KABUL -- On my first trip to Afghanistan as World Bank Group president, I met with many of the country's senior leaders, including President Hamid Karzai, as well as leaders in business and among women's groups. The challenges for Afghanistan, like many fragile or conflict-affected states, are huge, but it's critically important that we build on successes that we've achieved in the last decade. Learn more by watching the video.
This week in Doha, the marble corridors of the Qatar National Convention Center resonate with voices from around the world. Over half way through the UN Climate Change Conference, as ministers arrive and the political stakes pick up, a sense of greater urgency in the formal negotiations is almost palpable. But in the corridors, negotiations are already leading to deals and dreams and action on the ground.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the discussions by saying we need optimism, because without optimism there are no results. He reminded us all that Superstorm Sandy was a tragic awakening. He reiterated the call for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, a global agreement and 100 billion in climate finance by 2020.
Meanwhile our focus was firmly on the region ...
Earlier today, the bank hosted a film preview and panel discussion on maternal health and progress toward Millennium Development Goal 5, which focuses on reducing maternal deaths.
The film clip shown—part of a moving documentary titled “No Woman, No Cry”, directed by Christy Turlington Burns—tells the story of a pregnant Tanzanian woman facing a difficult delivery in a remote village. The local clinic is understaffed and ill-equipped for complicated cases, and finding transport to the nearest hospital is difficult and expensive.
