Jobs are the surest pathway out of poverty, but creating them at scale requires strong foundations, smart policies, and private investment. This Café introduces the World Bank Group’s ongoing work to develop a harmonized Jobs Indicator — the first tool designed to connect reforms and investments with employment outcomes. The discussion will highlight why measuring jobs matters, share emerging lessons, and explore how better data can drive action and expand opportunity.

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Water reuse is a powerful yet underutilized driver of job creation and economic growth, strengthening the industries that underpin economies—from agriculture and manufacturing to energy—and enabling them to expand production, attract investment, and deliver more employment opportunities. This Café explores how scaling water reuse, through new technologies and digital innovations, can unlock more jobs while advancing water security and universal access.

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How can smallholders be assured access to the finance needed to improve their operations, grow their businesses, and build better livelihoods and jobs? This discussion will highlight evidence-based financial innovations that can increase resilience and productivity for smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities, helping create jobs and boost food security.

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Disasters disrupt all forms of economic activity. They wreak havoc on infrastructure assets and basic services. Overnight, businesses go bust, smallholders farmers and vulnerable populations lose all their assets. Unemployment levels rise, often leading to chronic poverty. While a complex challenge, the session will explore the elements of an approach that can provide a pathway, using practical examples to elicit a framework for response, including insurance solutions and disaster preparedness. 

The world faces a global labor imbalance: youth job shortages in some regions and worker deficits in others. Global Skill Partnerships (GSPs) offer a solution by training workers in surplus countries for jobs in shortage sectors abroad. This Café explores how GSPs can deliver a triple win through skills investment, managed mobility, and private sector engagement.

In an age of AI and uncertainty, creating the perfect match—aligning education with tomorrow’s jobs—is urgent. How do we rethink education to equip the next generation with the right content and skills, delivered in the right way? Join the World Bank’s Education Global Director, youth, and private sector on unlocking opportunities and building pathways to future work.

Investments in infrastructure, people, and natural capital have too often been made in silos—a clinic here, a bridge there, a skills center somewhere else—without systematically linking them to jobs opportunities. Today, every World Bank Group operation is expected to demonstrate a clear line of sight to jobs. This Café will explore how WBG core analytical products such as the Country Growth & Jobs Report (CGJR) or the Country Private Sector Diagnostics (CPSD) can help to translate that vision into practice—moving from analysis to action and ensuring that diverse stakeholders bring their knowledge to bear. Senior representatives from the World Bank and the private sector will discuss practical ways to align investments across sectors to maximize their impact on job creation.

What if your next health investment could also create thousands of jobs? This Café explores how countries can leverage health systems and health value chains to drive job creation—especially for youth and women—while expanding access to care. Join us to learn how public spending on health can unlock inclusive growth, attract private investment, and deliver long-term economic returns.

Funding high-growth firms is a major challenge in developing countries. Venture capital provides a pathway, but it is often constrained by policy environments, market gaps, or financing conditions. This Café convenes researchers, IFC investors, and private-sector leaders to map key bottlenecks, share lessons, and chart actionable steps to expand effective venture capital investment across these markets.

Debt-for-development swaps can help countries tackle liquidity challenges while advancing sustainable development. This Café will bring together Spain, the World Bank, and a partner country to discuss how these transactions work and how to structure them effectively. The discussion will highlight opportunities for greater knowledge sharing and cooperation. It will also mark the launch of the Global Hub for Debt Swaps for Development, a platform to exchange experiences and foster practical know-how.

What does it take to Mainstream Innovation in Development? Innovation is essential to sustaining and amplifying development impact. The journey to translate innovative ideas into real-world outcomes is challenging. Join us to discuss what innovation means in development, why it matters now more than ever, and what we can learn from successful efforts to mainstream innovation.

Africa’s mineral wealth offers vast potential for jobs and growth. This Café will examine how Africa’s untapped mineral resources can be converted into broad‑based employment, higher incomes, and resilient local economies. It will cover recent trends in mineral discoveries across Africa, highlighting both challenges and opportunities. Experts will explore strategic investments in extraction and processing, while sharing lessons and countries' experience in expanding value addition —using minerals to strengthen infrastructure, linking resource-rich regions to key markets, supporting local suppliers, and developing diversified economic corridors to boost job creation.

This Café explores how Small AI can deliver transformative impact in developing countries. Participants will learn from real-world case studies, examine enabling foundations, and discuss how Small AI provides a pragmatic pathway for developing countries to accelerate digital transformation, build AI readiness and drive the future of jobs.

