Within our lifetimes, the world could be free of widespread, extreme poverty, replaced instead with shared prosperity and environmental and fiscal balance. That was the vision World Bank President Jim Yong Kim outlined at his first Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. last week.
Blog Posts: world bank
-
by and - -
by and - The World Bank’s annual spring meetings take place this week in Washington, D.C. One big topic on the agenda is how to update the World Bank’s “safeguard” policies. Created in the early 1990s, these policies ensure that the Bank considers the social and environmental effects of proposed projects. For example, the safeguards require those borrowing money to assess the project’s environmental impacts and to compensate households who are negatively affected.
The full suite of safeguards is now under review for the first time. Among other things, the Bank hopes to make its safeguard policies reflect changes in the global economic and political landscape that have occurred in recent decades.
World Bank Safeguards vs. National Safeguards
One question on the table is how the World Bank safeguards should interact with national systems already in place in recipient countries. Since the creation of the Bank’s safeguards, many countries have strengthened their own rules and institutions to ensure that large-scale projects are implemented in a manner that protects people and the environment. These include, for instance, laws requiring environmental impact assessments, or government agencies to oversee land use changes. Relying on these domestic systems can potentially improve protection of people and the environment. National laws, for example, allow governments and citizens to work within their own familiar structures, and they’re sometimes more appropriate for local circumstances than Bank policies.
-
by - The World Bank has begun an effort to strengthen its environmental and social safeguards. But how relevant will these safeguards be after the Bank’s parallel proposals to “modernize” the way it does business?
-
by - The World Bank Group should aim to achieve and measure poverty reduction, not palm oil investments.
-
by and - In consultations, a range of countries and interest groups have called for an energy strategy that supports sustainable development.
-
by - The UN Climate Talks in December 2010 concluded with a set of decisions known as the Cancun Agreements, which included the establishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Having been involved in many of the negotiating sessions, I know that this fund is seen by many, particularly developing countries, as an opportunity to create a ‘legitimate’ institution for delivering scaled-up finance to address climate change.
-
by - An update on the role of climate finance in the international climate negotiations.
-
by , , , , and - WRI submitted comments to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Trust Fund Committees suggesting ways to improve the CIFs Results Frameworks.
-
by and - Can climate financing create transformational change?
-
by and - Last week at the UN Convention on Biodiversity, the World Bank launched a new program that aims to put a value on a country’s ecosystems in the same way a country measures its national income and product accounts, or GNP and GDP.
- ‹ previous
- 2 of 5
- next ›