012-11-20T05:00:00.000Z

The project Additional Financing for the Project for Agriculture Commercialization and Trade has changed to Active. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The development objective of the Additional Financing for the Agricultural Commercialization and Trade Project for Nepal is to improve the competitiveness' of smallholder farmers and the agribusiness sector in selected commodity value chains in 25 districts supported by the project. The additional credit will finance costs associated with scaled-up activities under the project. The changes and additional financing activities will remain consistent with the Interim Strategy Note (ISN). The main reasons for reduced financing were that the project was introducing new concepts and reengaging financially in the agriculture sector and it was felt that a smaller initial investment would be more prudent. The changes to the project are: a) extension of the closing date of the original project; b) revised project development objective to remove the restriction on project districts and scale up the scope of the project; and c) revised targets of outcome indicators to reflect scaling up of investments. This will require an amendment to the financing agreement for the current project. Extension of the closing date is being sought to ensure enough time for the scaled up programs to be completed and results to be documented.

The project Program to Promote Demand for Good Governance has changed to Closed

2012-11-02T04:00:00.000Z

The project Program to Promote Demand for Good Governance has changed to Closed. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

Nepal: Poverty Alleviation Fund Combines Participatory Approach with Radio and Telecommunications Platforms to Engage Communities

2012-10-31T12:34:28.000Z

Synopsis
The Government of Nepal’s Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) has integrated community driven development methodologies with feedback mechanisms supported by local radio as well as telephone and web platforms to empower communities to design, implement, and manage their own development projects that serve the poorest of the poor.

Challenge
In 2004, when the government of Nepal established the Poverty Alleviation Fund the country was mired in conflict. A Maoist insurgency and years of political instability had hindered Nepal’s attempts to improve its economy and strengthen its governing institutions. An uneasy peace was achieved with the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in 2006, but equal access to society's resources remains a formidable challenge.

“Substantial inequities existed along ethnic, caste, and geographic lines, resulting in excluded and marginalized communities in need of essential services and income earning opportunities,” says World Bank Senior Economist Gayatri Acharya. “The PAF was set up to support the poorest, most marginalized, most geographically remote, and most socially isolated communities in the country.”
Within these communities the social dynamics are often very complex. Disparities also exist among the poor, which has meant that those who are worse off may be unable to use project resources to climb out of poverty as effectively as others.

“While PAF has reached over 2.9 million people and reduced food insecurity, increased incomes, and improved access to services, PAF’s responsibility is to constantly evaluate the program to understand who is still being left out or why some communities may still not be able to make good use of these resources,” said Acharya.

Approach
The PAF approach puts beneficiaries in the driver’s seat by mobilizing them to form community organizations. These community organizations design and implement projects and also manage revolving funds. Telecommunications platforms such as internet and radio are used to create avenues of feedback that ensure accountability and transparency.
By combining national level data on poverty with participatory social assessment tools, the PAF identifies the poorest of the poor in communities throughout Nepal. PAF then partners with local government and civil society organizations (CSOs) to provide community mobilization and facilitation services,establish community organizations, and elect a committee representative. Regular community organization meetings ensure good communication regarding finances and setting project priorities.
The performance of the CSOs responsible for community mobilization and facilitation is evaluated by both PAF and directly by the community organizations receiving the support. The evaluation of CSOs by the community organizations counts for 50 percent of the performance evaluation. This ensures that the project closes the feedback loop and that the voices of communities are heard.

Beneficiary Results
The PAF feedback mechanisms have enabled the project to capture and respond to beneficiary input and deliver promising results.
New feedback mechanisms implemented by the project include:
• A grievance system that consists of both a phone hotline and a website where beneficiaries can voice complaints
• The launch of an FM radio program that allowed benficiaries to ask questions, make complaints, or ask questions from a live, on-air PAF spokesperson
• Ongoing and regular monitoring from the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers
• Full integration of local government officials into the monitoring process

This sense of accountability has lead to tangible and readily quantifiable results. An impact evaluation carried out in six districts indicated the following:
• a 19 percent increase in household consumption in the PAF program areas
• a 14 percentage point increase in school enrollment
• a 19 percentage point drop in food insecurity.
In addition, there has been significant growth in both the number and maturity of community organizations acting as viable, self-regulating bodies capable of performing autonomously and managing their own development finances.

“There is continuous confirmation from beneficiaries that there is value to the approach of empowering communities to develop institutions and income earning opportunities,” said Acharya.
Lastly, women and members of lower castes that were previously marginalized groups in Nepali society are gaining recognition and a sense of agency through the leadership roles they have filled within the project.

“This can be seen in a number of ways across the communities where the project is working,” said Acharya. “For instance, women initially wanted to invest in livestock such as goats, which they saw as a sensible first-time investment since it is a relatively small investment and in their control. Now they are asking to invest in bigger, higher-risk opportunities such as vegetable farming which also have higher income earning potential.”

World Bank Contribution
The Nepal Poverty Alleviation Fund project (PAF II) is a US$164.5 million project funded under the World Bank’s International Development Association portfolio. The PAF also received an additional US$10 million from the Global Food Response Program multi-donor trust fund to focus on food insecure households, in recognition of the remarkable impact seen on reducing food insecurity in poor households. In addition to financial assistance, the World Bank provides technical assistance, drawing upon its extensive experience in community driven development projects around the world and in other conflict-affected countries in South Asia such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Partners
Community organizations, as the recipients of PAF financing and the local responsible bodies managing the revolving funds, are the key partners of the project. Beyond this, PAF contracts with civil society organizations that serve an important facilitation and mobilization role particularly in the early stages as a community decides to participate and form a community organization. Local governments and line agencies are increasingly working with the PAF to improve service delivery to these previously marginalized communties.

Moving Forward
In the next phase of the program, the priority will be to increase impact, in particular to enable community organizations and households supported by the PAF to increase economic and social capital formation. PAF will also be reaching out to parts of the country not yet supported by the program.

An additional emphasis of PAF in its upcoming phase will be to solicit more participation of counterpart ministries in monitoring the project’s success and ensuring good alignment with other ministry programs. While PAF has instituted several mechanisms to encourage interaction between community members, the future will focus on connecting communities to share learning and experiences so that they become fully aware and able to engage with the opportunities available to them.

The project Kali Gandaki A Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project (KGAHPRP) is now in the pipeline.

2012-10-14T04:00:00.000Z

The project Kali Gandaki A Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project (KGAHPRP) is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The project Nepal: Pilot Project for Seismic School Safety in the kathmandu is now in the pipeline.

2012-09-13T04:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal: Pilot Project for Seismic School Safety in the kathmandu is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

Crossing Boundaries

2012-09-06T23:45:00.000Z

As prepared for delivery

Friday, September 7, 2012

World Conservation Congress

Jeju, Korea

Rachel Kyte, Vice President, Sustainable Development

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen - I am honored to have been asked to make the keynote address at this vital gathering of conservation thinking, leadership and action. I am particularly delighted to be here as I had the privilege and honor to work at IUCN a number of years ago. It feels good to be back again!

This Congress brings together some of the world’s smartest thinkers on the policy and practice of conservation and environmental protection. If anyone is going to guide the world in new ways of thinking and acting, it is this group of 7,000 or more which traverses all spheres - private, public, civil society, multilateral, large, small, left, right.

You, as a group, are not at the fringes of decision-making - you are at the very heart of it. Your scientific research, dedication, pursuit of better policies and connections to community all go towards much better, more informed decision-making.

Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to cross some of the boundaries that very often define our perceptions and determine the work in our institutions. My perspectives changed as I moved from IUCN to working with private companies during my time at the World Bank’s private sector arm - the IFC - and they’re changing again now as Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank.

Today, I am convinced that we will have to make a bigger effort to cross boundaries – between our organizations, across public and private sectors and within civil society - so that we reach a better future for our planet.

Let’s take a look at just some of the evidence of environmental decline before us. Evidence is one of the many things that the World Bank and IUCN share.

· The number and size of populations of the world’s species have decreased by almost a third over the last 100 years and this is projected to continue decreasing

· Over 60 percent of ecosystems are in worse shape now than 50 years ago

· 85 percent of ocean fisheries are fully exploited or over-exploited or depleted

· The condition of coral reefs has deteriorated by 38 percent since 1980

· 80 percent of people live in areas where the quality of rivers is threatened

· Climate change is worsening everything. Flood disasters increased by 230 percent and drought disasters by 38 per cent in the 20 years to the early 2000s.

At the same time that this assault on nature has been occurring, we have enjoyed an unrivalled period of economic growth which has seen 660 million people lifted out of poverty in the past 20 years. Don’t get me wrong - we are not saying we need to stop growth to protect nature. Rather, we are calling for a different kind of growth - a greener and more inclusive growth.

An indispensable part of this will be realizing the potential of ecosystems within our economies and to put nature at the foundation of economic strategies. Nature needs to be firmly on the agendas of finance ministers and discussed in board rooms with the focus on building the public-private partnerships to invest in our natural wealth.

Are we ready to do this? Increasingly the World Bank Group is. Now let me share with you three reasons for my cautious optimism that others are ready too.

Firstly, governments are increasingly stepping up - whether by increasing the number and extent of areas under protection or by better recognizing the value of nature and ecosystem services.

Governments, however, are facing daily trade-offs - for example - building a road through a park so that farmers can have better access to markets and/or conserving a road-less national park. Or, they’re weighing up a marina in a mangrove area to boost tourism versus protecting it for its fish breeding, storm protection and carbon storage values.

Effective conservation cannot and will not be driven just by conservation for conservation’s sake. Fortunately, governments increasingly recognize that maintaining and, eventually, accounting for their natural capital comes down to a question of social and economic development. There may not be simple win-wins all the time; but there may be approaches that can come close enough.

We are seeing more and more good examples. In the State of Acre in the northwestern corner of Brazil, the State Government has been making a concerted effort to bring services to its dispersed rural population and to move away from a growth model based on extraction of forest products and expansive agriculture. Where previously 90 percent of Acre’s timber extraction was illegal, now the majority comes from approved forest management plans. Real GDP has increased by over 44 percent and deforestation rates have declined by 70 percent. Acre is showing that safeguarding a state’s natural wealth will also help lift its people out of poverty.

In Liberia, the government has installed a chain of custody system for exporting logs that is helping reduce illegal logging and bringing in much-needed funding for conservation. The Government is also enforcing fishing regulations and arresting vessels found to be fishing illegally.

To manage trade-offs, governments need better information on the economic and social effects of their decisions. More and more governments are embracing the need to use natural capital accounts alongside GDP. At the World Bank Group, we are working with countries from Botswana to the Philippines to put the value of natural capital into the center of their economic decision making. After the 50:50 Campaign at Rio, 62 countries have signed on to support natural capital accounting along with the heads of close to 90 companies. These companies are doing this for competitive reasons - they need to be able to value their assets over the long term.

That brings me to the second reason for my optimism -- the growing leadership coming from parts of the private sector, be they small businesses and local entrepreneurs or Fortune 500 companies.

I see real traction emerging from the advent of rigorous performance standards and principles for corporate behavior. For example, we are beginning to see evidence that the revised IFC Performance Standard on Biodiversity is driving major change both at corporate headquarters and, more importantly, on the ground.

Companies working in developing countries are increasingly investing in biodiversity expertise, in community development, environmental restoration and long-term conservation capacity building. The big shift is that companies are beginning to see this as more than reputational risk management and rather as a way to improve their operations and manage business risk, a key part of creating value. Mainstreaming nature conservation across their operations makes good business sense. Why? Because many companies depend on freshwater, genetic resources, climate regulation, and natural hazard protection to run their businesses successfully and to see their profits grow.

As well as making good business sense, conserving nature and maintaining the resilience of ecosystems upon which people and business depend, allows companies to build trust in the communities in which they operate and among stakeholders abroad. This creates something many call a “social license to operate”.

We are beginning to see more and more companies engage with conservation organizations and external experts to better understand the environment in which they are working. This has inspired some companies to go beyond the minimization of project impacts but also to consider how they might contribute to conservation more broadly.

One example is Rio Tinto which launched its biodiversity strategy at this Congress in 2004. That strategy committed the company to making a Net Positive Impact on biodiversity through its operations. For the past seven years, the company has been piloting the strategy - working alongside government, conservation groups and civil society in Madagascar to build public sector capacity, develop livelihood alternatives, and establish offsets to conserve high biodiversity value areas.

Other examples include Shell in Gabon and Peru LNG which have been working together with the Smithsonian Institution to develop science-based assessment and monitoring of project impacts.

I also see the first few encouraging examples from the finance sector in integrating nature and ecosystem services protection into their investments.

That takes me to my third reason for optimism - that the need for action is overcoming global political sclerosis.

Rio+20 confirmed for me that while at the global level we lack political leadership today to gain consensus, global inaction is being overwhelmed by the ideas, the innovation and the real commitment to action from smart policymakers, city mayors, community leaders and CEOs.

Like-minded coalitions across sectors emerged on almost all issues. People gravitated to ideas and approaches that promised action - whether that was about ocean health, natural capital accounting, access to sustainable energy or reducing short-term climate pollutants.

For the more than 1000 business executives who attended Rio, the message was that action on sustainability is all about future markets, future products, future employees, future investors, and competitiveness linked to sustainability as shared value.

There was an almost overwhelming sense that while we need global governance for ultimate speed and scale, we cannot afford to wait for international agreements to do what everyone knows needs to be done. For every square bracket negotiated, a species is lost and that window of opportunity gets smaller and smaller.

…………………

So, while I have these reasons for cautious optimism --- I am also speaking from a place of urgency. To address the challenges ahead, each and every one of us will have to cross boundaries and we in the conservation community will need to move collectively outside our comfort zones. To this end, I have three appeals.

First to governments: Governments have responsibilities to their citizens that are measured in units of finance – jobs, tax receipts, GDP. We are not naïve: There can be and will be tensions between conservation and development; that’s why public servants need to be armed with the tools and information they need to make fully informed decisions. And that’s why those of you here who work in government should unpack the economic benefits of conservation and translate them into real numbers through natural capital accounting to transform conservation from a discrete sector to an engine of inclusive green growth.

Second to the Private Sector: To be part of the solution, companies need to raise the profile of nature conservation in their boardrooms and recognize the value of nature to their bottom lines. On the ground, companies need to commit to best management practices which will sometimes mean working beyond their immediate project areas to offset impacts and to secure supply chains. This raises technical, political and governance challenges which is why companies need to reach out and offer a hand in partnership to governments, to conservation organizations and even to each other. We hear from the private sector the need for a level playing field when it comes to best practice in biodiversity management. A coordinated and loud voice from industry groups towards government regulators might be part of the solution.

