Countries and Oil Companies Agree to End Routine Gas Flaring
Chief executives from major oil companies joined together today with senior government officials from several oil-producing countries to commit on April 17, for the first time, to ending the practice of routine gas flaring at oil production sites by...
African Consultative Group Meeting: Statement by the Chairman of the African Caucus and the Managing Director of the IMF
Mr. Armando Manuel, Chairman of the African Caucus, and Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), co-chaired the African Consultative Group meeting at the IMF Headquarters on April 19. They issued the following...
Breaking the Cycle of Poor Service Delivery in the Arab World Critical for Long Term Stability
The delivery of essential public services in the Middle East and North Africa region is failing to meet the needs of citizens and continues to be a source of widespread dissatisfaction, as documented in a new report released by the World Bank on April...
SMEs and entrepreneurs need to diversify their funding amid continued credit constraints
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are fundamental for inclusive growth and jobs, but they need to broaden their sources of finance in order to reduce their vulnerability to volatile credit market developments, according to two new OECD...
Kyrgyzstan must implement anti-corruption policies and laws to reduce corruption
Widespread corruption continues to be a major challenge for Kyrgyzstan’s development, despite efforts to streamline its anti-corruption policy and strengthen the institutional framework since 2012.
From Billions to Trillions--Transforming Development Finance Post-2015 Financing for Development: Multilateral Development Finance
2015 marks a critical year for development, as the international community works towards agreeing on a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to meet the dual challenges of overcoming poverty and protecting the planet. With their welcome emphasis...
Legal affairs MEPs back plans to facilitate recovery of small debts
Plans to improve and broaden the use of a simplified procedure for low-value cross-border claims to recover money from abroad, so as to cut costs and paperwork for both consumers and businesses, were backed by the legal affairs committee on Thursday...
Slowdown Reflects a Permanent External Change that Calls for New Responses from Latin America
With China growing at a more moderate pace and commodity prices stabilizing at lower levels, Latin America and the Caribbean will need to adapt to a “new normal.” Average GDP growth in the region, slowing down steadily and sharply since 2011, is...
Middle East and North Africa Countries Need a New Social Contract to Create Jobs and Improve Services
The latest World Bank Economic Monitor for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) expects GDP regional growth to remain flat at 3.1 to 3.3 percent for the rest of 2015 and for 2016. Prolonged conflict and political instability in some countries, low...
Massive Drop in Number of Unbanked, says New Report
From 2011 and 2014, 700 million people became account holders at banks, other financial institutions, or mobile money service providers, and the number of “unbanked” individuals dropped 20 percent to 2 billion adults, says a new report released on...
