Global trade will play a critical role in driving economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the flow of food, medical supplies, and vaccines, and contributing to poverty reduction. But policies must be in place to ensure that gains from trade are spread across regions, industries, and workers in developing countries.

Transcript

Mel Fleury: Trade is now more important than ever to poverty reduction around the world.

Global trade will play a critical role in driving economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the flow of food, medical supplies, and vaccines—while also contributing to poverty reduction.

For that to happen, economies will need policies in place to make sure that gains from trade are spread equitably across regions, industries, and workers in developing countries.

Welcome to the third episode...

Give us 20 minutes, and we’ll take you on a journey around the world of international development in this flagship podcast from the World Bank Group. Everyday World Bank researchers and staffers are working to address the biggest international problems – everything from poverty to climate change, education to nutrition, and a whole lot more. Through conversations focused on revealing the latest data, the best research, and the solutions making the world a better place, let hosts Paul Blake and Raka Banerjee introduce you to the folks working to make the world a better place.

Overview: COVID-19 has brought unprecedented disruption on a global scale – to industries, health systems, digital communication, and almost every aspect of our daily lives. Although the pandemic has resulted in hardship and heartbreak, this disruption has also spurred innovation and new ways of working. In this panel discussion, three young leaders will share insights on how they have incorporated new, innovative approaches into recent youth-focused projects, lessons they’ve learned along the way, and their tips and best practices for keeping innovative approaches at the center of any project.

Moderator: IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director Geoffrey Okamoto. https://www.imf.org/en/About/senior-officials/Bios/geoffrey-w-s-okamoto 

The latest edition of the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects explores the immediate and longer-term outlook for advanced and developing economies in the wake of COVID-19. To understand how the economic recovery might play out for different countries, Expert Answers spoke with Ayhan Kose, Director of the World Bank’s Prospects Group.

Digitizing government payments requires a strategic approach that involves detailed planning and extensive coordination at various levels. Successful interventions require accurately diagnosing barriers to digitization, improving infrastructure, and revising regulatory and policy frameworks. Such initiatives involve a range of stakeholders, such as government agencies, including the Treasury, payment service providers, and telecom providers.

The World Bank’s technical note Tools for Digitizing Government Payments: Learnings from FISF discusses some available tools for digitizing government payments. The note leverages learnings from various approaches taken under the Financial Inclusion Support Framework (FISF) program, particularly in Cote d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Zambia.

There are several available tools for digitizing government payments. For instance, a cost-of-payments survey can help uncover the true costs of payments, particularly...

LOME, Togo, June 29, 2021—With both hands firmly gripping the steering wheel, Massata Cissé exudes the confidence of strong-willed women, and her love for the road is reflected in her broad smile. A truck driver for more than 30 years, Cissé, whose handle is “Maman Africa,” is truly an exceptional woman.

“Just over 30 years ago I was the only woman in the subregion doing this job and I think that is still the case today, at least in my country. It has been a bumpy ride, but it’s an interesting job and I am proud of it,” she says.

More than one week to travel 900 kilometers  

A native of Burkina Faso in West Africa, Maman Africa has worked for several companies in the subregion, transporting tons of goods to Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire, to name a few. She is a regular traveler along the major road corridors and has seen them improve over time. She recalls the challenges she faced early in her career: “The roads were very...

Growing hunger and food insecurity are making headlines around the world.

Hunger has been rising since 2014, due to conflict, economic shocks, and weather extremes. According to the FAO, 688 million people were hungry in 2019, compared to 624 million in 2014.

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened food insecurity by disrupting supply chains. Together with currency depreciation and other factors, this in turn has driven up the prices of staples such as wheat and maize. Global agricultural commodity prices are 40% higher now than in January 2020. At the same time, the pandemic has upended livelihoods, eliminated jobs, and slashed incomes, leaving more and more people unable to buy food for their families. As a result, the number of people facing “acute food insecurity” – defined as when a person’s life or livelihood is in immediate danger because of lack of food – is poised to double to 272 million people according to the United Nations World Food...

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because a large part of the world remains unvaccinated and this is a danger for all of us," so warns Mamta Murthi, the World Bank's Vice President for Human Development.

  And what's being done to help?  In the latest edition of The Development Podcast, we're examining these questions and more.  

From Addis Ababa, Dr. Ahmed Ogwell, Deputy Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control, details how the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded across the African continent, and the steps being taken to increase vaccination rates.

Back in Washington, Murthi joins Raka Banerjee and Paul Blake to talk about global trends and the support that the World Bank Group is giving to countries and partners in the race to vaccinate the world...

International remittances shape lives and livelihoods in The Gambia. Fatou lives with her family of six in a small village close to Basse. Like many young men in the country, her husband Hamidou left the country to look for work in Europe. To finance his journey, the family had raised lots of money and expected Hamidou to transfer money back home if he was able to reach Europe. After a long arduous trip, Hamidou arrived in Italy, where he first worked on a farm, and then sold souvenirs to tourists. When COVID-19 spread rapidly in March 2020, his life changed drastically. In response to a strict lockdown, Hamidou could no longer work. He mobilized any savings, but still struggled to send money home when international travel restrictions were imposed, collapsing informal transfer channels.

Remittances can contribute to better living standards in a crisis but can also expose a vulnerable economy to shocks. In 2019, private remittances reached...

Yu Thy and his wife, Neath Sim, a Cambodian couple in their late fifties, had to return home to Chaem Kravien commune in Tboung Khmum province in June 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sitting on a bamboo bed under the shade of a mango tree at their home, the couple smile as they explain their story. When the pandemic halted global travel and tourists stopped coming to the town of Siem Reap, they lost their jobs and were worried about the future.

Luckily they had a house and land to return to. Since coming home, the couple have been growing vegetables, raising fish and chickens, and tapping their rubber trees. On top of providing enough food for the family, their garden produces about 600,000 riel ($150) of vegetables for sale per season. Their 80 chickens are ready for sale, and they can earn around 800,000 riel ($200) per month from the rubber trees on their 1.5 hectares of farmland.

Thy, his wife and two children are one of 250 formerly...

Sri Lanka is a lower-middle-income country with a GDP per capita of USD 3,852 (2019) and a total population of 21.8 million. With over six decades of partnership with Sri Lanka, World Bank Group continues to support Sri Lanka’s transition to a more competitive, inclusive, and resilient country.