Powering data centers can drive economic transformation, creating quality jobs and inclusive growth in emerging markets. This Café explores how to enable an ecosystem for job creation using renewable energy, grid modernization, and energy efficiency to meet soaring demands from data centers for cloud services and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Through new World Bank research and case studies, experts will share best practices and actionable policies to power data centers to unlock job creation across the digital services economy and AI innovations.

In the wake of crisis, how do we rebuild? Some economies bounce back with new firms, new ideas, and new jobs. Others cling to old habits and the status quo. This Café explores what drives that difference, how to drive innovation, and what it takes to turn shock into opportunity.

Cities in Africa and many parts of Asia are expanding fast, offering immense potential for job-rich growth. Join this Café to examine how smarter urban governance, land and mobility reforms, and pragmatic expansion planning can convert rapid urbanization into more and better jobs, as well as the lessons these fast urbanizing regions can take from the successful experiences of other countries. Drawing on emerging flagship insights, speakers and participants will co-create actionable ideas to ensure "urbanization with growth" and scale inclusive, productivity-boosting urban strategies.

As international investment in infrastructure projects in EMDEs dwindles and foreign exchange risk rises, the infrastructure financing gap remains in the trillions of dollars. Through compelling insights from WBG knowledge/country programs and international private investors, this Café will decode proven pathways and interventions to stimulate an action-oriented dialogue on scaling local infrastructure financing solutions ––spurring the economic wheel for sustainable growth and job creation.

This Café will discuss the partnership between the World Bank Group (WBG) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and the critical role of higher education in driving jobs in the energy sector. It will focus on practical knowledge generation, talent development, and implementing scalable solutions. Anchored in the WBG–HBCU–African Centers of Excellence (ACE) partnership, the discussion will show how universities bridge research and practice to address energy challenges while creating economic opportunities.

Water and energy shortages lead to job loss, while properly managed energy and water can fuel job growth across sectors.  With current practices, the world is expected to face a 40% shortfall between demand and supply of water by 2030.  Please join us for an interactive discussion on how countries are paving the way to produce green energy through hydropower, increasing agricultural production, and mitigating floods and droughts with increased water storage-- all while creating jobs.   Participants are encouraged to come with successes, challenges and questions for discussion with experts. Watch Replay

The rise of open-source AI is transforming the artificial intelligence landscape, making advanced technologies accessible to a broader audience and disrupting established power structures. This Knowledge Café will delve into how open-source AI models, such as DeepSeek's R1, are democratizing innovation and enabling rapid advancements across various sectors. Open-source AI is also driving the expansion of Digital Public Goods (DPGs)—freely available AI tools and models that can empower governments, researchers, and enterprises in low-resource settings to develop localized AI solutions. Join us for an engaging discussion about the implications for global competitiveness, the potential for collaborative problem-solving, and the challenges associated with open-source approaches, including security, ethical considerations, and long-term sustainability of AI as a DPG. Watch Replay

Join us for an engaging and interactive Knowledge Café where we dive into the pivotal role of Public Financial Management (PFM) in transforming health service delivery, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration, and enabling effective crisis response.

Throughout the session, we will highlight how these PFM functions contribute to greater efficiency and accountability, ensuring that public funds are used effectively and transparently. Participants will gain practical insights into leveraging PFM to achieve better outcomes for citizens, especially during times of crisis. Watch Replay

The developing world’s population of young people aged 15-24 will peak at 1.2 billion in 2035.  If current trends continue, roughly 500 million of these young people will be in school, investing in their education and skills to raise their future earnings. Of the remaining 700m, 400 will be employed, often in precarious and low-skilled occupations, while 300m – or four in ten – will either be unemployed or out of the labor force entirely.  These trends present  challenges and opportunities for developing countries as they seek to realize the demographic dividend.   This Knowledge Café will review key stylized facts on youth employment and share insights from Bank analytical and operational work to help policymakers ensure that young people are equipped with the skills they need and the job opportunities they deserve to realize their productive potential in the labor market. Watch Replay

This session will highlight the new World Bank Group approach to debt-for-development swaps. This innovative model can help countries replace expensive debt with cheaper financing and generate fiscal savings that can be applied toward development goals – without the hefty financial, administrative and transaction costs that are traditionally associated with these swaps. The panel will discuss how countries can take advantage of this opportunity by highlighting the recent successful application of the approach in Cote d’Ivoire. Watch Replay

Join us for an exciting and interactive Knowledge Café on ""Super Aging""!