We also need to find ways to bring to scale financial instruments like green bonds, conservation banking, subsidy reform, license to operate agreements for generating new potential sources of support so that good practice can be rewarded with access to capital.

Third to Civil Society: Very often, civil society, conservation organizations and academic institutions are the backbone of any commitment to conserving nature.

But it is important to remember that it’s governments that have the main responsibility for the stewardship of natural assets. These are their citizen’s natural assets; governments must manage them. The rest of us – civil society, donors and philanthropists – must work together, provide them support while demanding transparency and holding them to account, so that they can do more and do it better.

We in the conservation community need to see the private sector as full partners for solutions and not just a threat or a fundraising opportunity. For example, in public private partnerships - if we were able to develop aggregated offsets, is the conservation community collectively ready to provide the means for verification?

Across all these areas of engagement, the World Bank Group stands ready to do its part and to do more:

We entered the debate on green growth in May 2012 through our report ‘Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development’. We want to contribute, in particular by focusing on the inclusiveness of green growth, on the importance of sound fiscal policies - like the removal of inefficient fuel subsidies - and on ensuring that nature considerations are taken into account in economic decision-making. Our work on green growth is, importantly, supported by the Korean Government.

With new energy and emphasis around Natural Capital Accounting stemming from Rio, it is crucial to keep up the political support and momentum, attract key new country partners, and visibly demonstrate action - including through our global partnership called WAVES.

We also want to do more to streamline nature considerations into our own operations by coordinating the implementation of the IFC’s Performance Standards and the World Bank’s operational policies. And I expect that the Bank Group will work more on aggregated offsets as a means of bringing public and private interests together to conserve at scale within a transparent framework.

We are also working on enhancing environmental law enforcement to ensure that the benefits of nature accrue to national economies and local communities - not thugs and organized crime.

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen, as we begin this Congress:

· Let’s agree that we need to do more, better and with more far-reaching consequences

· Let’s together move away from our ardent attachment to old ideologies, old attitudes that stop us from finding solutions together. What we need today is innovation, communication and partnerships between governments, communities, financial institutions, companies and conservation organizations.

· The type and range of solutions will be as diverse as species and ecosystems. Just as nature is not just a set of charismatic species, we will need more than a set of boutique projects and anecdotes to show large-scale impact. We will need to prioritize without devaluing any one community’s chance of life. We will need brave thinkers at the table, all types of partnerships, people with the humility and patience to make them work. Who better than those of us already humbled by the glory of nature and the complexity of its life support?

· Let’s cross our boundaries together.

· I look forward to being with you every step of the way.

The project Second Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project has changed to Closed

2012-09-04T04:00:00.000Z

The project Second Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project has changed to Closed. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The objective of the Second Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Nepal is to undertake land policy and institutional reforms and key land administration pilots for laying the foundation for sustainable decentralized land administration system that is fair, efficient, and cost effective and ensures land tenure security. There is a need to reallocate eligible expenditures between the different categories under the original project. This has been caused by increase in unit costs, implementing more schemes serving a larger population than originally planned at preparation, thereby scope of works being more than originally anticipated in the schemes. The closing date of the project extended from the current December 31, 2010 to August 30, 2011. This will allow additional schemes to be completed and increase the number of beneficiary households, while scaling up innovative initiatives such as scheme insurance, social accountability and improving income generating activities, particularly of women. This will be the second extension of the closing date, representing a cumulative extension of just less than two years.

The project Second Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project - Additional Financing has changed to Closed

2012-09-04T04:00:00.000Z

The project Second Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project - Additional Financing has changed to Closed. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The Second Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project objectives for Nepal are: (i) to improve rural water supply and sanitation sector institutional performance and mainstream the Board approach in the Government's system, and (ii) to support communities to form inclusive local water supply and sanitation user groups that can plan, implement, and operate drinking water and sanitation infrastructure that delivers sustainable health, hygiene and productivity benefits to rural households. The project adopts a community driven development approach to the delivery of rural water supply and sanitation services. The communities are assisted by support organizations, primarily Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to plan, design and implement their water and sanitation facilities. The request for additional financing is to address: (i) cost overruns; and (ii) scale up the number of water supply and sanitation services in rural areas so as to maximize positive development impacts in underserved remote areas. Additional Financing is viewed as the best option mainly because it: (a) is a quick and available means of funding the cost overruns to allow the Board to complete its ongoing schemes and deliver water supply and sanitation services to the rural communities where it has already begun work; (b) allows the Board to continue its good governance practices that apply streamlined objective eligibility criteria to select schemes and support organizations in a transparent manner to deliver water supply and sanitation services, and to do away with ad hoc decisions. Without funding, there is a risk that these good practices will be discontinued and the task of rebuilding them will not be easy. The additional financing will help the Board to strengthen its initiatives to set up a social audit committee and community score card system throughout the project areas. It will also help to further facilitate the Board's initiative to link women's groups with commercial banks and the private sector for business development so that Women Technical Support Services (WTSS) group members can maximize the benefits from the income generating activities they undertake using their time savings.

The project Nepal PFM-MDTF Strengthening Civil Society Organizations' use of Social Accountability to improve PFM in Nepal is now in the pipeline.

2012-08-31T04:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal PFM-MDTF Strengthening Civil Society Organizations' use of Social Accountability to improve PFM in Nepal is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The project Additional Financing for the Project for Agriculture Commercialization and Trade is now in the pipeline.

2012-08-15T04:00:00.000Z

The project Additional Financing for the Project for Agriculture Commercialization and Trade is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The project Bridges Improvement and Maintenance Program has changed to Active

2012-06-29T04:00:00.000Z

The project Bridges Improvement and Maintenance Program has changed to Active. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

The development objective of the Bridges Improvement and Maintenance Program Project for Nepal is to provide safe, reliable and cost effective bridges on Nepal's strategic roads network (SRN). Nepal is still emerging from a 10-year armed conflict that ended in 2006 and is currently passing through a momentous and prolonged political transition which is still in a fragile and incomplete state. This transition entails two interrelated processes: promulgation of a new constitution and the completion of the ongoing peace process. The Constitution is expected to lead to a major restructuring of Nepal into a federal state while the completion of the peace process is expected to resolve the integration/rehabilitation of former Maoist combatants. Nepal's peace process is progressing with the closure of Maoist cantonments and political parties attempting to resolve all contentious outstanding constitutional issues. These issues include state restructuring, forms of governance, electoral system, constitutional court, and citizenship questions to be enshrined in the new constitution. Nepal's economic growth has been adversely affected by the political uncertainty. Growth over the past decade has been below potential, relying largely on remittances and tourism. Nonetheless, Nepal has made good progress both in terms of poverty reduction and improvement of social indicators. The World Bank will support the SRN bridge-related activities, a subset of the overall program of capital investment by Department of Roads (DOR) in Nepal's road and bridge infrastructure. The SRN Bridge Program under the Department of Roads is a subset of the overall program of investment in Nepal's road and bridge infrastructure. The scope of the program under DOR encompasses three primary activities: (i) planning, technical design and quality management of bridges; (ii) major and minor maintenance of existing bridge assets; and (iii) investments in new bridge construction. Effectively planning and implementing capital investment is the most critical part of achieving the SRN Bridge Program's intended outcomes.

World Bank Links Financing to Results under a new Bridges Maintenance and Improvement Program

2012-06-28T15:20:56.000Z

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2012—The World Bank today approved a US$60 million credit to help Nepal maintain and construct bridges on its Strategic Roads Network. The strategic roads network refers to roughly 10,800 kilometers of national highways, feeder roads and other roads of national importance.

Supporting the vision behind Nepal’s Bridge Policy and Strategy of 2004 to provide “safe, reliable and cost effective” bridges, the Bridges Improvement and Maintenance Program will maintain 89 bridges, many over 35 years old, complete major and minor maintenance on over 300 bridges, and construct 121 new bridges.

The Program will be financed through a new World Bank financing instrument called the Program for Results or P4R that links disbursements of funds directly to the delivery of verifiable results. This is the first Program-for-Results to be approved by the World Bank’s Board under IDA, the Bank’s concessional financing window. The Bank will provide approximately 40% of program financing, with Government of Nepal providing the remaining 60%. The program will support the strengthening of institutional systems and will develop transparent implementation arrangements, including linking disbursements to verification of results, third party monitoring, use of social accountability tools and technical audits.

“Through this new Program-for-Results instrument, the World Bank support will contribute towards improving access for the population of Nepal, especially those living in remote areas”, says Tahseen Sayed, World Bank Country Manager for Nepal. “We hope it will also create greater economic opportunities for men and women” she said.

“Three quarters of the bridges require urgent maintenance but the costs are estimated at under US$250,000 per bridge,” says Farhad Ahmed, Task Team Leader at the World Bank. “Similar estimates suggest that most of the new bridges will cost less than US$1 million each.”

The World Bank has funded six road projects in Nepal. By improving mobility and access, including in the poorest regions of western and far-western Nepal, these projects are generating economic opportunities while reducing the vulnerability of excluded and marginalized groups.

For more information on the World Bank in Nepal, please visit www.worldbank.org/np.

Contacts:

In Kathmandu: Rajib Upadhya, (+9771) 4226792 Extn. 6102, rupadhya@worldbank.org

In Washington: Alison Reeves, (202) 473-8955, areeves@worldbank.org

For more information, please visit the Projects website.

World Bank Helps Vulnerable Populations in Nepal Improve Nutrition

2012-06-27T13:10:16.000Z

WASHINGTON D.C., June 26, 2012 — The World Bank is scaling up its efforts in Nepal at helping authorities and communities improve the nutritional status of the country’s most vulnerable populations. This is one of the first World Bank assisted multi sector nutrition project in the South Asia region which will engage a wide range of actors across government and civil society in the areas of health, poverty reduction, social protection, water and sanitation, agriculture, local development and education in the planning and implementation.

The Sunaula Hazar Din project – translated from Nepali to English to mean the “golden 1,000 days project” – will target risk factors that affect the nutritional status of children in the first two years of their lives. The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved US$ 40 million in grant and credit for this new project today to complement Nepal’s ongoing programs in nutrition.

Nutrition experts worldwide have determined that the window of opportunity for improving nutrition is small, i.e., the first 1,000 days from the first day of pregnancy through the first two years of life. The damage that might occur due to inadequate nutrition during this period is extensive and largely irreversible.

The main focus of this project will be to accelerate the reduction of maternal and child under-nutrition, as measured by anemia among pregnant women, low birth rate and young child stunting.

“The high rates of under nutrition – nearly two in every five Nepali children under the age of five are stunted with nearly a third underweight – require urgent and coordinated action by multiple institutions to attack this silent killer,” says Tahseen Sayed, the World Bank Country Manager for Nepal. “We are delighted to support this multi-sector nutrition project, one of the first of its kind in the South Asia Region, which brings together multiple stakeholders at the central and local levels to improve the nutritional outcomes of women and children,” she says.

Together with the rest of South Asia, Nepal has made good progress in other human development indicators such as school enrolments, gender parity in school participation, immunization coverage, infant and under five mortality rates, and fertility rates. However, when it comes to nutrition, all the countries in the region, including Nepal, have fallen behind.

“If not addressed during the first few years of life, under nourishment can cause permanent disability in children, loss of height during adolescence, poor grades in school, increase in school drop-outs and reduction in life-time earnings,” says Albertus Voetberg, World Bank Task Team Leader for the project. “The social and economic costs to nations are huge,” he says.

Earlier this month in Kathmandu, the World Bank organized a Knowledge Forum where nearly 200 leading nutrition experts and practitioners from governments, civil society organizations development partners across the South Asia region shared lessons and experiences in improving infant and young child nutrition.

Financing for the Sunaula Hazar Din project will be made available to Nepal from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group.

Contacts:

In Kathmandu: Rajib Upadhya, (+9771) 4226792 Extn. 6102, rupadhya@worldbank.org

In Washington: Alison Reeves, (202) 473-8955, areeves@worldbank.org

For more information on the World Bank in Nepal, please visit www.worldbank.org/np

For more information, please visit the Projects website.

Zoellick to Join Harvard’s Belfer Center, Peterson Institute

2012-06-27T13:00:00.000Z

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2012—Robert B. Zoellick today said he would join the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC after he steps down as World Bank Group President on June 30.

Zoellick will become the Peterson Institute’s first Distinguished Visiting Fellow as well as also becoming a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

“I appreciate the opportunity to engage with the scholars and practitioners at Harvard’s Belfer Center and the Peterson Institute for International Economics,” said Zoellick. “I hope to work on the intersection of economics and security, applying history to policy questions of today. Both institutions have been at the cutting edge of research and policy development, and I have benefited greatly from both in the past.”

As the 11th president of the World Bank, Mr. Zoellick turned around an institution in trouble in 2007, recapitalized the Bank, and expanded financing for the poorest countries following the food, fuel and financial crises of recent years. He modernized the Bank by making it more accountable, flexible, fast-moving, transparent, and focused on good governance and anti-corruption. He has increased representation of developing countries in governance and staffing and encouraged developing countries to set their own priorities rather than have them dictated from the Bank. His record has also been marked by an increased role for the private sector through the bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which under his leadership has recruited sovereign wealth funds and pension funds to invest in poor countries, especially in Africa.

Before his term at the Bank, Mr. Zoellick served as Vice Chairman, International, of the Goldman Sachs Group as well as Managing Director and Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Board of International Advisors from 2006-2007. Previously, he was Deputy Secretary of State in 2005-2006 and a member of the Cabinet as U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005.

From 1985 to 1993, he served at the Treasury and State Departments in various posts, as well as White House Deputy Chief of Staff. He was the lead U.S. official in the "Two-plus-Four" process of German unification in 1989-90 and served as "sherpa" for the preparation of the G-7/8 Economic Summits in 1991-92.

Mr. Zoellick graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College in 1975 and earned a J.D. magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the Kennedy School of Government in 1981.

