Accelerating Change to Solve the Water Crisis

As the world’s largest multilateral source of financing for water in developing countries, the World Bank Group is committed to innovative, inclusive, and sustainable water action as we work together with our partners towards a water-secure world.

Read Story Time for action in Latin America and the Caribbean

2023 SPRING MEETINGS

Growth and Stability During Crises

In his speech, “Growth and Stability During Crises,” World Bank Group President David Malpass will discuss the challenges facing development policy, including the need for macroeconomic stability, the importance of private capital to international integration, and the increasing need to support global public goods. The live-streamed speech, taking place Thursday, March 30th at 9:30am EDT, will be hosted by the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, Niger.

Food Security

Latest Food Security Update

Our latest update from March 23 shows that domestic food price inflation remains high in almost all low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Since the last update on March 9, 2023, the agricultural, cereal, and export price indices closed 3 percent, 2 percent, and 2 percent lower, respectively.

New Report

Global Economy’s “Speed Limit” Set to Fall to Three-Decade Low

The global economy’s “speed limit”—the maximum long-term rate at which it can grow without sparking inflation—is set to slump to a three-decade low by 2030. A World Bank report—Falling Long-Term Growth Prospects: Trends, Expectations, and Policies—shows that an ambitious policy push can boost productivity, ramp up investment, and harness the potential of the services sector.

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Food Security

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.

NEW: Global Food & Nutrition Security Dashboard
Food Security Update (Mar. 23)
Joint Statement by the Heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, World Food Programme and World Trade Organization on the Global Food and Nutrition Security Crisis
Food Security
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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
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BLOG - To meet the climate crisis head-on, our approach to water storage must change
Climate Change
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IDA is the part of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries.

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IDA 20 Highlights
BLOG: World Bank support to the poorest countries: 5 things to know about IDA20
International Development Association (IDA)
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BLOG: How much do countries spend on education, and how do the price levels of education compare? Three charts from the International Comparison Program
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Data

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More than half of all reforms captured were implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa region by seven economies

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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.

According to the latest statistics (see below), more than one in five women were first married before the age of 18, with the practice of child marriage being most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Beyond being a human rights violation, child marriage also greatly undermines women’s and girls’ economic opportunities. It limits child brides’ access to education, reduces their future earnings, jeopardizes their health, and puts them at a heightened risk of domestic violence. Data on the economic impacts of child marriage provide the foundation for advocacy campaigns to end the practice. Learn more.