Moldova

2016 in Review: Your favorite social media content

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Another year has passed, and as we do each year-end, here’s a rundown of what content resonated most with you on World Bank social media in 2016.

Four World Bank Facebook posts you cared about most

Some of our most popular and engaging content on Facebook in 2016 was, not surprisingly, multimedia. Check out these posts that made the biggest impact with you in the last year.

On October 17 – now recognized as End Poverty Day – Bangladeshi singer Habib Wahid unveiled a new song singing the praises of his country’s rapid progress in reducing poverty and building a prosperous society. Check out the video, and remember why you poured out your approval with more than 161,000 views, 65,000 reactions, and 4,600 shares!

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For the first time in history, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen below 10%. The world has never been as ambitious about development as it is today. After adopting the Sustainable Development Goals and signing the Paris climate deal at the end of 2015, the global community is now looking into the best and most effective ways of reaching these milestones. In this five-part series I will discuss what the World Bank Group is doing and what we are planning to do in key areas that are critical for ending poverty by 2030: good governance, gender equality, conflict and fragility, creating jobs, and, finally, preventing and adapting to climate change.

Twenty years ago, the World Bank took up the fight against corruption as an integral part of reducing poverty, hunger, and disease. The decision was groundbreaking then and remains valid today. Corruption diverts resources from the poor to the rich, leads to a culture of bribes, and distorts public expenditures, deterring foreign investors and hampering economic growth.

Also available in: Русский

My father is a long-distance trucker based in Belarus. As a young girl, I spent long hours on the road with him. I loved traveling to neighboring and faraway cities and—even though I could barely reach the pedals at the time—dreamed of becoming a truck driver myself one day. Life ended up taking me on another path, but it wasn’t until I was older that I learned that the option of being a truck driver was never open to me to begin with.

Why?

Because my native country prohibits women from being truck drivers, one of the 182 professions out of bounds for women.

People on the main street of Chisinau, capital of the Republic of Moldova — People on the streets of Chisinau, capital of the Republic of Moldova. Photo: Elena Prodan / World Bank

After several months of campaigning and negotiations, Moldova’s new Government is about to take shape. The World Bank is looking forward to hearing the new Government’s plans for reform.

It’s hard to get a break in the Europe and Central Asia region, it seems – even a short one. Hit hard by the troubles in the Eurozone at the beginning of the decade, emerging and developing countries in Eastern Europe are, at the beginning of this year, contending with renewed fears. Meanwhile, external pressures have built up on the Central Asia side as well.

All eyes turned to Russia recently, when on 16 December the ruble plunged by more than 11 percent, despite the Central Bank of Russia’s last-minute interest rate hike of 6.5 percentage points to 17 percent. When it looked like Russia’s turmoil might spread to global markets, western economies sat up and paid close attention.

What may have gone unnoticed, however, is the ongoing impact on our client countries in the Europe and Central Asia region.

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We talk so frequently about how we shape our work and yet rarely about how our work shapes us. Let me explain. I recently moved 4 degrees in latitude – from Chisinau, Moldova to Almaty, Kazakhstan, on a six-month development assignment – and it has been fascinating to discover in just one week how similar our collective mentalities are!

With my “new kid in town” fervor and optimism, I’m of the opinion that the World Bank can really stand out and make a difference here in Moldova.

100 days ago today, I relocated to Moldova from Kyrgyzstan. I’m still getting to know my new host country and still figuring my way around the office (so please don’t ask me just yet where to find the office paper-puncher).
Also, if you ask me “How’s Moldova?” you will probably get the standard response, “Ask me again in six months”.
However, I can give any newcomer to Moldova one solid piece of advice: do not do what I did! Do not, on any account, read “The Good Life Elsewhere” by Vladimir Lorchenkov.

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Patients and a nurse in a Cambodia hospital. © Chhor Sokunthea/World Bank

Having an identity is part of living in a modern society, and the key to accessing public services, bank accounts, and jobs. But how should developing countries with tight budgets go about building a national system that records births and deaths and establishes identities?

A panel including representatives from Ghana, Moldova, and Canada explored that question and related issues Friday at Making Everyone Count: Identification for Development, during the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings. The event was live-streamed in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish and moderated by Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of the United Nations Foundation.

Also available in: Français | العربية | Español | 中文

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and Philippines President Benigno S. Aquino III on July 15, 2014. © Dominic Chavez/World Bank

Good governance is critical for all countries around the world today. When it doesn’t exist, many governments fail to deliver public services effectively; health and education services are often substandard; corruption persists in rich and poor countries alike, choking opportunity and growth. It will be difficult to reduce extreme poverty — let alone end it — without addressing the importance of good governance.

Also available in: Русский

BudgetStories.md
Did you know that funding Moldova’s Parliament costs each citizen on average $2 per year - the country spends double the share of its public budget for the cost of its Legislature when compared to Finland, Lithuania or Ireland. Or that the cost of passing a law in Moldova in 2012 was twice what it cost in 2011? These are just some of the many interesting facts I recently learned about my country through an Open Data initiative.

Budget Stories is an Open Data initiative which originated as a grassroots idea among the “think-tank” community in Moldova and has quickly developed into a popular and useful online tool for citizens, primarily by digesting raw budget execution numbers and presenting them as visually-engaging infographics.