Tag Archives : World Bank

Despite differing views on various topics, the four countries that form the group called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) come together for the second time this Thursday in Brasilia with a goal in common: the pressure for reforms international financial system. With sometimes conflicting positions on issues like world trade or global warming, [...]

On February 18, the United Nations had the largest fund-raising in its history, garnering $1.44 billion for emergency aid to Haiti in 2010. However, there has been a lot of criticism regarding the failure of coordination of such a humanitarian aid among the UN agencies and NGO recipients of these funds. Huge humanitarian needs remain unmet in spite [...]

Pakistan has started to be beset by water problems, undermining its stability even more. Water shortages in the country have led to grain shortfalls. Flour became scarce in 2008. Thousands of government troops were sent to guard wheat stores. The rivers are drying up as the glaciers that regulate Kashmir’s waters melt. It is estimated that Pakistan [...]

Prior to its publication next month, The Independent on Sunday was able to access the 6,700-paged report entitled 2009 State of the Future which is ‘backed by a diverse range of leading organizations such as UNESCO, the World Bank, the US army, and the Rockefeller Foundation.’ The report, composed of contributions from 2,700 experts around the [...]

Since the adoption in October 2008 of its strategic plan on climate change and development, the World Bank has worked exceptionally hard to become a major player in climate issues. After being convinced that the climate change battle will be won in the cities, the World Bank is amending its preparedness strategy and position. The new World Bank strategy [...]

Madagascar owns one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots. In some of the country’s protected areas, organized groups engaged in illegal logging have been felling ‘valuable rosewood trees and extracting other resources’ mostly from the Marojejy National Park and Masoala National Park. To prove that illegal logging, a major cause [...]

The term Third World should not be based on any political or economic criteria. Whose arbitrary criteria are those, anyway? But there may be common characteristics today, post-Cold War, among so-called ‘Third World’ countries. The aggregate term ‘Third World’ has come to mean: 1. The demand and receipt of foreign aid (more aptly called Western [...]

The World Bank Group (Economy Rankings: Doing Business, The World Bank Group 2007) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (Cities of opportunity: Business-readiness indicators for the 21st century, PricewaterhouseCoopers 2007) have both given Singapore the top rank for its ease of doing business in Asia. Moreover, KPMG (KPMG Competitive Alternatives Study 2006) [...]

The donor conference in Tokyo for Pakistan has concluded with commitments of over $5bn over the next two years. This is more than the expectation of the Japanese government which hosted the event along with the World Bank (WB). The massive amount is for ‘additional support’ to the social safety nets, human development, and anti-poverty costs – [...]

The third largest economy in the world will benefit from most of the decisions taken during the London summit of the G-20. The greatest victory belongs to Chinese President Hu Jintao. The logic is simple: it pays to be ‘Made in China.’ G-20 plans to revive international trade, particularly devoting $250 billion to finance new global trade transactions. [...]