Grenada

Resilient transport investments: a climate imperative for Small Island Developing Countries

В предыдущих постах я подчеркивала важность создания равных возможностей для всех девочек и мальчиков Армении - учиться, расти, и выбирать способы, с помощью которых они смогут внести вклад в свою экономику, свое общество и в свою страну. Я верю, что более диверсифицированная и устойчивая экономика с более полным диапазоном возможностей как для мужчин, так и для женщин, может помочь замедлить процесс эмиграции и «утечку мозгов», а также поспособствует достижению Арменией устойчивого роста.

В дополнение к нашим обсуждениям здесь, в Армении, по поводу поощрения участия женщин на рынке труда, мы также говорили о том, почему жизнь и благополучие мужчин находятся в таком неблагоприятном положении, например, в связи с устойчиво высоким уровнем смертности среди мужчин взрослого возраста. Мы задались вопросом: как подобная тенденция влияет на экономику и общество в целом?

Towards a single market for public procurement in Caribbean small states

Building seawalls. Photo: Lauren Day/World Bank

The first ever meeting of the Heads of Procurement of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) took place on June 20-21 in Barbados with the dark storm clouds of Tropical Storm Bret as the backdrop. Fittingly, the discussion focused on how to create a common market for public procurement and to use procurement as a tool to better prepare for and respond to the natural disasters endemic to the region.

One Part of Something Bigger

Also available in: Spanish | العربية

My mother Manel Kirtisinghe encapsulated what the loss of a loved one in the tsunami meant, when she wrote in her diary “What you deeply in your heart possess, you cannot lose by death." On 26 Dec. 2004, Prasanna went away leaving behind for me a lasting vacuum and a silent aching grief.”

Prasanna was my brother and this year when we observe religious rituals in memory of him, my mother will not be there with us. She left us earlier this year. Prasanna was our bulwark and the trauma of his death was so intensely felt that it took us seven years to rebuild and return to our beloved house. My mother was happy to be back in the house she had come to as a bride in 1944, but she stubbornly refused to go to the back verandah or to walk on the beach - a ritual she did twice a day before the tsunami.

As my mother did, we all had our coping mechanisms to handle the pain. The grief is still with me hastily boxed and lodged inside me but about this time of the year the lid flies open and the horror spills out. The images gradually become more vivid, intense, horrifying. Like a slow moving movie, they appear…and the nightmares return.

So what can be done to contain volatility and spur growth in these countries?

#IndígenasAmLat: socios clave en el desarrollo regional

At this year's climate ministerial of the World Bank Group/IMF Spring Meetings, 42 finance and development ministers discussed phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, putting a price on carbon and mobilizing the trillions of dollars in finance needed for a smooth, orderly transition to a low-carbon economy. World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change Rachel Kyte describes the conversations in the room and the key takeaways.

How does this affect the small island economies of the Caribbean?

Understanding Macroeconomic Volatility: Part 4. Click to read the rest of the series

What’s the connection between financial development, volatility, and growth?

Understanding macroeconomic volatility part 3
Read parts 1 & 2

There’s good evidence that a country’s level of financial development affects the impact of volatility on economic growth, particularly so in less developed countries, as the charts below demonstrate

Do rich and poor countries have different approaches to counter-cyclical spending?

Understanding Macroeconomic Volatility: Part 2

The fact is that a government can soften a recession by increasing spending (the counter-cyclical approach) to raise demand and output. If government reduces spending (the pro-cyclical approach), the likely result is a deeper recession.

Tame macroeconomic volatility to boost growth and reduce hardship in the Caribbean

Photo: auphoto / Shutterstock.com

As Washington, D.C.’s infrastructure braces for its first winter freeze and 2017 draws to a close, this feels like the right moment for a recap on what the year has brought us in terms of closing the infrastructure gap across emerging markets and developing economies; policy directions within and outside of the World Bank Group; new instruments, tools, and resources; and—the proof in the pudding—actual investment levels.

There may not be one blog that can capture all of those themes in detail, but here is a brief overview of what 2017 has meant and what is on the docket for 2018 and beyond.

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In Moldova, waiting for the snow to melt

Свежее зимнее утро, и из окна своего офиса я вижу город со стороны. Он черно-белый. Белый из-за зданий, построенных из известняка, который добыли в старых шахтах, в которых теперь размещаются винные погреба. Черный из-за деревьев и их теней на заснеженных улицах, парках и площадях. Но это только вид из моего окна.

Disaster Risk: Using Capital Markets to Protect Against the Cost of Catastrophes

In addition to their often devastating human toll, natural disasters can have an extremely adverse economic impact on countries. Disasters can be particularly calamitous for developing countries because of the low level of insurance penetration in those countries. Only about 1% of natural disaster-related losses between 1980 and 2004 in developing countries were insured, compared to approximately 30% in developed countries. This means the financial burden of natural disasters in developing countries falls primarily on governments, which are often forced to reallocate budget resources to finance disaster response and recovery. At the same time, their revenues are typically falling because of decreased economic activity following a disaster. The result is less money for government priorities like education or health, thereby magnifying the negative developmental impact of a disaster.

To address this problem, the World Bank Treasury has been helping our clients protect their public finances in the event of a natural disaster. The most recent innovation is our new Capital-at-Risk Notes program, which allows our clients to access the capital markets through the World Bank to hedge their natural disaster risk. Under the program, the World Bank issues a bond supported by the strength of our own balance sheet, and hedges it through a swap or similar contract with our client. The program allows us to transfer risks from our clients to the capital markets, where interest in catastrophe bonds is growing.

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