announces the winners of the 13th Equator Prize, recognizing ten Indigenous peoples and local communities from nine countries for portraying their own local development goals.
Economic Development
The partial shutoff of Russian natural gas deliveries is already affecting European growth, and a full shutdown could be substantially more severe, according to .
For the past thirty years, the Small Grants Programme (SGP) has been providing financial and technical support to civil society and community-based organizations on innovative community-driven initiatives that address global environmental issues – such as biodiversity loss, climate change mitigation and adaptation, land degradation, international waters, and chemicals and waste management – while improving livelihoods. SGP was sparked by the idea that the active participation of local communities in dealing with critical environmental problems holds the key to promoting effective stewardship of the environment and achieving sustainable development. Mariko Wallen harvests seaweed on her and Louis Godfrey's farm in Placencia, Belize.
indicates FDI rebounded to nearly $1.6 trillion last year, but warns this course is unlikely to be sustained in 2022.
Just over two years after COVID-19 caused the deepest global recession since World War II, the world economy is again in danger. This time it is facing high inflation and slow growth. Even if a global recession is averted, the pain of stagflation could persist for years- unless major supply increases are set in motion. The ’s presents the risk of stagflation, with potentially harmful consequences for middle- and low-income economies alike. A forceful, wide-ranging policy response is required to boost growth.
helps strengthen the cultural and creative industries and promotes South-South cooperation to support developing countries to: design, adapt and/or implement regulatory frameworks for the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs); strengthen skills and; and create peer-to-peer mechanisms.
Tensions over trade, technology standards, and security have been growing for many years, undermining growth and trust in the current global economic system. Uncertainty around trade policies reduced global gross domestic product in 2019 by nearly 1 percent, according to . And since the war in Ukraine started, our monitoring indicates that around 30 countries have restricted trade in food, energy, and other key commodities. To restore trust that the rules-based global system can work well, we must weave our economic fabric in new and better ways.
The is working with countries on the preparation of $12 billion of new projects for the next 15 months to respond to the food security crisis. These projects are expected to support agriculture, social protection to cushion the effects of higher food prices, and water and irrigation projects. In addition, the World Bank’s existing portfolio includes undisbursed balances of $18.7 billion in projects with direct links to food and nutrition security issues, covering agriculture and natural resources, nutrition, social protection, and other sectors.
A mother of three children, Laiku Lama worked as a farmer in the mountainous district of Humla, one of the most isolated and underdeveloped regions in Nepal. In 2018, she left her family to board a plane for the first time in her life. After six months studying in India, she literally enlightened her village upon her return: as a newly certified solar technician, she installed solar home lighting in 220 houses, benefitting over 2,100 people. Laiku was one of three Lama women who became so-called Solar Mamas, thanks to a South-South cooperation initiative.
The war in Ukraine has dealt a major shock to commodity markets, altering global patterns of trade, production, and consumption in ways that will keep prices at historically high levels through the end of 2024, according to the ’s latest . The increase in energy prices over the past two years has been the largest since the 1973 oil crisis. Price increases for food commodities—of which Russia and Ukraine are large producers—and fertilizers, which rely on natural gas as a production input, have been the largest since 2008.
The Blue Connection film tells an inspiring story of unity, support, and multilateral collaboration between three countries - Barbados, Belize, and Costa Rica - and their collective efforts to sustainably develop their coastal communities in the wake of the global pandemic. The story shares an intimate perspective of the daily lives and challenges faced by people working in the blue economy through an project.
There may be no universal understanding of creativity. The concept is open to interpretation from artistic expression to problem-solving in the context of economic, social and sustainable development. Nonetheless, creativity and culture also contribute as a highly transformative sector of the world economy in terms of income generation, job creation and export earnings. Therefore, the 51³Ô¹Ï designated 21 April as World Creativity and Innovation Day to raise the awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development.
Consensus on the need to build a greener economy often founders on concern over potential job losses. The change can be difficult. The proposes a mix of policies to ease the pain of workers.
COVID-19 provided a convenient excuse for bigotry as the world witnessed xenophobic attacks against people of Asian descent. At the same time, racial and ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups suffered the greatest harm from the pandemic, due to higher infection rates and deeper economic distress. The recovery also has been marred by an imbalance of power that has left poor countries unable to vaccinate their populations. Therefore, puts great focus on ending inequality and exclusion.
The war in Ukraine could not have come at a worse time for the global economy—when the recovery from the pandemic-induced contraction had begun to falter. The explains how the Ukraine crisis could make it harder for many low- and middle-income economies to regain their footing. Besides higher commodity prices, the fallout is likely to arrive through several other vectors, including trade shocks. Countries closest to the conflict-due to trade and other links-are likely to suffer the greatest immediate harm. But the effects could ripple far beyond.