Did you know that despite making up 48% of the global work force – women only account for 22% of the traditional energy sector?

This event will frame the public conversation on how governments should prioritize where it is most important to take policy action and how to best allocate scarce resources to support the recovery. It will also consider how to address the growing risks of over-indebtedness and increased financial fragilities.

Join us for a discussion on solutions from the ground—and how IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, is driving innovation and outcomes.

The Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will once again gather senior investors, innovators, social entrepreneurs and other thought leaders for a major conference ahead of the FT/IFC Transformational Business Awards dinner in London. In line with the theme of the Awards, the conference will discuss what the private sector is doing to help meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the steps that need to be taken to achieve long-term, transformative impact. There will be a particular focus on human capital and the use of technology to boost inclusion, and special sessions on climate change and the geo-political environment. Chaired by senior FT journalists, this event will be a significant lead-in to the Awards dinner, which will honour those whose capital, technology and ideas are contributing to substantive progress in developing low-carbon urban infrastructure, delivering healthcare and education, assuring food and water security, harnessing technology to assist the ...

A high-profile panel on maximizing finance for development, with Dr. Kim, President Kagame of Rwanda, and the CEOs of Standard Chartered, the NZ Super Fund, and the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) of India, was held at Annual Meetings. Key takeaways follow:  President Kagame pointed out that the prosperity Rwanda needs cannot come from just the public or the private sector alone, and noted that only when they work together can they maximize finance for development. Renu Sud Karnad of HDFC, agreed that the regulatory framework is often an obstacle for private investment. She explained that IFC was a founding shareholder of HDFC, and it was a leap of a faith as HDFC had no framework when they started. Subsequently, HDFC has built the housing finance market in India and helped create housing industry standards and regulations. Adrian Orr of NZ Super Fund, indicated that there’s a “wall” of money that wants to get into “frontier” markets, but the ...