News & Events

According to a blog post on the EduTech blog (World Bank), much has been made of the potential use of mobile phones to help collect, verify and disseminate information quickly, widely and cheaply in support of activities in the education sector.
 

At an event last month at the World Bank, my colleagues Sukhdeep Brar and Gaurav Relhan shared some lessons from a few recent and on-going education activities in Uganda, providing some potentially quite useful insights for those seeking answers this question. The full video for this event, as well as the PowerPoint file presented, is available online. For those of you who are pressed for time, or are just not sure if clicking those links is worth the effort, here is a quick synopsis of what was shared and discussed.

Image courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

According to the World Bank, under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, IDA has committed more than $16.4 billion of HIPC debt relief. IDA’s aid for trade financing rose from $2.6 billion a year between 2002 and 2010 to an average of $4,4 billion a year in 2011 and 2013.

The International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm), for which the World Bank serves as treasury manager, has raised more than $3.6 billion on capital markets since 2006  to fund immunizations in the poorest countries.

According to a post  on Youthink! World Bank blog, some preconceptions are universal. Whether  in Europe, South America, East or South Asia, in urban or rural areas, pretty much everywhere I have been I have heard young people explain why they dislike politics, either because it is boring or because they believe all politicians are corrupt. Did they – did you? – ever wonder what the world would be like if there were no policies, and no policymakers? Think about it.

Making policies is not just about sitting at a desk, writing reports and chatting with bureaucrats. It’s also about trying to make tangible positive changes for all.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, on May 7 announced an investment of $172.5 million in FirstRand Bank Limited. The transaction represents the first cross-border investment in Basel III Tier 2 instruments in South Africa, and one of the first globally in emerging markets.  The debt will be provided by IFC Capitalization Fund, which is managed by the IFC Asset Management Company.

Andries du Toit, FirstRand group treasurer said, “This significant financing from IFC Capitalization Fund is expected to provide support to our strategy to grow lending to small and medium sized entities (SMEs) in South Africa and the rest of Africa.”

According to an article published on the World Bank Data Blog, the post-2015 agenda will focus on evidence.  The mantra “funding for what works” is gaining momentum, and policy makers are eager for better data to design actions and monitor performance. The high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda puts this clearly: it wants to see a global “data revolution”. 

According to an article published on the World Bank Data blog, data on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) indicator trends for developing countries and for different groups of countries are curated in the World Development Indicator (WDI) database.  Each year the World Bank uses these data in the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) to track progress on the MDGs.