Globally, the proportion of older adults is growing rapidly, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). By 2050, 77% of older adults will reside in today’s LMICs. LMICs must, therefore, act urgently to minimize the economic and welfare costs of aging while harnessing their opportunities.

Engage in a dynamic discussion that will cover on:

- Multisectoral interventions that promote longer, healthier lives.

- Economic challenges faced by older adults, especially in LMICs.

- Implications for the workforce, communities, health and care needs.

- How population aging can create new jobs and economic opportunities.

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How can countries ensure the most development impact from their investments? In this Knowledge Café, we will discuss innovative use of geospatial analysis to help countries better target infrastructure and other investments that can benefit poor and vulnerable households. Featuring examples from Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and more, learn how pinpointing locations where development gaps are most severe can enable better investment decisions. Watch Replay

This Knowledge Café will engage the audience in questions about the role of capital markets in driving stronger business growth and job creation. Through the lens of investors, public policymakers, and researchers, the discussion will use live engagement with the Capital Markets Portal to engage attendees and gauge their perceptions about equities, bonds, and policy priorities, with panelists explaining how actual data often differs from popular assumptions. Featuring a variety of examples across a range of emerging markets, the interactive session will help illustrate how enabling policies, investor interest, and empirical research intersect to foster more inclusive financial environments. By session’s end, participants gain fresh insights and actionable takeaways for leveraging capital markets to spur growth and employment. Watch Replay

The Knowledge Café will discuss major investment trends, bringing together private sector, government, and DFI representatives to share insights. Potential discussion topics include:

• Breaking Barriers: Scaling Private Investment in Infrastructure – Examining private capital mobilization across EMDE markets to identify top performers and discuss best practices including links direct and indirect employment generation.
• The Next Frontier: Private Capital in Emerging Sectors – Exploring investment trends in sectors such as battery storage, hydrogen, and e-mobility across developed and emerging markets and what they mean for labor markets and skills.
•  Unlocking Blended Finance Potential – Comparing mobilization ratios across investment vehicles and risk mitigation strategies to determine the most effective blended financing approaches.
• Invest, Recycle, Repeat: Leveraging Secondary Markets – Exploring capital flows from primary to secondary markets to discuss the “Originate-to-Distribute” model.
•  Risk, Reward, and Reality:  Examining investors’ preferred risk strategies vs investment performance to shape optimal investment profiles in EMDEs.

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The United Nations have designated 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Despite this global emphasis, quantum technologies remain enigmatic to much of the general public and policymakers. In 2024, global investments in quantum research exceeded $40 billion, yet only 24 governments had adopted national quantum strategies, mostly in high-income countries.
For developing countries, quantum technologies present both significant opportunities and challenges. Potential benefits include advancements in healthcare through precise medical imaging and optimization of energy resources. However, they may also significantly increase cybersecurity risks by weakening traditional cryptography, and disparity in quantum adoption could widen the technological gap between developed and developing countries.
Join us to demystify the impact of quantum technologies on international development, with experts from the civil society and the private sector.

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Understanding the creation of job opportunities is crucial for private investment decision making and policy design in the clean energy sector. This Knowledge Café will explore real case studies across the clean energy sector, focusing on the key factors that drive job creation, including regulations, development of training programs, and access to energy.  Through these case studies, data, and publications, we will highlight the importance and show practical steps for maximize job creation in clean energy projects. Watch Replay

The session will be a dynamic dialogue on innovations to scale up access to clean air. Featuring an engaging panel discussion followed by a 30-minute interactive audience exchange, it will explore transformative solutions that can unlock universal access to clean air, with a focus on market creation and finance mobilization. Topics will cover innovative financing, market mechanisms, job creation opportunities, and strengthening airshed approaches (programs targeting large cross-border areas where polluted air travels). The session will show the potential for these measures to significantly reduce global exposure to harmful fine particulate matter by 2040. Regional and global innovations will be shared, emphasizing the need for cooperation across sectors and geographic boundaries. Watch Replay

Beneficial Ownership Transparency (BOT) is essential in combating corruption, recovering stolen assets, and strengthening domestic revenue by preventing tax evasion and illicit financial flows. With international standards evolving—particularly under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines—countries are rapidly adopting BOT reforms. The World Bank and its development partners are at the forefront, supporting governments in implementing these crucial measures.

Join us for an insightful Knowledge Café exploring the latest global trends in BOT implementation. This Café is a must-attend for all stakeholders committed to enhancing transparency and accountability in financial systems.

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