Contacts:

In Washington: Frederick Jones, (202) 473-9336, fjones@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: Mehreen Sheikh, (202) 458-7336, msheikh1@worldbank.org

Innovative Fund to Boost Food Security and Farmer Livelihoods is Launched

2012-06-18T19:04:43.000Z

New Approach to Financing Innovations in Food Security and Agricultural Development Unveiled at G20 Summit in Mexico

AgResults: Innovation in Research and Delivery

LOS CABOS, Mexico (June 18, 2012) – An innovative initiative that will enhance global food security and improve the livelihoods of developing country farmers through prizes and other market-based incentives was announced today by G20 Leaders. With a results-driven funding model that rewards innovators for tackling some of the biggest problems in food security and agricultural development, AgResults addresses global challenges in food security and agriculture by generating market-oriented solutions. The initiative aims to achieve significant improvements in the wellbeing of the poor and vulnerable in developing countries with a fund of up to $100 million, to be administered by the World Bank. The governments of Australia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are supporting this effort.

AgResults uses pull mechanisms to encourage innovation through results-based payments such as prizes that are typically paid out when certain objectives or milestones have been met. Such financing mechanisms have seen success in generating innovation and market-oriented solutions in other domains such as healthcare, and AgResults aims to deliver similar gains in global food security and agricultural development.

AgResults was born out of the realization that there is a great need for increased investment in global food security and agriculture, in particular from the private sector. The FAO estimates that world food production must double by 2050 to feed a growing world population, while nearly a billion people suffer from a lack of crucial micronutrients in their diet—a hidden hunger that inhibits the development of children and reduces adult productivity. Recognizing these gaps, leaders at the June 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto committed to exploring innovative, results-focused ways of harnessing private sector innovations in food security and agricultural development in developing countries. This commitment involved a two-year effort by committed partners to develop AgResults, culminating in today’s launch of the initiative in support of the Summit priority of enhancing global food security. AgResults addresses this priority directly through new funding and a focus on bringing new, innovative approaches to bear on global food security issues.

In the coming years, AgResults will launch a series of pilots that address some of the biggest problems in global food security and agricultural development. The initiative’s portfolio of pilots will represent a diverse mix of agriculture and food security issues, testing different types of pull mechanisms in different regions globally. The initial set of pilots, focusing on maize production in Sub-Saharan Africa, include:

· Incentivizing the adoption of on-farm storage technology for smallholder farmers;

· Encouraging innovative distribution of a breakthrough technology to reduce aflatoxin contamination; and

· Building a market for new vitamin A-enhanced varieties of maize.

Additional pilots will be explored in the coming years, potentially including livestock vaccines and fertilizer innovation as well as new ideas related to increasing crop yields, decreasing post-harvest losses, increasing livestock productivity and improving nutrition.

For further information, please visit www.worldbank.org/cfp/agpm

Contacts:

In Washington: Amy Stilwell, (202) 458-4906, astilwell@worldbank.org

In Mexico: Fernanda Zavaleta, 52-55-5480-4252, fzavaleta@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, (202) 458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

Global Mobility Unaffected by Financial Crisis, as Remittances Remained Resilient

2012-06-13T13:00:00.000Z

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2012 – The global financial crisis of 2008/09 has not sent migrant workers streaming back home, despite worsening employment prospects and anti-immigration rhetoric in some destination countries, says a new book on migration and remittances, published by the World Bank.

In fact, migrants may have mitigated some of the pain of the crisis as they tend to work for lower wages, receive fewer benefits and rely relatively little on the state, says the ‘Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond’ book.

“During the crisis, remittances continued to provide a steady source of foreign currency to developing country economies at a time when foreign aid remained flat and foreign direct investment declined sharply,” said Otaviano Canuto, Vice President, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, at the World Bank.

Removing restrictions on human mobility may help enhance financial flows among nations and alleviate some of the adverse effect of the crisis, says the book. With migrant workers projected to remit about $399 billion to their home countries during 2012, compared to $372 billion in 2011, remittances are the most tangible link between migration and development.

Although many of the 215 million international migrants are facing worsening employment prospects in some destination countries, particularly high-income Europe, their cash support to families in their home countries has remained resilient, posting, in 2009, the only decline in recent memory. Even then, remittances decreased by a modest 5.2 percent, in sharp contrast with the precipitous declines seen in global private capital flows.

“The resilience of remittances is good news for developing countries as they remain one of the less volatile sources of foreign exchange earnings, particularly for the less developed countries. At the household level, these cash transfers are, in many cases, the only lifeline for families in the home countries,” said Hans Timmer, Director of Development Prospects at the World Bank.

However, despite many years of recording ever-increasing volumes of remittances, leveraging this rather large and growing source of funds for socio-economic development remains a key challenge, with the vast majority of remittances used for maintaining families and for the purchase of consumer goods.

The book, which is the first comprehensive study of remittances during the global financial crisis, is a compilation of 45 separate studies that identify and discuss remittance practices across the world and possibilities for the future. Each study is authored by a different expert who analyzes certain countries and certain aspects of remittances, ranging from patterns of remittance flows to usage of remittances received by communities and households.

The book is co-edited by Dilip Ratha, Manager of the Bank’s Migration and Remittances Unit; Ibrahim Sirkeci, Professor of Transnational Studies and Marketing at Regent’s College, London; and Jeffrey Cohen, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Ohio State University, USA, who also co-author the book’s first chapter on remittance flows and practices during the crisis.

“Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence of return of migrants, even as the financial crisis reduced employment opportunities in the United States and Europe, with many countries, such as Spain, offering financial incentives to encourage migrants to return,” said Sirkeci.

Migration, in fact, was a strategic response to the financial crisis. Like any political or environmental catastrophe, the financial crisis caused human insecurity and people in developing countries responded by crossing borders or moving domestically to survive the impact of the crisis.

“Remittances have remained resilient and, barring the decline in 2009, have maintained a healthy growth momentum. However, since the book went to press, the global economy continues to experience serious bouts of volatility, which could affect migrant earnings and, hence, remittances,” said Ratha.

For receiving countries, a key factor behind the resilience in remittances is the diversification of migrant destinations.

Countries in South Asia and East Asia with many migrants in the United States, Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries continued to register increased remittance inflows. One study in the book concludes that only a prolonged global slowdown would cause a decline in remittance flows to India, the largest recipient of remittances in 2011, with $64 billion.

In contrast, Latin America and the Caribbean region, whose migrants are concentrated in the United States, suffered a dramatic decline in remittances throughout the financial crisis. Mexico, the world’s third largest recipient of remittances ($24 billion in 2011), saw a significant decline in remittance inflows from the United States during the crisis. A similar strong impact was found in El Salvador. Both cases underline the fact that many Latin American countries were vulnerable to the effects of crisis, with a special impact on the urban youth in these countries, who face more difficult labor market prospects and declining opportunities to migrate.

Studies related to the effect of the crisis in the European Union on remittance-receiving countries found that Spain has been the fastest-growing immigration destination for the past decade and is now the fifth largest remittance-sending country, after the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Switzerland.

In the East Asia and Pacific region, remittances account for as much as 12 percent of GDP, as in the case of New Zealand and Pacific island economies, while remittances have been keeping the national economy afloat in the Philippines for the past three decades.

Also, due to the depreciation of local currencies of many remittance-recipient countries, such as India, Mexico, and the Philippines, migrants from those countries turned to investment-oriented remittances in South Asia and East Asia where goods, services, and assets suddenly became significantly inexpensive and affordable.

The book recommends that countries develop policies that reduce restrictions on human mobility and develop programs to facilitate the use of remittances for long-term investments and promoting entrepreneurship. Such changes, tailored to both host and recipient country needs, can strengthen the contribution of remittances to development.

Eliminating the complexity of transactions and reducing transaction costs would also help increase the volume of remittances utilizing official channels, to enable many small nations, in particular, to reap the socio-economic benefits of migrant earnings.

The book is available for purchase at http://publications.worldbank.org/18826

The latest migration and remittances data are available at www.worldbank.org/migration

Interact with migration experts at http://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove/

Contacts:

In Washington: Indira Chand +1 (202) 458-0434, +1 (703) 376-7491, ichand@worldbank.org

For TV/Broadcast: Natalia Cieslik +1 (202) 458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

WB Urges Developing Countries to Strengthen Domestic Fundamentals, to Weather Global Economic Turmoil

2012-06-12T17:00:00.000Z

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2012 – Developing countries should prepare for a long period of volatility in the global economy by re-emphasizing medium-term development strategies, while preparing for tougher times, says the World Bank in the newly-released Global Economic Prospects (GEP), June 2012.

A resurgence of tensions in high-income Europe has eroded the gains made during the first four months of this year, which saw a rebound in economic activity in both developing and advanced countries and an easing of risk aversion among investors. Since May 1^st, increased market jitters have spread. Developing and high-income country stock markets have lost some 7 percent, giving up two-thirds of the gains generated over the preceding four months. Most industrial commodity prices are down, with crude and copper prices down by 19 and 14 percent, respectively, while developing country currencies have lost value against the US dollar, as international capital fled to safe-haven assets, such as German and U.S. government bonds.

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So far, conditions in most developing countries have not deteriorated as much as in the fourth quarter of 2011. Outside of Europe and Central Asia and the Middle-East and North Africa, developing country credit default swap (CDS) rates, a key indicator of market sentiment, remain well below their maximums from the fall of 2011.

“Global capital market and investor sentiment are likely to remain volatile over the medium term – making economic policy setting difficult. In this environment, developing countries should focus on productivity-enhancing reforms and infrastructure investment instead of reacting to day-to-day changes in the international environment,” said Hans Timmer, Director of Development Prospects at the World Bank.

Increased uncertainty will add to pre-existing headwinds from budget cutting, banking-sector deleveraging and developing country capacity constraints. As a result, the World Bank projects that developing country growth will slow to a relatively weak 5.3 percent in 2012, before strengthening somewhat to 5.9 percent in 2013 and 6.0 percent in 2014. Growth in high-income countries will also be weak, 1.4, 1.9 and 2.3 percent for 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively – with GDP in the Euro Area declining 0.3 percent in 2012. Overall, global GDP is projected to rise 2.5, 3.0 and 3.3 ⁽¹⁾ percent for the same period.

This baseline scenario remains the most likely outcome. However, should the situation in Europe deteriorate sharply no developing region would be spared. Developing Europe and Central Asia is especially vulnerable because of its close trade and financial ties with high-income Europe, but the world's poorest countries will also feel the fall out – especially countries that are heavily reliant on remittances, tourism or commodity exports or that have high-levels of short-term debt.

“Where possible, developing countries need to move to reduce vulnerabilities by lowering short-term debt levels, cutting budget deficits and returning to a more neutral monetary policy stance. Doing so will provide them with more leeway to loosen policy, should global conditions take a sharp turn for the worse,” said Andrew Burns, Manager of Global Macroeconomics and lead author of the report.

The full report and accompanying datasets are available at www.worldbank.org/globaloutlook

Regional Highlights

Growth outlooks for each country are available in the full report at:

www.worldbank.org/globaloutlook

Growth for the East Asia and Pacific region is on a moderately easing trend, with GDP gains for the region dropping to 8.3 percent in 2011 from 9.7 percent in 2010. The recent deterioration in global financial conditions is expected to add to pre-existing headwinds, including relatively weak demand from the high-income world, and a slowing phase in China to moderate regional growth to 7.6 percent in 2012, before broader global recovery lifts exports and growth for the region in 2013 to 8.1 percent, easing to 7.9 percent in 2014. China’s GDP is expected to accelerate from 8.2 percent in 2012 to 8.4 percent by 2014.

Notwithstanding the economic downturn in the Euro Area in the fourth quarter of 2011, developing Europe and Central Asia posted strong (5.6 percent) growth in 2011, driven by robust domestic demand and good harvests in countries such as Russia, Romania and Turkey. However, severe weather conditions in early 2012, capacity constraints in some countries, deleveraging by European banks, and the renewed turmoil in high-income Europe are projected to slow regional GDP growth to 3.3 percent this year, before a modest recovery begins with growth firming to 4.1 and 4.4 percent in each of 2013 and 2014.

Growth in the Latin America and the Caribbean region eased to 4.3 percent in 2011, from 6.1 percent in 2010, due to the pronounced slowdown in the region’s larger economies. In Brazil, GDP slowed sharply to 2.7 percent in 2011 (7.5 percent in 2010), as investment growth and private consumption eased. The region’s short-term outlook is clouded by a weak external environment, and capacity constraints in select economies. Regional GDP is expected to decelerate to 3.5 percent in 2012, firming to 4.1 percent and 4 percent in 2013 and 2014, respectively, while growth in Brazil is projected to remain below potential at 2.9 percent in 2012, before accelerating to 4.2 percent in 2013 and 3.9 percent in 2014.

Uncertainty, volatility, and political change continue to characterize conditions in the Middle East and North Africa region. Aggregate GDP grew by 1 percent in 2011, down from 3.8 percent in 2010. Regional growth is projected to remain weak at 0.6 percent for 2012, mainly reflecting the influence of sanctions on growth in Iran, and continued GDP declines in Syria and Yemen. As these elements fade in importance, growth for the region should step up to 2.2 percent in 2013 and 3.4 percent in 2014. Egypt’s economy is projected to move out of negative territory to 1.4 percent growth in 2012, rising to 4.6 percent in 2014. Growth is also expected to pick up strongly in Jordan and Lebanon, while oil prices, which are projected to average near $107/bbl in 2012, will benefit the region’s oil exporters.

Growth in South Asia slowed to 7.1 percent in 2011, from 8.6 percent in 2010, as headwinds from the Euro Area crisis caused a steep deceleration in exports and a reversal of portfolio inflows. Growth in India was particularly weak due to monetary policy, stalled reforms, and electricity shortages, which, along with fiscal and inflation concerns, cut into investment activity. Policy uncertainties, fiscal deficits, entrenched inflation, and infrastructure gaps will continue to weigh negatively on investment activity and are expected to limit regional growth to a relatively modest 6.4 percent in 2012, 6.5 percent in 2013, and 6.7 percent in 2014. India will see growth (measured at factor cost) increasing to 6.9, 7.2 and 7.4 percent in fiscal years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively.

Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa remained robust in 2011 at 4.7 percent. Excluding South Africa, growth in the rest of the region was stronger, at 5.6 percent, making it one of the fastest growing developing regions. Higher commodity prices and improved macroeconomic and political stability in recent years has supported increased private investment flows to the region, with promising prospects in the medium term. As global demand firms and domestic demand remains robust, regional growth is expected to strengthen to 5 percent in 2012, 5.3 percent in 2013 and 5.2 percent in 2014.

