This year’s annual World Bank Spring Meetings’ was a special one for MIGA, as the World Bank Group’s youngest member celebrated 30 years of offering political risk insurance to investors and maximizing finance for development. At the #MIGA30 event marking this milestone, individuals from the World Bank and MIGA, the private sector, and government, spoke to MIGA’s various accomplishments, as well as the numerous opportunities that lie ahead. MIGA has helped guarantee projects in a wide variety of industry sectors – from agribusiness and tourism, to telecommunications and transportation. As the various speakers mentioned, MIGA has a lot to be proud of. This includes doubling its exposure to $20 billion over the past five years, and helping guarantee the establishment of the BenBan Solar Park in Egypt – which will be the world’s largest solar installation once construction is complete. And while the speakers each had their own unique perspective on working with MIGA, they all agreed that MIGA’s ...
Eight hundred million South Asians– or half the region’s population—are at risk to see their standards of living and incomes decline as rising temperatures and more erratic rainfalls will cut down crop yields, make water more scare, and push more people away from their homes to seek safer places. This worst-case scenario and relevant adaptation strategies to climate change underpin the upcoming report South Asia’s Hotspots, whose main findings were presented yesterday at a panel on building climate change resilience in South Asia at the World Bank Spring Meetings. Its main author, World Bank Lead Economist Muthukumara Mani detailed how specific geographic areas across South Asia or “hotspots” which –until now—were relatively immune to climate change threats could be badly affected by 2050. To build resilience, the report recommends that South Asian countries better prioritize their financial resources where they’re most needed and target the most vulnerable individuals and families. Following the presentation, government, civil society, ...
Big data is drastically improving our ability to understand the world around us. This event will showcase how big data and new technologies allow cities and local communities to seize new opportunities for jobs and manufacturing; deliver effective and inclusive transport and energy services; prepare for disasters; and target assistance to those who need it most. Join us to discuss how the public and private sectors can partner to unlock big data’s potential.
Risk management is fundamental for Latin America and the Caribbean. Incidents of natural disasters have tripled since 1970 and with climate change, their intensity and the frequency are going to increase. But natural disasters are not the only risk these countries face. Economic shocks and abrupt swings in commodity prices can also have a devastating effect in the population, especially on the most vulnerable. In Thursday’s conversation on Protecting Latin America and the Caribbean’s Future Against Risks, Jorge Familiar, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean was joined by a panel of leading financial experts and policymakers including Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup Latin America; Paraguay Minister of Finance Lea Giménez; Chief Executive of the State Development Bank of Brazil BNDES, Dyogo Henrique de Oliveira; President of Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission CNBV, Bernardo Gonzalez; and the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Timothy Antoine. During the discussion, panelists agreed that the ...
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim led a fire-side conversation with LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Jeff Weiner and investor and philanthropist Tony Elumelu, Founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation, as part of the Digital Economy for Africa event, during the Spring Meetings. During the discussion, Weiner stressed the role of technology in developing countries, and shared how LinkedIn’s emphasis on data is getting influencers ahead of the trends in the 3 billion people global work force. He also added how the platform seeks to have a digital representation of every job, with over 20 million jobs already covered. Sharing his perspective on barriers for African entrepreneurs in digital technology, Elumelu revealed that Africa’s young population, 60% of which are under the age of 30, have to be the key resource for entrepreneurship. Elumelu highlighted infrastructure, government policies and regulation, intellectual property and the need for incentives for investors as the key areas to address. Weiner noted the World Bank Group’s partnership ...
In front of a packed house in James D. Wolfensohn Atrium, Liliana Rojas-Suarez, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, led an expert panel in a discussion of the trade-offs between debt and growth facing developing countries. Across the board, the panelists agreed that when done strategically, borrowing is not a problem per se. Matthew Rycroft of DFID explained that although we should be concerned about overly rapid increases in debt amounts, in many cases, debt is a pre-requisite to growth. The real concern, explained Minister Cardenas of Colombia, is when countries borrow and fail to grow. Panelists also reached consensus around the ways external shocks, including refugee crises, can cause public debt levels to rise. For Minister Imad Fakhoury of Jordan, having a foundation of fiscal stability and a five-year growth plan focused on employment has been crucial to enabling the country to welcome refugees. For Colombia, which sees thousands of people cross its borders each day, Minister ...
