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This blog is maintained by the Growth and Crisis (GC ) Program of the World Bank Institute.

We bring you timely news, resources, tools, ideas and commentaries on issues related to the global economic crisis and growth.

Poverty Reduction Strategies

Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up (video presentation)

Submitted by Ignacio on Tue, 05/05/2009 - 13:58

A while ago we mentioned the publication of the World Bank’s newest study on poverty: “Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up”.

A video of a recent presentation of this publication at the World Bank is now available on-line. Participants included, among others, Deepa Narayan, Project Director of the study, and Geoffrey Lamb, Managing Director of Public Policy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ask the World Bank President

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 10:41

Tomorrow Tuesday Robert Zoellick will be speaking and taking questions about the financial crisis and its effects on the poor, ahead of the G20 summit in London. You can send your questions using the comments section of Reuters’ blog The Great Debate, or using the #askwb tag on Twitter.

Update
You can now watch the video of Robert Zoellick’s speech and access related information, including his answers to some of the blogger’s questions.

Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 10:35

The World Bank has launched its new study on Poverty “Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up”, which continues the work started with the excellent “Voices of the Poor”, published in 2000.

This new study, based on data from 60,000 interviews in 15 countries, looks at how and why some people manage to escape poverty.

You can access the overview on-line, and order the book here.

Duncan Green has posted a nice summary in his blog, From Poverty to Power.

A Stimulus Package for the World

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 10:28

Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank, last week in the pages of the New York Times:

WITHIN his first 100 days, President Obama will attend his inaugural global summit meeting: an April gathering of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations in London. The president, with bipartisan backing in Congress, should send an audacious signal of hope. Starting with the United States, Mr. Obama should call for each developed country to pledge 0.7 percent of its stimulus package to a vulnerability fund for assisting developing countries that can’t afford bailouts and deficits.

The United States could begin by pledging some $6 billion of its own $825 billion stimulus package — just 4 percent of what was provided to American International Group. With this modest step, the United States would speed up global recovery, help the world’s poor and bolster its foreign policy influence.

Read the full article.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 11/24/2008 - 16:08

The December issue of Poverty in Focus, the magazine published by UNDP's International Poverty Centre, is out. This issue is fully devoted to the linkages between employment, economic growth and poverty reduction.

"What is the role of employment in the nexus of economic growth, poverty reduction and progress towards achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals? Although employment is not an explicit component of the MDGs, it has a key role in economic and social development.

As labour is the main resource that most poor people are endowed with, labour intensive growth is the most effective way to reduce poverty. Employment is the key source of income, consumption and other material aspects of improved livelihoods. Moreover, it enhances also other dimensions of wellbeing including skills, physical abilities and self-respect."

Access the full issue on-line: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - The Policy Challenge

Memo to the next president

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 13:29

"Aspiring U.S. politicians dream of being FDR, but rarely do the times and the person converge. The next president will have the chance to be a 21st-century FDR."

That's World Bank Group's president, Robert B. Zoellick, in an Op-Ed published yesterday in the Washington Post: A World in Crisis Means A Chance for Greatness.

Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 13:45

Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Duncan Green, Head of Research for Oxfam GB, blogged a couple of days ago (on blog action day, which had poverty as a theme) about a success story, a country really making poverty history.

"We cannot let a financial crisis become a human crisis"

Submitted by Ignacio on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 16:48

World Bank Group President, Robert Zoellick, today at a press briefing opening the IMF-WB Annual Meetings taking place in Washington this week-end.

Watch the webcast.

Read the transcript.

DFID is blogging

Submitted by Ignacio on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 08:47

The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) has started a new blog. A nice addition to the blogosphere. Welcome!

 

(Via Owen)

Development Marketplace for African Diaspora in Europe

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 15:30

The first Development Marketplace for the African Diaspora in Europe (D-MADE) ended in Brussels last week, awarding close to a million dollars for sixteen investment projects in Africa. The winning projects will be implemented in 11 African countries, including Mali (4), Cote d'Ivoire (2) Benin (2) and one each for Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The winners were selected from a group of 68 finalists who presented projects that a 24-person jury deemed innovative, sustainable, replicable and based on sound business principles. The D-MADE initiative was launched in 2007 to allow entrepreneurs from the African Diaspora in Europe to participate in the development of their countries.