Contacts

In Washington: Merrell Tuck-Primdahl +1 (202) 473-9516, +1 (202) 476-9897, mtuckprimdahl@worldbank.org;

Indira Chand +1 (202) 458-0434, +1 (703) 376-7491, ichand@worldbank.org

In London: Derek Warren + 44 (20) 7592-8402 , dwarren1@worldbank.org

For TV/Broadcast: Natalia Cieslik +1 (202) 458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

(1) Using purchasing power parity weights, global growth would be 3.3, 3.9 and 4.2 percent for 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Globalization: Made in the Americas

2012-06-08T00:30:00.000Z

AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

Inter-American Dialogue 30^th Anniversary Dinner

Remarks of Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank Group

June 7, 2012

Introduction

Thank you for the honor of your invitation to commemorate the 30^th Anniversary of the Inter-American Dialogue.

The origins of this Dialogue stretch back to a discussion between Peter Bell and Abe Lowenthal on a park bench.

Peter and Abe were disturbed by the breakdown in inter-American exchanges during the Falklands/Malvinas war, and by the lack of ties with the rising democrats of Latin America. So they discussed bringing together leaders from across the hemisphere to set a new inter-American agenda. The Dialogue held its first ad hoc conference in late 1982.

Today, 30 years later, Latin America’s very success offers the opportunity to remake that Hemispheric partnership around new pillars:

· A revived free trade policy that will aid structural reforms for growth in all our countries;

· An energy transformation, ending the Hemisphere’s energy dependency;

· A new diplomacy infused with private sector pragmatism to solve public problems;

· Shared security; and

· The first Democratic Hemisphere.

For the United States, this new agenda could enable us to rely on a great, home-grown asset – Hispanic-Americans – as the vanguard of U.S. connectivity in a new Western Hemispheric economy.

This Dialogue can – and I believe will – help drive this change: to create a “Globalization: Made in the Americas.”

Under Peter Hakim’s and now Michael Shifter’s energetic leadership, the Inter-American Dialogue has become the leading U.S. center for policy analysis, exchange, and communication in the Western Hemisphere.

The idea at the heart of the Dialogue remains very much the same as that which emerged from the conversation on the park bench: that through dialogue and shared vision, interested citizens across the hemisphere together can plant the seeds of new policy ideas and practical proposals for progress in the Americas.

So tonight, let’s put that idea to work.

A Different Vantage Point

Just two months ago, the leaders of the Western Hemisphere met in Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas. Colombia was an excellent host, and the Summit showcased the country’s many hard-won achievements.

But the news reports were, frankly, disappointing. Aside from the behavior of some Secret Service agents, the coverage focused on disagreements about Cuba and drugs. Some even suggested this would be the last Summit of the Americas. The agenda seemed stuck in a time warp.

So when Carla Hills asked if I could join you this evening, I thought the best way to celebrate the Dialogue’s Anniversary was to offer new possibilities for the Americas in a fast-changing global economy.

My vantage point on our hemisphere is different from many U.S. contributors to the Dialogue. I am not a specialist in Latin America.

Like many of my U.S. foreign and security policy colleagues, much of my energy has been concentrated on the issues of Europe and the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

Yet because of my economic background, Latin America and Canada have loomed larger on my global map.

In the 1980s and early 90s, working with Secretary of Treasury and State James Baker, we were immersed in issues of Latin American debt and reforms for growth, the Canadian and North American FTAs, and Central American security and democracy.

In 2001, as U.S. Trade Representative, we were fortunate to build on that experience, negotiating FTAs with Chile, Colombia, Peru, Panama, the five countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic. Together with NAFTA, these FTAs cover 54 percent of the economy of our hemisphere, not including the United States, offering an underutilized web of free traders that could support deeper integration in the Americas – even hemispheric free trade and democracy.

Five years as President of the World Bank Group has added to this perspective.

Why am I stressing this global outlook on Latin America? Because, while working on the issues of our region, I have urged my Latin counterparts to look globally, too.

Instead, for too many years, the dialogue within our hemisphere seemed constrained by a North-South framework. The United States loomed large – whether as a hegemon, source of support, market, model, danger, or even frustrating land of inattention.

On development, debt, investment, competition, and trade, Latin Americans need to see the wider horizon – especially to benchmark with East Asia. And beyond East Asia, Latin America has a new role to play in building multiple engines of growth with other emerging markets. It is time to break out of that North-South construct.

Consider Canada’s experience in combining regional integration with global reach: of course, Canada’s FTA with the United States in 1988 deepened the two countries’ economic integration – but in addition, the competitive adjustment driven by that accord made Canadian business more competitive globally.

A new hemispheric partnership requires leaving old habits, old mindsets, and old models of dependency behind.

That partnership will necessitate a new mix of partners, public and private.

That partnership should be the next challenge for the Summit of the Americas and this Dialogue.

Latin America’s Record of Gains

Latin America’s recent record of gains now puts it in a position to remake the Hemispheric partnership.

The numbers tell the story.

Between 2003 and 2010, the income of the average Latin American increased by more than 30 percent. A silent revolution in macro-financial policy has strengthened the economic immune system of many countries. We saw the payoff after the fall of Lehman Brothers: Sound policies in Latin America enabled expansions to offset the downturn without the aftershocks that now threaten Europe.

About 73 million Latin Americans have been lifted out of poverty since 2003. Today, almost a third of the region’s population is considered middle class.

Latin America is breaking a pattern of persistent inequality, including through an increase in women’s involvement in the economy, particularly from poor families. Colombia and Peru have buttressed this trend by boosting opportunities for people of African and indigenous origin, seeking to overcome divisions that populists have exploited.

Mexico and Brazil have led in developing well-targeted conditional cash transfer programs that have revolutionized public assistance. These programs couple income grants for poor families with incentives for health check-ups and keeping children in school. Mexico’s Oportunidades program has probably done more for women’s health than anything in the country’s history.

These are safety net programs that appeal to a fiscal conservative: They cost only about half a percent of GDP. The World Bank has helped export this model to 40 other countries, ranging from Pakistan to the Philippines.

Latin America is “going global.” As the global trade negotiations have stalled, leading Latin American free traders have tried to keep up the momentum. Mexico has FTAs with 59 countries; Chile with 43.

Colombia offers a leading example of how a democracy can combine security, development, and good governance to overcome narco-traffickers, kidnappers, and terrorists. Peru demonstrates how sound economic policy and political commitment across administrations can reverse years of stagnation.

Brazil’s influence is expanding – through its companies, agricultural and mining experience, development work, peacekeeping in Haiti, and interest in Africa. Brazil’s leaders of the left have also turned a page in history by sticking with democracy. Rising leaders of the left in other Latin American countries have seen the benefits for the poor of Brazil’s example, compared to authoritarians who tear down institutions to consolidate personal or party power.

Looking Ahead

So what’s ahead for Latin America?

Latin America’s per capita income is still only at 30 percent of the U.S. level.

To climb higher, Latin American economies will need to leap beyond the so-called middle income trap. Many developing economies make early rapid gains. But then productivity and growth tend to slow.

This is a global challenge. In 1960, the World Bank ranked 101 economies as middle income; by 2008, almost half a century later, only 13 had made it to high income levels – and one was Greece.

Many Latin American countries will need to translate the commodity boom into broader, more diversified economies. This region has lived through roller-coaster booms and busts before.

Higher productivity is the antidote to the middle income trap.

Since the 1980s, Latin America has underinvested in infrastructure – electricity, roads, bridges, ports, transport – and maintaining and operating these services. Currently, Latin America spends 2 to 3 percent of GDP on infrastructure, less than half the rate of investment in East Asia.

Public-private infrastructure partnerships not only offer a source of financing, but also better design, maintenance, and operations to deliver high-quality services on time.

Colombia has experimented with PPPs in urban water supply and sanitation. Mexico’s new Highway Concession Program has mobilized PPP projects of around $11 billion, expanding the country’s major toll roads network by some 25 percent.

Latin America has to anticipate its human capital needs. The region is aging rapidly: today, about 11 percent of Brazil’s working age-population are seniors; by 2050, it will be nearly half.

Latin America also needs to improve the results of its investments in education. By age 15, the learning achievement of the average Latin American student lags two years behind his or her developed country counterparts.

Latin America is recognizing that gender equality is smart economics. Today, women in Latin America outnumber men in schools and universities. Working age women represent roughly 40 percent of the entire labor force in the region.

To continue to grow, the region will need more competition and innovation in the service sector. Competitive services increase productivity. They supply the ‘software’ of integration: transport, where delays and losses can impose significant costs; information technology, because accurate data and effective communication is vital; financial services, to create a supportive business environment; and logistics systems, which are a driver of business competitiveness.

A New Agenda

What do these challenges mean for a new hemispheric partnership? What should have been the news coming out of Cartagena?

Let me offer five ideas.

First, the Western Hemisphere needs to revive an activist free trade and economic reform policy, globally and regionally. We need fresh approaches.

The United States will be cutting agricultural subsidies, especially given high prices, and eliminating protection for ethanol. Why not deploy these to prod others?

Service sector liberalization can boost productivity, open new businesses, create new jobs, and cut the “Latin cost” that many countries impose on their own businesses. Why not deploy this economic need to revive a mutual interest in negotiation?

A strong self-interest can drive this renewed call for liberalization. Latin American economies still need much investment and more robust capital markets – especially in local currencies – that can help Latin American entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses to expand.

Infrastructure investments require capital goods and services, as Panama’s 21st Century Canal project is demonstrating. Why not dismantle barriers to lower the cost of infrastructure expansion?

Better logistics make economies more competitive. The World Bank’s 2012 Logistics Performance Index estimated that Latin American logistics costs are between 16 and 26 percent of GDP – that’s two to four times the average in Europe or East Asia.

The World Bank has helped Colombia and Peru to implement a “single window” approach to customs clearance and border management. In Brazil and Peru, the Bank has worked with international freight forwarders to connect rural, remote villages and small businesses to export through national postal services; in the first six months, more than 300 small firms in Peru became exporters, most for the first time.

Even as the WTO works toward a Trade Facilitation agreement, the Americas could develop an accord that points the way.

Brazilian officials are focused on exchange rates. Yet to really boost growth the target should be productivity. Better infrastructure can help, and so can more efficient and effective public services. The World Bank Group has launched a deeper partnership with the Governors of the Northeastern states of Brazil to overcome these impediments. Over time, however, the United States and its free trade partners should be working with Brazil to rebuild the case for a hemispheric initiative to realize the benefits of trade liberalization and economic reforms.

It takes two to tango, and this agenda requires changes on the part of the United States, too. The United States is no longer leading the open trade agenda, as it relies increasingly on defensive measures. The United States has its own high costs of trade – antiquated ports and laws to protect special interests.

The United States should work with its current free trade partners in the Americas to deepen ties of development, reform, and investment.

The current architecture of US FTAs in the hemisphere offers a solid legal framework, but it needs to evolve into a home for an ongoing dialogue – across countries and with business, academic, civil society, and environmental communities – to see what else can be done to lower costs and barriers and create opportunities.

The United States and its partners could explore progressive integration across the FTAs, for example by expanding provisions to cumulate inputs among partners while qualifying for free trade.

The United States needs to make its hemispheric FTA network dynamic, linked to business and investment policies, and improved governance.

A new concept of an FTA network in the Americas could also support inclusive and sustainable development as the foundation for open societies and borders.

Second, innovation in the energy sector, led by the United States, could transform energy security for North America, the Hemisphere, and the world.

In 2008, imports supplied 70 percent of US oil demand. By 2020, PFC Energy estimates that imports could be down to 40 percent of US oil demand – or even 20 percent if Canadian oil is counted as part of the home market. If natural gas for Canada and the United States is added, U.S. net energy imports from the rest of the world could drop to five percent of U.S. demand. That’s an amazing game-changer in energy.

If Mexico opens PEMEX to real outside investment, the outlook is even brighter. With the discovery of the giant deep offshore PRESAL oil and gas fields, Brazil can play a major role in supplying oil and gas in the region.

Yet there is a need to connect these energy supplies – through infrastructure – with countries in Central America and the Caribbean that have suffered from high prices and limited access. Increased efficiency and alternative sources could help the energy poor, too. It’s long past time for a hemispheric energy policy – blending consideration of inclusive growth, the environment, and indigenous communities’ interests.

Third, this new Hemispheric partnership needs to break old patterns of diplomacy. There are now vibrant private sectors all across the hemisphere. The challenges of overcoming the middle income trap and structural reforms to boost productivity need private sector advice and solutions. All across the developing world, the World Bank is encountering a new pragmatism about involving the private sector in areas that used to be public monopolies: infrastructure; education; healthcare; skills training; delivery of public social services. Advanced economies such as the United States should be taking note, too.

Yet government-business dialogues can be stilted showcases. The Summit of the Americas – and perhaps the Dialogue – should review which approaches work better and why. With some guidance, businesses can better connect possibilities with policies. Governments can commit to responses, commitments, openness, and results.

Fourth, the new Hemispheric agenda should help all 35 countries overcome security threats to growth and opportunity.

The fragile governments of Central America are at risk of being overwhelmed by crime and violence linked to drug trafficking, organized crime, gangs, and firepower. Spain, which has roughly the same population as Central America, has about 400 murders per year; in 2010, Central America had over 18,000.

The region pays a heavy economic price for this insecurity – as much as 8 percent of GDP. The basic legitimacy of governments and institutions is fraying: About half of Central Americans say a military coup could be justified when crime levels are high.

Experiences from Medellin and Rio de Janeiro have shown that the best way to attack criminal insecurity is through an integrated approach: combining stepped-up policing, prevention, and community investments. Quick turnarounds are possible. Strong regional cooperation is indispensable.

The United States has an unfortunate pattern of ignoring dangers in Central America until they explode. This time U.S. diplomacy should work with Mexico, Colombia, and Panama to develop a coherent strategy – not band-aids. As in Colombia, the Central American private sector must also be part of the solution. And the United States should also take responsibility for the drug habits of its public that fuel demand for narcotics from the south.

Fragility in the Caribbean is another soft spot. But small economies can be competitive in many sectors. Accelerating integration in the Caribbean can share services, add to resilience, and boost economic prospects.

