On June 21st, Airbnb, Chemonics International, George Washington University, the Government of Jamaica, Harvard University, the World Bank Group, the World Economic Forum and UNWTO will come together for a dynamic event highlighting the latest innovations in sustainable tourism development. Join key players in the industry to discuss the integration of women in tourism, models of tourism value chain linkages, how data informs tourism decisions, and other enablers of sustainable tourism destination development and competitiveness.
We’re thrilled to welcome Matt Damon and Gary White, co-founders of Water.org, to our Mission: #ItsPossible Facebook Live booth, from the heart of the World Bank – IMF Spring Meetings. They’ll be discussing why providing safe water to everyone in the world is important to development with Raj Kumar from Devex.
Watch live as Philanthropist Michael Milken and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim discuss how to expand opportunity for prosperity to everyone in a one-on-one conversation at the Milken Institute Global Conference, "Building Meaningful Lives." Related Links:Milken Institute Global ConferenceConference Video
The seminar will discuss key challenges and opportunities facing Africa amid a weak and volatile regional and global economic environment. A special focus will be on investing in Africa in uncertain times, outlining national and regional policies and possible coordination mechanisms with the international development community to boost and sustain quality investment in the continent.
Join World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim in a panel discussion on mobilizing the trillions of dollars in private and public investment needed to ensure the world meets the goals of the Paris Agreement. This high-level event brings together climate change leaders, government ministers, philanthropists, and private sector executives to focus on what’s already happening, how far we have to go and what a climate-resilient, low-carbon future could look like.
The private sector would invest more in emerging markets if it were less risky. Yet, a lack of familiarity, concerns about political risk, and a scarcity of bankable projects have too often prevented them from doing so.
Recent breakthroughs in the application of political risk insurance and credit enhancement products are pointing a new way to easing such anxieties. MIGA political risk insurance, and an assurance of liquidity from EBRD, for example, recently contributed to a coveted two-notch bump in the rating of a bond issued to raise funds for a hospital PPP project in Turkey. As a result, a new and broader class of investors is now demonstrating interest in this, and similar projects.
If scaled up effectively, trillions of dollars currently sitting on the sidelines and earning little interest could be channeled to development projects through such innovations.
Improved domestic revenue mobilization lies at the heart of the Sustainable Development agenda. At the Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference in 2015, developing countries committed to improve national efforts and donors committed to double their assistance for tax reform. And yet, media leaks in 2016 increased awareness of wealth hidden in offshore tax havens and have driven new demand for fair and effective tax systems. This event is designed to start a conversation around the premise that: (1) countries need a certain level of tax revenue – 15 percent of GDP – to provide basic services to their citizens; and (2) we all have roles in helping them achieve that goal. Share your thoughts and questions on social media using #Tax4Dev.
With over 1.2 billion people living in countries affected by conflict and instability, promoting the development of a robust private sector is a critical challenge on the global development agenda. In these fragile environments, private enterprises face complex political, regulatory, operational and security-related challenges. IFC is taking a new approach to promoting market growth and opportunity in these areas – expanding its presence on the ground and deploying new financial instruments to stimulate greater investment levels and local currency financing. This session will focus on how private firms operate in conflict-affected contexts, and seek to provide innovative ideas for how the development community can support private enterprise in these markets.
The need for better financing solutions to tackle the challenges of fragility, conflict and violence, across a diverse group of low- and middle-income countries, was the focus of this high-level discussion. How to work with the private sector and scale up innovative approaches were key themes. In recent years, the world has witnessed an “expansion of the footprint of crisis,” said World Bank CEO, Kristalina Georgieva. What is needed is to bring private finance and trade to places where it would normally not go: “If you bring down the risk for private investors, the money will flow,” she said. For Colombia, a middle-income country transitioning to peace, how to pay for peace is a central issue. Sharing his country’s experience, “We have just passed a comprehensive tax reform, including green taxes on carbon emissions that will help to finance peace. We have also created tax benefits for private sector actors willing to invest in conflict-affected parts,” said Mauricio Cá...
Middle-income countries (MICs) currently host roughly 6 million refugees, with over 80% of them in the Middle East and North Africa or in Turkey. But even as they perform this global public good, middle-income host countries struggle to meet the costs associated with an influx of refugees.
Join us for a live ministerial event to discuss how the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) is helping support refugees and host communities in Jordan and Lebanon, and how this global facility can prepare to meet similar future crises in other MICs.
Check out the key takeaways from this event:
In one short year, the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) has unlocked US$1 billion in concessional financing to support Syrian refugees and the communities that host them in Jordan and Lebanon. As middle income countries, Jordan and Lebanon do not have access to the kind of concessional financing reserved for the world’s poorest countries. This is despite the fact they host the largest number ...