Latest Food Security Update

Domestic food price inflation remains high around the world, including in almost all low- and middle-income countries, while a new report indicates that 258 million people in 58 countries or territories faced a crisis or worsening levels of acute food insecurity in 2022.

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Ajay Banga Selected 14th President of the World Bank

The Executive Directors of the World Bank selected Ajay Banga as President of the World Bank for a five-year term beginning June 2, 2023. Ajay Banga most recently served as Vice Chairman at General Atlantic. Previously, he was President and CEO of Mastercard, a global organization with nearly 24,000 employees. Under his leadership, MasterCard launched the Center for Inclusive Growth, which advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world.

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Gender Equality and LGBTI+ Inclusion

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) has negative impacts on development outcomes and fuels the exclusion of sexual and gender minorities, creating barriers to accessing markets, services, and spaces. The World Bank commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOTB) in this event, raising awareness of the discrimination and exclusion that sexual and gender minorities face in our client countries.

WORLD BANK AND CLIMATE

Explore: Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs)

The World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) are new core diagnostic reports that integrate climate change and development considerations. They will help countries prioritize the most impactful actions that can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and boost adaptation, while delivering on broader development goals. Download our latest reports from Brazil and Indonesia.

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The World Bank has two goals: end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in a sustainable way.

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Food Security - NEW UPDATE (May 8)

Food security is defined when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Food Security Update (May 4)
Global Food & Nutrition Security Dashboard
New Preparedness Plans to More Effectively Respond to Future Food and Nutrition Security Crises
Food Security - NEW UPDATE (May 8)
Climate Change

Climate change, poverty, and inequality are the defining issues of our age. The World Bank Group is the biggest multilateral funder of climate investments in developing countries.

World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan 2021–2025
Climate Action Stories
BLOG - Climate Change and Paris Alignment: “The Climate is Changing, and So Are We”
Climate Change
World Bank Data

The Open Data site is designed to make World Bank data easy to find, download, and use. All of the data found here can be used free of charge with minimal restrictions.

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BLOG: The challenge of estimating poverty in the pandemic
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Evolution Roadmap

The World Bank Group, led by its Board and shareholders, has embarked on a process to evolve its Vision and Mission, Operating Model, and Financial Capacity, as detailed in the Evolution Roadmap.

Consultations on the WBG’s Evolution Process
World Bank Group Statement on Evolution Roadmap
Development Committee paper
Evolution Roadmap

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Data

We engage the development community with real-world statistics

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Women, on average, enjoy barely 77 percent of the legal rights that men do.

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In 2022, the global average score on the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law index rose just half a point to 77.1—indicating women, on average, enjoy barely 77 percent of the legal rights that men do. At the current pace of reform, in many countries a woman entering the workforce today will retire before she will be able to gain the same rights as men, the report notes. This year, 18 countries enacted 34 reforms, the lowest number of reforms in 20 years. But more than half of all reforms captured were implemented in the Sub-Saharan Africa region by seven economies. Learn More.

Globally, roughly half of working age women participate in the labor force, which is significantly lower than the male labor force participation rate of around 80%. This gap is virtually unchanged from what it was three decades ago. And there are sizeable differences in the level of female labor force participation across regions. Moreover, women tend to face inferior income opportunities and on average earn less than men. Explore more aspects of female labor force participation through this data story.

Today, in low-and middle-income countries 53 percent of children in late primary cannot read and understand a simple story. As reading is one important gateway skill, all children should be able to read in order to develop more complex foundational cognitive and socioemotional skills as they grow up. Learn More