Latin America should also be looking toward a greater role in global security – through practical steps, not the old G-77 policies of the past. My friend and former colleague, Bernie Aronson has proposed, for example, that Brazil could lead by voluntarily ending its uranium enrichment program and then calling on other nations – including Iran – to follow its example. If Brazil wants to help shape the 21^st Century, leadership in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons – with an idea and action – would send a powerful signal.

Fifth, the debate over Cuba at Cartagena sounded like hollow echoes from another era. Look ahead, not back.

Chavez’s days are numbered. If his subsidies to Cuba and Nicaragua are cut, those regimes will be in trouble. The democrats of Latin America – left, center, and right – should be preparing. The calls for democracy – for an end to intimidating thugs, human rights, fair elections, and rule of law – should come from all its capitals.

There will soon be an opportunity to make the Western Hemisphere the first Democratic Hemisphere. Not a place of coups, caudillos, and cocaine -- but of democracy, development, and dignity.

This transformation will not be achieved by the Calvo doctrine. By divisive populists. By corruption. By acquiescence. By silence.

You know well that if Latins leave the work to Washington and Ottawa, the opponents of liberty and human rights will play the cards of gringoism and neo-imperialism. Trump them.

Conclusion

For the United States, a new partnership in the Western Hemisphere offers opportunities for renewal at home, too.

All the debates about macroeconomic issues – fiscal and monetary policies – as important as they are, risk inattention to microeconomic incentives, structural reforms in the United States.

Energy. Infrastructure. Education. Human capital. Competition. Environment. Innovation. The United States also needs to clear away old rigidities on these new fundamentals.

The United States also needs to draw on the energies, intelligence, and drive of all its citizens.

As my friend Luis Alberto Moreno of the Inter-American Development Bank has pointed out, the 50 million strong Hispanic community in the United States is a growing market, source of entrepreneurship, and resource for a Hemispheric economic strategy. At over $1 trillion, the purchasing power of Latinos in the United States is larger than the economies of every Latin American country except Brazil.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are between two and three million Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States. Many are small. But they create jobs, earn revenues, and pay taxes.

As Latin America grows, the Hispanic businesses in the United States offer an incredible asset. Hispanics in the United States could be in the vanguard of a new Western Hemispheric economy.

Small and medium-sized Hispanic-American businesses will need help to expand their entrepreneurialism – information about markets, financing, and risk management services. To be most effective, this assistance should be decentralized – perhaps drawing on local chambers of commerce in cities and states where most Hispanic businesses can be found. The Small Business Administration, OPIC, Ex-Im Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank could then deploy their resources to help.

The world economy is still struggling to recover from the worst blows since the 1930s. Europe is a danger zone. U.S. leadership remains vital to get through the storm, to reach a new world economy of multiple poles of growth.

This is why the news coming out of the Cartagena Summit was disappointing.

This is not a time for drift, for old North-South debates, for retreat behind borders, old mindsets, or out-dated dependencies.

This is a time for the New World to again inspire novel thinking – about development, growth, structural reforms, rule of law and human rights, democracy, and security.

This Dialogue should aim high: To have the Western Hemisphere shape this next era of globalization – so that future historians will title the next chapter, not “The Passing of the New World,” but “Globalization: Made in the Americas.”

Cities to Face Sharply Rising Costs for Garbage Treatment

2012-06-06T15:30:00.000Z

New report points to 70% global increase in urban solid waste

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2012 – A new, far-reaching report on the state of municipal solid waste around the world predicts a sharp rise in the amount of garbage generated by urban residents between now and 2025. The report estimates the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) will rise from the current 1.3 billion tonnes/year to 2.2 billion tonnes/year, with much of the increase coming in rapidly growing cities in developing countries. The annual cost of solid waste management is projected to rise from the current $205 billion to $375 billion, with cost increasing most severely in low income countries.

The report, What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management, for the first time offers consolidated data on MSW generation, collection, composition, and disposal by country and by region. In itself, this is an accomplishment because, as the report states, reliable global MSW information is either not available or incomplete, inconsistent, and incomparable. Nevertheless, the authors of the report point to a looming crisis in MSW treatment as living standards rise and urban populations grow.

“Improving solid waste management, especially in the rapidly growing cities of low income countries, is becoming a more and more urgent issue,” said Rachel Kyte, Vice President, Sustainable Development at the World Bank. “The findings of this report are sobering, but they also offer hope that once the extent of this issue is recognized, local and national leaders, as well as the international community, will mobilize to put in place programs to reduce, reuse, recycle, or recover as much waste as possible before burning it (and recovering the energy) or otherwise disposing of it. Measuring the extent of the problem is a critical first step to resolving it.”

The report notes that municipal solid waste management is the most important service a city provides. In low-income countries, MSW is often the largest single budget item for cities, and one of the largest employers. A city that cannot effectively manage its waste is rarely able to manage more complex services such as health, education, or transportation. Improving MSW is one of the most effective ways of strengthening overall municipal management.

The report shows that the amount of municipal solid waste is growing fastest in China (which surpassed the US as the world’s largest waste generator in 2004), other parts of East Asia, and part of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Growth rates for MSW in these areas are similar to their rates for urbanization and increases in GDP. There is a direct correlation between the per capita level of income in cities and the amount of waste per capita that is generated. In general, as a country urbanizes and populations become wealthier, the consumption of inorganic materials (e.g. plastics, paper, glass, aluminum) increases, while the relative organic fraction decreases.

“What we’re finding in these figures is not that surprising,” said Dan Hoornweg, Lead Urban Specialist in the Finance, Economics, and Urban Development Department of the World Bank and eco-author of the report, “What is surprising, however, is that when you add the figures up we’re looking at a relatively silent problem that is growing daily. The challenges surrounding municipal solid waste are going to be enormous, on a scale of, if not greater than, the challenges we are currently experiencing with climate change. This report should be seen as a giant wake-up call to policy makers everywhere.”

The authors of the report say an integrated solid waste management plan is needed in cities to approach solid waste in a comprehensive manner. Key to such a plan is consultation and input from all stakeholders, including citizen groups and those working on behalf of the poor and the disadvantaged. Public health and environmental protection aspects of any such plan are also critical.

The report also spells out policy recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, many of which emanate from inefficient solid waste management practices. Post-consumer waste is estimated to account for almost 5% of total global GHG, while methane from landfills represents 12% of total global methane emissions. The report says that a number of practical approaches could be applied in most cities, including:

· Public education to inform people about their options to reduce waste generation and increase recycling and composting;

· Pricing mechanisms (such as product charges) to stimulate consumer behaviour to reduce waste generation and increase recycling;

· User charges tied to the quantity of waste disposed of, with (for example) consumers separating recyclables paying a lower fee for waste disposal; and/or

· Preferential procurement policies and pricing to stimulate demand for products made with recycled post-consumer waste.

For a link to the report, click here: http://go.worldbank.org/BCQEP0TMO0

Contacts:

In Washington: Roger Morier, +1 202 473 5675, rmorier@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, +1 202 458 9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

World Bank Group Unveils New Focus on ‘Green, Clean, Resilient’ Development

2012-06-05T04:00:00.000Z

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2012 -- The World Bank Group today released its ambitious, new Environment Strategy for 2012-2022 aimed at supporting countries to pursue sustainable development pathways that are green, inclusive, efficient, and affordable. The new Strategy responds to calls from governments and the private sector for new approaches to development in light of unprecedented environmental challenges and lays out a vision for “a green, clean and resilient world for all”.

“We’re seeing that working through the nexus of food crises, water insecurity, and energy needs is being made all the more complicated by environmental degradation and climate change,” said World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte. “Countries and communities and the ecosystems they depend on need to build resilience while moving to more efficient growth paths. This Strategy lays out the areas where we will put emphasis as we work to respond to countries’ needs.”

As countries seek to reduce poverty in the face of climate change and other major environmental challenges, the Bank Group is providing knowledge, solutions and financing to foster an environment that is:

· Green where natural resources are sustainably managed and conserved to improve livelihoods and ensure food security;

· Clean in which cleaner air, water and oceans enable people to lead healthy, productive lives and where development strategies emphasize low-emission, climate-smart transport, energy, agriculture and urban development;

· Resilient in which countries are better prepared for shocks and less vulnerable to natural disasters, volatile weather patterns and other impacts of climate change.

World Bank commitments addressing environment and natural resource management have grown from $1.5 billion or 8.4 percent of World Bank lending in FY01 to $6.3 billion or 14.3 percent in FY11.

“The Strategy acknowledges the vital role of the private sector in achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth and development,” said International Finance Corporation (IFC) Vice President for Business Advisory Services Nena Stoiljkovic. “IFC works with the private sector as an advisor, financier, and standard setter to help unlock this potential.”

The IFC invested $1.7 billion in climate-friendly projects in FY11, up 6 percent from $1.6 billion in FY10.

Under the “green” agenda, a key priority is the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) global partnership which supports countries’ efforts to factor natural capital into national accounting systems and through the Global Partnership for Oceans, the focus is on restoring the world’s oceans to health and optimizing their contribution to economic growth and food security. The “clean” agenda prioritizes pollution management through river clean-up and legacy pollution projects while also encouraging low-emission development strategies and financing for renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and lower-carbon cities.

The “resilience” agenda, targets support to countries to adapt to climate change, improve disaster risk management, with a focus on vulnerable Small Island Developing States to reduce dependence on oil imports, build sound infrastructure, and restore protective coastal ecosystems such as mangroves.

The Strategy includes action plans for the specific environmental challenges in each developing region of the world.

· In Africa, work will focus on strengthening governance for natural resource management given growing pressure on the region’s agriculture, mining, forests, and water basins. In partnership with other agencies, the private sector, and civil society, the Bank Group is seeking to expand access to clean energy across the region.

· In East Asia and the Pacific the Bank Group is supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency, sustainable urban development and transport, as well as prioritizing the phase-out of numerous industrial pollutants; advising on carbon markets and adaptation in agriculture and coastal infrastructure; scaling up forest management; and strengthening regional partnerships to preserve biodiversity.

· In Europe and Central Asia where many countries are faced with energy shortages and a legacy of industrial pollution, the Bank Group is promoting clean energy and production while supporting programs to dispose of pollutant stockpiles, rehabilitate watersheds and improve disaster preparedness.

· In Latin America and the Caribbean where pressure continues on coastlines, wetlands, and the world’s largest forest cover, the Bank Group is supporting the management of protected areas, the integration of biodiversity conservation into productive landscapes and in some countries, the use of payments for environmental services. It is also providing the world’s most urbanized region with policy advice on cleaner development paths, supporting industrial pollution abatement, and promoting “green cities”.

· In Middle East and North Africa where high population density, water scarcity, and overfishing tend primarily to affect the poor, the Bank Group is supporting programs to strengthen the capacity of countries with shared seas—the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Gulf—to reduce marine pollution and manage fisheries. Other focus areas include desert ecosystems and livelihoods; improved urban and industrial planning; scaled-up solar power generation; and efforts to reduce vulnerability to drought.

· In South Asia where the poorest live in areas of high soil erosion, variable rainfall, and degraded forests, the Bank Group is helping to strengthen the role of natural resource management in the development agenda, strengthen environmental management in industry and reduce the costs to countries of environmental degradation.

Meeting the challenges of a green, clean, and resilient world requires leveraging the comparative advantage of all development partners. The new Strategy recognizes the growing role of the private sector in addressing sustainability concerns, developing sustainability standards, and ensuring that global markets can and do promote sustainable development.

The Strategy also encompasses the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) - the arm of the World Bank Group that promotes responsible foreign direct investment into developing countries by offering political risk insurance to the private sector.

"MIGA is pleased to have contributed to this strategy and to advance the notion that the private sector is absolutely crucial to affect change with respect to environmental issues," said Michel Wormser, MIGA's Vice President and COO.

To measure and monitor progress the Environment Strategy includes a results framework to track progress over time. The new Strategy also advances work to assess greenhouse gas emissions from the Bank Group’s portfolio of development projects with pilots being undertaken in a number of World Bank energy, transport and forestry sector projects.

Contacts:
In Washington: Elisabeth Mealey, +1 202-458-4475, emealey@worldbank.org

Vanessa Bauza, +1 202-458-1603, vbauza@ifc.org
Mallory Saleson +1 202-473-0844 msaleson@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, +1 202-458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

To read the World Bank Group Environment Strategy 2012-2022, click here.

For more information on Sustainable Development at the World Bank click here.

For more information on the IFC Sustainability: www.ifc.org/sustainability

For more information on MIGA: www.miga.org

The project Nepal Agriculture and Food Security Project is now in the pipeline.

2012-05-31T04:00:00.000Z

The project Nepal Agriculture and Food Security Project is now in the pipeline. To see more information, see the project information in the World Bank project database

World Bank Increases Transparency through Inaugural Publication of Sanctions Board Decisions

2012-05-30T13:30:00.000Z

Milestone in anti-corruption agenda unmatched by any other IFI

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2012 - Marking another advance in openness and accountability in its anti-corruption work, the World Bank Group today published for the first time a set of decisions issued by the World Bank Group’s Sanctions Board in cases of alleged fraud and corruption.

"The World Bank Group takes a hard line against corruption, and we believe that greater transparency must be part of that effort,” said World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati. “By publishing Sanctions Board decisions, we are making all parties involved in the sanctions process more accountable. This move should deepen the deterrent effect of debarments and enhance the educational value of the Sanctions Board’s findings."

The first published decisions were announced at a panel discussion hosted by the World Bank Group Sanctions Board Secretariat to take stock of recent developments and consider ongoing challenges for the Bank Group’s sanctions system. At the discussion, the Bank Group also announced the appointment of two new Sanctions Board members: Mr. Yves Fortier, an international arbitrator and former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, who will serve as Chair of the Sanctions Board; and Ms. Catherine O’Regan, President of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal and former Judge of the South African Constitutional Court.

The Sanctions Board, an independent administrative tribunal with a majority of external members, serves as final decision-maker in all contested sanctions cases. Decisions are taken based on an adversarial process that includes written arguments and evidence and, where requested, an administrative hearing. More than 530 firms and individuals have been sanctioned by the World Bank Group for fraud, corruption and collusion since the sanctions system was established in 1999. Most of these sanctions have been in the form of debarments, where firms or individuals are rendered ineligible to participate in Bank Group-financed operations.

From December 2011, the Sanctions Board Law Digest has made publicly available summaries of past cases and the legal principles applied over time. The publication of full Sanctions Board decisions goes a step further and creates an unprecedented level of transparency by presenting the Sanctions Board’s detailed review of each new appeal to determine whether misconduct occurred and if so, what sanctions should apply.

"Publication of our decisions furthers the Sanctions Board's goal to fight fraud and corruption through the rule of law," said Fathi Kemicha, the first external Chair of the Sanctions Board. "Parties that come before the Sanctions Board, as well as our partners in the international community, will now have a more robust understanding of our process, case law, and careful examination of each case."

The decisions published today can be accessed on the World Bank’s external website, and explain the rationale for sanctions imposed in eight cases recently considered by the Sanctions Board:

· Sanctions Board Decision No. 46 (Sanctions Case No. 151): Income Electrix Limited debarred for six months for fraud.

· Sanctions Board Decision No. 47 (Sanctions Case No. 121): M/s. Concept Pharmaceuticals Limited debarred for fraud, with conditional release after three years.

· Sanctions Board Decision No. 48 (Sanctions Case No. 118): Zhonghao Overseas Construction Eng. Co., Ltd. debarred for two years for fraud, with conditional early release after one year.

· Sanctions Board Decision No. 49 (Sanctions Case No. 130): De Lorenzo of America, Corp., S.A. de C.V., and its affiliate Marketing Enterprises Latin America, LLC., each debarred for fraud, with conditional release after two years.

· Sanctions Board Decision No. 50 (Sanctions Case No. 117): ASDECON Corporation Company Limited debarred for corrupt practices, with conditional release after five years.

· Sanctions Board Decision No. 51 (Sanctions Case No. 145 and Sanctions Case No. 146):

- Sanctions Case No. 145: General Consulting Training (GCT) and Mr. Ali Safi each debarred for one year for fraud.

- Sanctions Case No. 146: TEAM Engineering & Management Consultants (TEAM) debarred for fraud, with conditional release after two years.

· Sanctions Board Decision No. 52 (Sanctions Case No. 134): Contransimex Nigeria Limited debarred for fraud, with conditional release after two years.

All sanctions are reflected on the World Bank Listing of Ineligible Firms & Individuals (www.worldbank.org/debarr).

For more information, please visit: www.worldbank.org/sanctions

Contacts:

In Washington: David Theis, (202) 458-8626, dtheis@worldbank.org;

For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, (202) 458-9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

New Initiatives Give Hope to a Carbon Market Facing Challenges

2012-05-30T12:30:00.000Z

World Bank releases State and Trends of the Carbon Market report 2012

COLOGNE, GERMANY, May 30, 2012 – The total value of the carbon market grew by 11 percent in 2011, to $176 billion, and transaction volumes reached a new high of 10.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) according to a new report from the World Bank.

According to State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2012 this growth took place in the face of economic turbulence, growing long-term oversupply in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and plummeting carbon prices.

The report, released here at the Carbon Expo in Cologne, describes how even as prices declined, the value of the global carbon market increased in 2011, driven predominantly by a robust growth in financially motivated transactions. By far, the largest segment of the carbon market was that of EU Allowances (EUAs), valued at $148 billion. There was also a substantial increase in the volume of secondary Kyoto offsets (which grew by 43 percent, to 1.8 billion tons of CO₂e, valued at US$23 billion) fueled by increased liquidity in the Certified Emission Reduction (CER) market and in the nascent secondary Emission Reduction Unit (ERU) market. Following the same pattern observed in previous years, the global carbon market in 2011 was primarily driven by the EU ETS.

With the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, the value of the pre-2013 primary CER, ERU and AAU markets declined once again in 2011. Not surprisingly, however, the market is starting to look beyond 2012 and consequently the post-2012 primary CDM market increased by a robust 63 percent, to US$2 billion, despite depressed prices and limited long-term-visibility. Although China remained the largest source of contracted CERs, African countries – largely bypassed in the pre-2013 market – emerged stronger in 2011 and accounted for 21 percent of post-2012 CERs contracted during the year.

Against this backdrop, several new domestic and regional carbon market initiatives gained traction in both developed and developing economies in 2011. Five new jurisdictions passed legislation adopting cap-and-trade schemes.

“It is heartening to see that, while leading economies continue to experience difficulties and the carbon market faces major challenges, we see increasing interest in, and support for, new market-based mechanisms to mitigate climate change in the long term,” said Joëlle Chassard, Manager of the Carbon Finance Unit of the World Bank.

The Australian Parliament passed the Clean Energy Act, the California Air Resources Board adopted a cap-and-trade regulation, and Québec adopted its own cap-and-trade program. The province is now working toward linking it with California’s starting in 2013. Last month, both Mexico and the Republic of Korea passed comprehensive climate bills, laying the foundation for future market-based mechanisms.

“Together, these initiatives will drive substantial resources towards low-carbon investments and they have the potential to unleash a truly transformational carbon market, in support of a global solution to the climate challenge,” said Alexandre Kossoy, Senior Financial Specialist, World Bank Carbon Finance Unit.

Contacts:

In Cologne: Isabel Hagbrink, +1 202 458 0422, ihagbrink@worldbank.org

In Washington DC: Elisabeth Mealey, +1 202 458 4475, emealey@worldbank.org

For an electronic version of the report and more information on the Carbon Finance Unit and its carbon funds, please see: www.carbonfinance.org

World Bank Welcomes African Leadership on Natural Capital Accounting

2012-05-25T14:17:29.000Z

Announces $3m in support from Japan to help countries around the world put it into action

GABORONE, BOTSWANA, May 25, 2012 – The World Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development, Rachel Kyte, today welcomed the strong endorsement from ten African countries for natural capital accounting - a tool for factoring countries’ natural assets into their systems of national accounting.

Speaking at the conclusion of the African Sustainability Summit in Botswana, Kyte said African leaders had shown the way forward through a joint communiqué on natural capital accounting which recognized GDP’s limitations as a measure of well-being and sustainable growth and underscored the importance of a tool for taking natural capital into account for improved economic decision-making.

“Africa is where sustained and sustainable economic growth and the stewardship of natural wealth become one and the same thing,” Kyte said. “Making progress means more than just a strong GDP - it means giving equal attention to the economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainable development. By endorsing natural capital accounting as a tool for delivering on more inclusive green growth, Africa is showing the way for the rest of the world.”

Kyte said that 24 countries around the world were already compiling natural capital accounts. With so much on-the-ground experience to draw upon, she said the World Bank was hoping to see at least 50 countries and 50 private corporations follow Africa’s lead by endorsing natural capital accounting at the upcoming Rio+20 Conference.

The World Bank is supporting countries to factor their natural capital into systems of national accounts through a global partnership called WAVES (Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services). Ms Kyte took the opportunity of the Botswana Summit to announce the Government of Japan’s financial commitment of $US3 million to support the WAVES Partnership.

“Japan’s generous commitment helps us step up to meet the increasing demand from countries to make natural capital accounting a reality,” Kyte said.

Japan’s Deputy Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs and Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister for Global Environmental Finance, Naoko Ishii said “Japan has long been a supporter to enhancing biodiversity and preserving ecosystems, and is excited to strengthen this initiative.”

WAVES is working to build capacity in countries to implement Natural Capital Accounting based on the UN’s recently endorsed System for Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA). The SEEA provides an internationally agreed method, on par with the current System of National Accounts, to account for material natural resources like minerals, timber, and fisheries.

WAVES is also working to develop an agreed methodology for accounting for ecosystem services, including for example, the `regulating’ services of forests for pollination and wetlands for reducing the impacts of floods.

The WAVES partnership includes the United Nations Environment Program, the UN Development Program, and the UN Statistical Commission; the countries of Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Madagascar, and the Philippines, which are implementing programs; as well as financial or technical support from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom, and several NGOS.

For a copy of the latest WAVES report “Moving Beyond GDP” go to:

http://www.wavespartnership.org/waves/

Contacts:

In Washington: Robert Bisset, +1 202 458 5191, rbisset@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: Natalia Cieslik, +1 202 458 9369, ncieslik@worldbank.org

For more information about WAVES and the World Bank’s work on sustainable development visit:

http://www.worldbank.org/sustainabledevelopment

For more information about the Summit For Sustainability in Africa, please visit here.

World Bank Database Shows Export Markets Are Dominated by Big Firms

2012-05-24T13:46:46.000Z

Difficult for Newcomers to Survive

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2012 – A few large companies dominate export markets in developing and developed countries, with the top one percent often accounting for more than half – sometimes nearly 80 percent – of total exports, according to a new World Bank database with a wealth of details on exporting firms.

The new Exporter Dynamics Database offers the most comprehensive picture yet of exporter characteristics and dynamics – a firm’s entry, exit and survival in the export market – in 45 developed and developing countries. The database mainly covers 2003-2009, though data from the 1990s are also available for some countries.

A key finding is that the export market is difficult to tackle for newcomers, with 57 percent of companies on average – and two-thirds in Africa – quitting within a year of entering the export market.

“Governments traditionally have focused on helping exporters expand to new products and new markets, but they may need to do more to help firms survive,” says Ana Margarida Fernandes, the task leader of the database, which was developed by the Trade and International Integration team of the World Bank’s Development Research Group.

The global database allows for cross-country comparisons of exporters based on factors such as size, survival, growth, and concentration. More countries will be added as the database expands. Until now, most databases focus not on exporting firms, but on the aggregate flow of goods across borders based on countries or products.

Based on data sets covering the universe of export transactions obtained directly from customs agencies, the data are comparable across countries. Measures cover the size distribution of exporting firms, their diversification in terms of products and markets, the dynamics of exporting firms’ entry, exit and survival, and the average unit prices of the goods traded.

The Exporter Dynamics Database could help policy makers identify opportunities in particular sectors and address challenges faced by their exporters, especially in their entry and survival in export markets. For example, it can be used to analyze the performance of export sectors in a country, comparing them with their counterparts in the region or richer countries. The database can also make it easier to analyze the impact of tariffs and other trade barriers. For example, it can be used to assess the impact of stringent non-tariff measures on the numbers and average size of exporters.

The database reveals several interesting trends. For example, the rate of firms entering the export market is high, with more than half of the exporters in Laos, Malawi, Tanzania, and Yemen being newcomers in any given year. But their survival rate isn’t that good, generally with more than a third of companies on average leaving the export market every year.

“Our database shows how large the degree of churning in export markets is, particularly in less developed and smaller economies,” says Martha Denisse Pierola, an economist at the Development Research Group who started the project with Caroline Freund, now the chief economist at the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank. “We need further research to better assist governments in minimizing the costs associated with these high exit rates.”

Contacts:

In Washington: Jane Zhang, (202) 473-1376, janezhang@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: Mehreen Sheikh, (202) 458-7336, msheikh1@worldbank.org

For more information, please visit: http://econ.worldbank.org/exporter-dynamics-database

For more information click here.

World Bank Group Finds over 80 percent of Investment Promotion Agencies’ Efforts Falling Short

2012-05-20T23:00:00.000Z

WASHINGTON, May 20, 2012 - Even as countries compete to attract investments, 80 percent of national investment promotion agencies are failing to respond to investor inquiries in the key sectors of agribusiness and tourism, according to the World Bank Group’s Global Investment Promotion Best Practices 2012 report.

The report assessing 189 economies’ responsiveness to investors finds that investment promotion agencies are less responsive to direct investor inquiries than they were three years ago. In the areas of inquiry-handling and website performance over the past two years, two regions showed improvement—the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

"In difficult times, governments may be tempted to cut funding for investment promotion. However, this can cost them opportunities to secure investments and jobs,” said Pierre Guislain, Director of the Bank Group's Investment Climate Department. “Skilled investment promotion agencies can give economies a competitive advantage by helping investors choose a suitable location and set up operations that create jobs and promote growth.”

The report shows that limited resources need not be an obstacle to effectiveness. For example, Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency, one of the world’s top-performing agencies, has only 10 staff members spread across a range of functions. It also finds investment promotion websites to be a bright spot, with 62 percent of agencies implementing best practices.

Nicaragua’s investment promotion agency PRONicaragua emerged as the world’s top investment facilitator, becoming the first developing country to do so. PRONicaragua achieved best-practice standards in website performance and response to investor inquiries.

"We believe that the level of service an Investment Promotion Agency offers influences an investor’s first impression of a country’s investment climate, as it demonstrates that Government’s attitude and commitment towards investors. It is with that vision, through commitment to offering high quality service and insuring that each and every investor get the information they need, we try to build a strong sense of comfort about doing business in our country and promote economic development." said Javier Chamorro, CEO of PRONicaragua.

The report was produced by the Investment Climate Department of the World Bank Group (which includes IFC, MIGA, and the World Bank) and sponsored by ProInvest, a European Commission partnership program for the countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, and by the government of Spain.

For more information about the report, please visit www.globalinvestmentpromotion.org

Contact:

In Washington, D.C.: Shaela Rahman, +1-202-458-0283, Srahman@ifc.org

As Prepared for Delivery, IFC’s 14th Annual Global Private Equity Conference

2012-05-15T14:00:00.000Z

As Prepared for Delivery

IFC’s 14^th Annual Global Private Equity Conference:

Prevailing in a New Financial Landscape

Robert B. Zoellick

President, World Bank Group

Tuesday, May 15,2012

Introduction

It’s a great pleasure to join you today for IFC’s 14^th Annual Global Private Equity Conference in association with the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, or EMPEA.

The story of this conference is emblematic of how the world economy has changed: Fourteen years ago, a small group met in the basement of IFC to discuss the prospect of private equity in developing countries.

Today, there are more than 800 people here, from nearly 60 countries: institutional investors; public and pension funds; private investors; endowments and family offices; senior investment professionals; chief investment officers, and directors from leading fund managers around the world, as well as representatives from development institutions and government agencies.

Plenary sessions and roundtable discussions cover a range of issues over three days – the global economic outlook and regulatory trends, of course – but also non-financial risks, infrastructure, SMEs, mezzanine…and intriguing markets beyond the BRICs to Turkey, Palestine, Africa, and frontier markets.

The success of this conference is in large part because of the enormous potential of emerging markets: over the past five years, developing countries have provided two-thirds of global growth.

This conference also reflects the terrific partnership between Lars Thunell and the Private Equity Funds group at IFC, and Sarah Alexander and her team at EMPEA. Together, they’ve made this conference one of the leading global forums for private equity. So I want to thank them for their hard work and their leadership.

I also want to thank an impressive set of participants: sponsors; panelists; speakers –and all of you.

Yet I want to add a special word of thanks for Lars.

When I came to the Bank in July 2007, it was a time of trouble.

Frankly, meeting Lars was like having a breath of fresh air: He was steady, sensible, constructive – clearly an excellent executive, committed to the private sector’s role in development, and doing interesting things.

Together, we came up with some innovative ventures both to help developing countries during tough times, and to move IFC even closer to the cutting edge of private sector development in these exciting markets.

He always offered good counsel, fine judgment, common sense, and friendship – for which I’m grateful.

Keeping the Focus on Growth and Structural Reform

Last month, at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF shareholders, much of the focus was – understandably – on macroeconomic stability.

This attention to the macroeconomic picture is necessary – but it’s not sufficient. Extraordinary monetary policies buy time – but they don’t solve the fundamental problems.

As my friend, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman of Singapore said at our Spring Meetings, investors will accept short-term costs if they perceive good returns over time. All countries – developed and developing – need to focus on the structural reforms – the microeconomic policies – that will drive future growth.

Structural changes are essential to enhance productivity, competition, and innovation for developed and developing countries – whether it’s so that Europe can restore its economic performance, or China can avoid the so-called “middle income trap” and meet its challenges in the coming decades. Structural reforms are important for the United States, too.

In practical terms – and for investors like you – what does structural reform mean?

It means strengthening the fundamentals of productive supply-side growth in all sectors – agriculture, manufacturing, services.

It means investing in infrastructure – especially through public private partnerships.

It means private sector development – the engine of innovation and job growth: markets; investment; small and medium-sized businesses; as well as focusing on jobs training and skills.

It means expanding markets – through both the hardware and software of trade: regional integration; ports and infrastructure; lowering the costs of formal, informal, or logistics barriers.

At the same time, structural reform means investing in green growth and energy efficiency – because “growing dirty, cleaning up later” is not a viable option. Environmental degradation cannot be the price for short-term growth.

Structural reform also means investing in human capital:

- Efficient and affordable safety nets – because only 1 out of every 5 people in the poorest countries has any form of social protection;

- Basic financial services – because more than half the world’s poor, almost 2.4 billion people, are “unbanked”;

- Basic nutrition and health – because without these essentials, people cannot begin to achieve their potential; and

- Quality education, connected to training, which leads to better jobs, more innovation, and greater gains for all.

Investing in people means tapping the energies and genius of all: young people, the elderly, and not least girls and women – an under-realized source of growth everywhere.

Importance of Partnerships

You can play an important role in making all this happen.

Countries need private equity more than ever to push forward the structural agenda. But to be most effective, the right partnerships are critical – to seize opportunities, open up new markets, share market knowledge and learning.

We’ve seen this at the World Bank Group with IFC’s Asset Management Company, or AMC, which Lars and I created in 2010 to supplement IFC’s traditional model of raising money in bond markets and then investing it. The idea was for the AMC to tap sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and other institutional investors that are looking to increase their exposure to emerging markets, and that are interested in accessing IFC’s transaction pipeline, investment approach, and track record of superior returns.

Now ably led by Gavin Wilson and a fine team, the AMC considers investments in spaces where IFC-supported private equity fund managers are not active, either because of the size of the investment or the riskiness of the sector. As the AMC makes profitable returns for its institutional investors, these investors are likely to feel more comfortable investing in smaller private equity funds and frontier markets.

The AMC now totals over $4 billion – almost $3 billion of which had little previous exposure to Africa and other less recognized emerging markets. Building on the success of its $1 billion African, Latin American, and Caribbean Fund, last year, the AMC established an African Capitalization Fund that invests in commercial banking institutions in northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. This Fund has already made investments in Ghana and Malawi.

AMC offers a great model for a win-win partnership between capital, experience, and expertise.

When I asked one pension fund manager what attracted him to AMC, he told me: We now know developed markets are risky, too; we see growth potential in developing markets – but we don’t know where to invest. IFC does. And we can learn through this partnership.

Opportunities: Doing Well and Doing Good

We have seen the positive impact private equity can have.

IFC has private equity investments of about $3 billion across 180 funds in emerging markets. We estimate that these investments alone have helped create about 300,000 new jobs over the last 10 years, many of them for women. We see much more potential for the future.

Private equity also increases the wealth – the savings – of pension funds and other institutional investors who assist many millions of savers, small and big.

Increasingly, institutional investors want their investment capital not only to do well, but to do good. Private equity can help companies grow, hire more workers, raise productivity. But at the same time, private equity can also be a powerful driver of change: raising standards; fostering growth; promoting new opportunities for businesses and individuals; helping to overcome poverty; bringing hope.

Let me give you some examples.

China Environment Fund

Tsing Capital’s China Environment Fund: Founded by Don Ye in 2000 to focus on clean tech investments, the Fund adopted a triple bottom line, balancing social, environmental, and financial returns.

At first, portfolio companies were resistant to the Fund’s focus and approach. After all, government regulations were weak. Investors would say, “We give you the money, and you give us a return. Why are you talking to us about welfare, child labor, the environment, and insurance?” Deal flow was slow for the first fund: it only raised $13 million from socially responsible investors.

Now, Tsing Capital’s investors are telling a different story. The company has become a market leader, generating three digit financial returns. The latest China Environmental Fund, in which IFC invested $20 million, had a target size of $350 million.

What’s the secret of Tsing Capital’s success? Certainly persistence on the part of Don and his team. But they also chose the right partners.

From the outset, Tsing Capital performed social and environmental risk screening on companies during due diligence before it invested. The company checked standards against national laws and regulations, but they also made thorough use of IFC’s performance standards which provide guidance on how to identify – and avoid – risks and impacts.

If Tsing Capital identified any excluded activity – potential deals were dropped. If they found risks, they were corrected. Tsing Capital worked hand-in-hand with companies to improve corporate governance and upgrade management capability and strategies.

Their hard work has paid off. Today, Tsing Capital is raising environmental and social standards across the industry, and transmitting those standards into multiple start-up companies. It has twice been honored as a corporate citizen in China, and Don Ye has been recognized by Business Week as one of China’s 40 most powerful people – alongside President Hu Jintao and Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets!

It’s a great success story. It shows how commercial concerns linked to environmental and social standards offer win-win opportunities. It demonstrates how private equity can be a powerful driver of growth and change.

Pragati India Fund

One of IFC’s recent investments, the Pragati India Fund, offers another good example of doing well and doing good.

The fund is a pioneering investment vehicle that will focus on economically under-developed states in India. These are areas where it has traditionally been a challenge to attract private investments – but where the changing political, social, and economic development dynamics offer new opportunities that are largely untapped. Sixty percent of Pragati’s investments target the country’s 8 poorest states.

IFC is investing up to $20 million in the new fund. The idea is to help Pragati provide growth capital to start-ups outside of major urban centers – adapting successful business concepts to small- and medium-sized enterprises in low-income states and rural regions. In India, small- and medium-sized businesses typically receive only 5 percent of all private equity capital, forcing them to rely on high-cost informal borrowing. The Pragati Fund is designed to fill that funding gap and support the development of India’s financial infrastructure.

As a co-investor, IFC can help increase the impact of the project – bringing not only capital but management expertise, which can help strengthen operations as well as environmental and social governance.

Just last month, Pragati India Fund made its first investment – in Jash Engineering Limited, a manufacturer of customized engineering goods for the water and waste water infrastructure sector. Jash is now expanding into manufacturing equipment for water treatment plants, and even generating clean power from residual water of the plants. The company is looking to move into municipalities across India.

With India’s government pushing for world class water treatment facilities, investing in a company like Jash offers real opportunities – to help these enterprises access finance, create jobs, promote inclusive growth, and contribute to cleaner, healthier water and energy for hundreds of thousands.

Supporting the Poorest

I hope more fund managers and investors will look for these types of opportunities – and look for them beyond BRICs and within frontier regions.

IFC is increasingly shifting its focus in this direction. Since 2007, over half the funds supported by IFC have been in the poorest countries supported by the World Bank’s International Development Association, or IDA. IFC's equity returns over the last 10 years in low-income countries, compared with IFC as a whole, provide a compelling case for investment.

Africa has been IFC's top performing region over the last 10 years, with a real rate of return of 25 percent compared to 18 percent for IFC worldwide.

Sub-Saharan Africa is also the region where IFC’s investments in private equity funds have grown the most, and where we have more private equity partners – a total of 38 – than anywhere else. In FY11, IFC committed new investments in 5 funds in Africa, and so far in FY12 we’ve invested $70 million in 3 funds.

We already have plans for 2 or 3 more funds this fiscal year – including 8 Miles Fund, a pan-African private equity fund backed by Bob Geldof.

8 Miles plans to make investments in growth areas across Africa such as agribusiness, consumer and retail health, telecommunications, banking and financial services. The target fund size is $450 million, with $15 to $40 million investments in 10 to 12 African companies with above-average potential for revenue growth and job creation. Investors partnering with IFC include the United Kingdom’s CDC, the African Development Bank, and Vital Capital Fund. J.P. Morgan will provide fund administration services.

Private equity is already changing the face of Africa – and funds such as 8 Miles recognize that there’s huge potential to do more. The fund’s name refers to the fact that, at their nearest points, Africa and Europe are only eight miles apart.

For much of Africa, however, the distance is far greater. Countries dealing with fragility and a history of conflict are home to the world’s poorest – the Bottom Billion, as Paul Collier pointed out in his 2007 book, though today, it’s more on the order of 1.5 billion.

In 2010, the World Bank focused on these countries in our World Development Report on Conflict, Development, and Security. One of the conclusions of that report was that private sector development is a key factor in infrastructure and logistics, local banking, service delivery, and job creation – to show early results as well as longer-term growth. Access to capital and finance is vital for putting these countries on the path to economic stability. But, of course, most fund managers aren’t ready to provide the risk capital and strategic advice that private equity provides.

That’s why IFC conceived of SME Ventures, an initiative to support local private equity fund managers and raise equity and advisory services funds in low income – and particularly post-conflict – countries. Today, we’re putting private equity to work is some of the most underdeveloped areas of the world.

Take Central Africa – a region rich in minerals, but with a history of fragility and instability. Private equity groups have traditionally focused on larger investments in the extractive industries. Yet it’s small- and medium-sized businesses that create the most jobs in any economy.

So two years ago, IFC committed up to $12.5 million to the Central Africa SME Fund. Managed by XSML, a Dutch SME fund manager, and Cenainvest, its partner based in Cameroon, the fund aims to mobilize a total of$25 million from other development finance institutions and the private sector. With offices and a team on the ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, the fund’s focus is on making investments and providing advisory services to the local business community, to help African entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses that create jobs and income.

The funds’ first investments in the DRC have been in a healthcare clinic, including new medical training for staff; a call center; and a food processing company for baby cereal, where the fund is also helping improve the company’s financial management and developing audited financial statements. In the Central African Republic, the fund is preparing to invest in an internet service provider.

The Central Africa SME Fund is also looking ahead. So, for example, it’s conducting a market study on fresh fruits for a fruit producer in Kinshasa, and helping prepare a business plan and financial projections for a cassava mill run by smallholders.

Through the SME Ventures initiative, IFC has also committed equity to funds for Liberia and Sierra Leone; Bangladesh; Nepal; and we are currently working on a fund for Bhutan.

And just last month, IFC made its first private equity investment in Haiti.

When Haiti was hit by a major earthquake in 2010, we knew that the Bank Group’s support to help the country recover, rebuild, and break its dependence on aid must include bringing in the private sector.

IFC has already committed five investments and significantly scaled up its advisory operations in Haiti. These projects are helping create 5,000 new jobs – as well as safeguard 5,000 existing jobs.

Now, IFC is committing up to $10 million to the Leopard Capital Haiti Fund to support small and medium-sized businesses.

With a team already on the ground in Port-au-Prince, the fund is raising $75 million in equity to invest in four main sectors: renewable energy; low- and medium-income housing; agribusiness; and hospitality. It’s also raising $4 million in donor money to provide technical and managerial assistance to companies that were thriving before the earthquake, but now want to upgrade their operational capacity and grow. At the same time, this Haiti Fund will work with its portfolio companies to enhance corporate governance, and environmental and social standards and practices.

It’s an exciting new partnership for IFC. Our Private Equity Funds team has already catalyzed an additional $10 million from investors – and will continue to support the Leopard Capital team in raising more.

We hope this will encourage more investors to invest in Haiti’s potential.

Importance of Openness

Over the past five years, I’ve seen this private equity conference grow in size, scale, and quality. I’ve also seen, from my discussion with our clients in developing countries around the world, just how important they consider the capital and expertise that private equity brings in helping their countries grow and raise standards.

Yet the role of private equity has come under increasing scrutiny and political focus in the developed world – not least here in the United States. For some, the very term is synonymous with corporate raiders, asset strippers, and secretive back room deals.

The private equity industry needs to respond to the demand for higher standards of openness, transparency, and integrity. Private Equity should be a major part of the new investment climate in emerging markets. It should increase overall investor confidence.

I recognize that some investment professionals aren’t used to being in the public eye. But you are now. And transparency is the best antidote to conspiracy theories.

At the World Bank Group, we can see the transformative power of openness. Our new information and knowledge-sharing initiatives may turn out to be the most important legacy of my tenure at the Bank Group.

Our Access to Information policy releases to the public vast numbers of documents about the Bank’s projects, analytic and advisory activities, and proceedings of the Board. It’s now viewed as the “gold standard” for financial institutions.

Our Open Data initiative has unlocked our world-class knowledge and development data. We now provide free access to more than 7,000 indicators, including GDP data and development statistics, meaning that anyone – from a PhD student, to an NGO, to a farmer, or even a private equity investor – can download our data, analyze it, and come up with solutions.

Our Mapping for Results website shares geo-spatial information on more than 2,500 Bank-funded projects.

Now we are beginning to work with communities to map their own infrastructure – clinics, wells and schools. The next step is to allow people to use hand-held devices to let the Bank know, from wherever there are in the world, what is really going on with our projects and investments.

These initiatives are making the World Bank Group more open, transparent, and accountable; helping us fight corruption and build better governance; and getting us ready for a new era of democratized development.

The investment community can benefit from greater openness as well.

Conclusion

I have always enjoyed taking part in this conference. I have spoken at it every year during my time at the World Bank Group.

I wanted to come here again, for the fifth time, because I am convinced that private equity investments can be one of the most powerful and important agents of change for developing countries: boosting local economies and creating jobs; improving governance and sustainability standards in private industry and capital markets; transforming thinking about growth; reducing poverty and creating hope.

That Change agenda is the core of our mission at the World Bank Group. It’s what we strive to do every day. It’s why private equity – and this conference – is important to me.

The success of this event demonstrates that I’m by no means alone in this conviction.

So I want to thank you again for joining us today. I hope your time at this conference opens new insights and creates new partnerships for all of you – and for the World Bank Group.

But most of all, I hope that it affirms your commitment to doing well and doing good – to using the power of private equity to support people in developing markets who want to create, build, and seize new opportunities.

That can be a lasting legacy for all of us.

Thank you.

Nepal: Bolstering Safety Nets

2012-05-10T03:47:04.000Z

Overview

A World Bank project in Nepal has sought to increase food security and enhance agricultural production with the result that 91 percent of the target households in the project districts have reported an increased ability to meet their food needs, and 100 percent of the subsidized fertilizer has reached smallholder farmers. Under the public works component of the project, households have received an annual employment of about 58 days, close to the project target of 60 days.

multimedia

More Results

1 million

beneficiaries of the project

851km

of roads were constructed and rehabilitated

more information

Challenge

As in many parts of the world, food prices soared in Nepal in 2007-2008. With agriculture production remaining virtually constant, the increase in food prices severely affected many households across the country – in particular the households in the food insecure districts. The lack of any social safety nets or other means to cope with such a crisis left many households without food for several months. It was in this context that the Social Safety Net project was launched, with the prime objective of providing food relief to the food insecure households in the short term, and contributing to agriculture productivity and food security in the long run.

Approach

Through its Food/Cash for Work program, the project has been able to provide immediate food security to the food insecure households of the target districts. Public works schemes implemented under the project are of three types: Food for Assets, in which beneficiaries are compensated for their participation with food; Cash for Assets, where beneficiaries are compensated with the equivalent of the wage rates of standard food for assets activities, and Cash and Food for Assets, in which part of the wage compensation is distributed in food and part in cash. Public works – supported by safety net funds, Government of Nepal and other donors –are carried out in a partnership arrangement between the Ministry of Local Development and the World Food Programme. These public works are focused on improving agriculture-related infrastructure and activities, access to markets, and on decreasing vulnerability to floods.

By supporting the National Agriculture Research Council in the production of quality seeds and by providing fertilizer subsidy in the remote districts, the project has also emphasized the importance of increasing productivity to address longer-term food security. Finally, the project also supported a pilot community challenge fund on nutrition, aimed at helping communities identify the actions needed to improve the nutritional status of women and children. This pilot uses the strengths of the Poverty Alleviation Fund in reaching marginalized communities and the local government bodies responsible for delivering social protection programs to the poor and vulnerable.

Results

Over two years, the program helped support more than one million people across the country, with approximately 756,000 located in the mid and far-west districts during 2008-2009, and it employed 168,263 workers. This support improves food sufficiency levels for an additional two to two-and-a-half months for the most vulnerable households. Koshi post flood recovery projects in Saptari and Sunsari were carried out between 2008-9 and supported over 7,500 families through the recovery and rehabilitation projects of flood-damaged infrastructure. Livelihood activities were promoted through various vocational trainings and project schemes including the creation of irrigation and drinking water schemes, and the construction or rehabilitation of community buildings, wooden bridges and rural roads, among others. The program also supported the provision of Multiple Micronutrient Powder, containing essential vitamins and minerals, for children aged 6-59 months, across 33 districts. Additional results included:

Assets created for agricultural production directly benefitted 180,758 households in fiscal years 2008/09, 226,028 households in FY09/10, and 142,434 households in FY10/11.
The distribution of seeds and fertilizer benefitted 7,775 households in FY 08/09, 21,525 households in FY 09/10 and 43,300 households in FY 10/11.
A total of 851 kms of roads were constructed and rehabilitated, including 675 kms under the original Social Safety Net Project (2008-09) and 176 kms though additional financing in 2010-11.
A large number of agriculture production activities and technology transfer have been completed: irrigation for a total of 8,088 ha. of land was made possible due to the construction of irrigation schemes; 16,083 compost pits have been constructed; 2,272 ha. of land have been covered with plantations; and 247 ha. of land have been improved for agriculture purposes.
A total of 405 drinking water schemes were finalized through the project.
Production of 692 Metric Tons (MT) of breeder seeds has been completed and the capacity of the Nepal Agriculture Research Council to produce breeder seeds has increased dramatically. In the food insecure far-western region, this increase in capacity has resulted in an increase of wheat seed production within a single year.
390 MTNs of seeds and 7,410 MTNs of fertilizer were transported to 23 remote districts.
Micronutrient Powder sachets for children aged 6-59 months were distributed to 12,000 children under the original Social Safety Net Project and to 122,000 children with additional financing.
Around 58 percent of the total direct beneficiaries are women.

Voices

My group has a five fold increase in seed production and I'd like to expand my farmer's group.

——Shyam Prakash Yadav, Farmer

Bank Contribution

This project is supported under the Nepal Food Crisis Response Program with a
credit/grant of US$21.7 million for the Social Safety Net Project. Additional financing of US$47.8 million for the project was approved by the Board in 2010. Project implementation started from September 2008 and the expanded project will end by September 30, 2013. In addition, funds from the Rapid Social Response trust fund were used to finance technical assistance to support the analysis of cash transfer systems.

Partners

The project has been able to forge strong partnership between Ministry of Local Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and the World Food Programme. The Ministry of Local Development is also working with the Poverty Alleviation Fund (a semi-autonomous agency of the Government) to address nutritional challenges amongst young children and pregnant women. Various other aid agencies such as the U.K.’s Department for International Development, the U.S. Agency for International Development, SDC, Helvetas have reviewed the project design to determine their own program contributions. Joint donor and government assessments of food insecurity were used to inform the areas of focus of project.

Toward the Future

It is expected that the agriculture assets created, and the irrigation schemes constructed and rehabilitated through this project, will contribute to longer-term food security in the vulnerable districts. The technology transfer that is taking place, be it through construction of irrigation schemes or the construction of compost pits, will likely motivate farmers to adopt sustainable, practical and indigenous approaches to addressing food insecurity. By providing better access to quality seeds, the projects is encouraging farmers to adopt improved seeds and therefore bring about a positive change in agriculture activities in food insecure areas.

The project financing has helped complete analysis of cash transfer programs and prepared a plan of implementing improved monitoring systems and cash transfer systems in 12 districts. While the financing for this sub-component is relatively small (current planned under US$3 million), it will support improvements in government-financed cash transfer programs of over 8 billion rupees (approx US$20 million) per year and help improve targeting and response to future vulnerability. Similarly discussions on the Community Challenge Fund to motivate behavioural changes by communities to address poor child nutrition have been instrumental in the Ministry of Local Development and the Poverty Alleviation Fund entering into a partnership to help communities address these problems by themselves. The findings from this pilot will be built into nutrition programs and mobilization activities of the Ministry of Local Development and the Poverty Alleviation Fund.

Nepal: Helping Rural Families Get on a Sustainable Path Out of Poverty

2012-05-10T03:30:18.000Z

Overview

Beginning with the poorest six districts in 2004, the Nepal Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) is now operating in 59 of the 75 districts in the country. The project has helped a total of 650,021 beneficiaries, of which approximately 74 percent are women, and 55 percent come from communities that traditionally have been marginalized or excluded by reasons of geography, caste, and ethnicity.

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More Results

31.4%

increase in consumption by beneficiaries

82.5%

average income increase by beneficiaries

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Challenge

In the early 2000s, a Maoist insurgency was at its peak and the county was struggling to break out of a trap of poverty, slow growth, poor governance, social exclusion, and deep inequalities. The national poverty rate in the country was estimated to be around 40 percent, and many attributed the insurgency to rural poverty and social inequalities. Much higher levels of poverty were noted in geographically remote regions and socially backward communities. Consistent with the government’s poverty reduction strategy and the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy 2004-2007, PAF was conceived in 2004 as a direct means of addressing rural poverty and improving the livelihoods of communities traditionally excluded in decision-making (including women and members of lower castes such as dalits/janjatis).

Approach

PAF is a demand driven project that provides funds to community organizations, comprising of members from the target populations, to help in carrying out income generating activities (21 percent) and building small scale community infrastructures (79 percent). Using social mobilization and capacity building as primary tools in enabling these organizations to correctly identify demands, the project’s support has ranged from livestock and vegetable farming to building micro-hydro power facilities, small bridges, and connecting roads to link inaccessible communities to local and regional markets. The mandatory requirement for the community organizations to have at least fifty percent women members and to contribute towards their investments has ensured ownership and better use of PAF funds. PAF support has not only provided easy and low-cost access to much-needed credit to the target populations but also has empowered them to voice their concerns.

Results

The World Bank has carried out two independent impact evaluations of the Poverty Alleviation Fund: one for the initial six pilot districts and another one for the additional 19 districts. Both the impact evaluations show positive results:

PAF households saw their per capita consumption increase by 31.4 percent, and households that received PAF support for six months or more at the time of the baseline survey saw their per capita consumption increase by 42.2 percent compared to the non-PAF households.
The increase in per capita consumption held true for dalits and janjatis as well – two of the sub-groups of the target population. These two groups combined saw an increase of 30 percent in their per capita consumption (proving the accuracy of PAF’s targeting mechanism).
PAF-supported households saw a 10 percentage-point improvement in their food security status as articulated in PAF’s criteria.

Additionally, the regular monitoring data maintained by PAF’s MIS shows that:

Approximately 66 percent of the households saw their real income increase by at least 15 percent and an average real income increase of 82.5 percent.
Around 77 percent of the PAF community organization members are women, more than 60 percent are ultra-poor, and more than 50 percent are dalits and janjatis.

Voices

My daughter was born in this hospital; they’re doing a better job now than before. This is my grandson, he was born here, and we’re not going anywhere else because they’re taking care of us very well.

——Manoharmani, Grandmother

Partners

PAF has forged a strong partnership with the government, both at the central and local levels, and non-government organizations (NGOs) at the grassroots level. Local NGOs are central to the operation of PAF as they link it with the community organizations and facilitate day-to-day activities. PAF has been working closely with the line agencies of the Ministry of Local Development and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in the planning and implementation of sub-projects, as well as in securing additional resources.

Toward the Future

Community Organizations are at the heart of PAF’s functioning. Because PAF targets a specific set of population, these organizations tend to have weak institutional capacity in the beginning. Regular oversight and technical support from NGOs, coupled with easy access to the revolving fund, ensures that these community organizations become self-sustaining over time. Many have now come together to form cooperatives and federations, and are working beyond just improving the livelihoods of limited people by contributing to agriculture commercialization and institutional strengthening, for example. PAF is currently developing a community organization “graduation” strategy. Given the government’s recognition of cooperatives as the “third pillar” of the economy, PAF is necessarily in the right direction to ensure sustainability of its interventions.

Food Prices Rise Again on Higher Oil Prices and Adverse Weather

2012-04-25T14:00:00.000Z

Increases reverse downward trend that began in October 2011

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2012—Global food prices increased by 8 percent from December 2011 to March 2012 due to higher oil prices, adverse weather conditions, and Asia’s strong demand for food imports, according to the World Bank Group’s latest Food Price Watch.

The World Bank’s Global Food Price Index was only 1 percent below a year ago and 6 percent below the February 2011 historic peak. If the current forecasts for increased food production do not materialize, global food prices could reach higher levels, underscoring the need to remain very vigilant.

“After four months of consecutive price declines, food prices are on the rise again threatening the food security of millions of people,” said Otaviano Canuto, World Bank Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM). “Putting food first must remain a priority for the international community and in our work in developing countries.”

According to the quarterly Food Price Watch report, prices of all key staples increased between last December and March of this year, except for rice, due to both abundant supply and strong competition among exporters. Maize prices increased by 9 percent, soybean oil by 7 percent, wheat by 6 percent, and sugar by 5 percent. Crude oil prices rose by 13 percent.

In addition, domestic food prices remain high, especially in Africa as the result of a combination of large food imports and local factors, such as trade restrictions between neighbors, hoarding, civil unrest, high fuel transportation costs and bad weather conditions.

In a global context, domestic food price increases have been larger than price declines across countries. Wheat prices from March 2011 to March 2012 rose 92 percent in Belarus, while the price of maize increased by 82 percent in Malawi, 80 percent in Ethiopia, and 71 percent in Mexico.

Production outlooks remain strong for 2012/13 and a number of factors have kept pressures on prices at bay. Record prices in late 2010 and early 2011 led to increased production of major crops worldwide, and are a key factor in the strong projections for the 2012/13 season. The slowdown in maize use for ethanol production in the U.S. and weak global demand due to the euro crisis are contributing to keeping upward price pressures on check.

How the World Bank Group (WBG) is helping to put food first

In response to drought in the Horn of Africa, the WBG is providing $1.8 billion to save lives, improve social protection, and foster economic recovery and drought resilience.
A first-of-its-kind risk management product, provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), will enable protection from volatile food prices for farmers, food producers, and consumers in developing countries.
The Global Food Crisis Response Program is helping 40 million people in 47 countries through $1.5 billion in support.
The WBG is boosting spending on agriculture to some $6 to $8 billion a year from $4 billion in 2008.
Supporting the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), set up by the WBG in April 2010 at G20’s request. Seven countries and the Gates Foundation have pledged about $1.1 billion over 3 years, with $612 million received.
The WBG is coordinating with UN agencies through the High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis and with non-governmental organizations.
Advocacy for more investment in agriculture research -- including through the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) – and monitoring agricultural trade to identify potential food shortages.
Supporting improved nutrition among vulnerable groups through community nutrition programs aimed at increasing use of health services and improving care giving. As part of its response to the food crisis, the Bank has supported the provision of some 2.3 million school meals every day to children in low income countries.
IFC will invest up to $1 billion in the Critical Commodities Finance Program, aimed to support trade in key agricultural and energy-related goods, to help reduce the risk of food and energy shortages, as well as improve food security for the world’s poorest.

Contacts:

In Washington: Alejandra Viveros, (202) 473-4306, aviveros@worldbank.org

Michael Christopher Jelenic, (202) 473-2075, mjelenic@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: Mehreen Sheikh, (202) 458-7336, msheikh1@worldbank.org

To access Food Price Watch, please click here.

Q&A: Why are Food Prices on the Rise Again?

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