Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group, spoke about leaving behind the past and facing today's challenges squarely, constructively, and creatively. This is not the 1944 world that surrounded the creation of the Bank. Old models no longer fit current problems. The new "normal" will...

The Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LAC) has the largest stock of active PPP investments and the largest pipeline of infrastructure projects by volume globally, reflecting the central role of the private sector in the regional development agenda. Looking ahead, the region is making...

This study highlights how COVID-19 has affected small and medium enterprises, drawing on newly released World Bank Enterprise Surveys in 13 countries. The study shows that firms of all sizes are severely affected in multiple dimensions; however, firm size matters for the intensity of the...

This study uses loan-level data on syndicated lending to a large sample of developing countries between 1993 and 2017 to estimate the mobilization effects of multilateral development banks (MDBs), that is, their ability to crowd-in capital from private creditors. Controlling for a large set of...

This paper argues for a novel approach to financing infrastructure needs in Arab countries. It first describes the context of rising public debt in the region, contrasting it with the vast infrastructure needs. It then discusses the challenges in meeting these needs with traditional financing....

The role of 'first movers' in fragile states is critical: they grow and diversify markets in ways that no other firms do, generating disproportionate impact in terms of development and stability. But pioneer firms are rare in fragile states. This study documents their profile, their challenges,...

Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank, addressed the following issues: seeds of crisis; the changing context; responsible globalization; the current role of the World Bank Group; the role of the World Bank Group in a new post-crisis World; and the reform agenda. He pointed to four...

This paper presents the main findings of the 2017 survey on national development banks that the World Bank conducted in collaboration with the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions. Sixty-four development banks from different parts of the world, mainly from middle-income...

Barber B. Conable, President of the World Bank Group addressed the topic of Australian International Development at the 1989 annual meetings. Poverty, and its persistence alongside such wellbeing, is both a moral outrage and a threat to security. The challenge of poverty is an economic,...

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, discusses strategies to address inequality that even the poorest nations can adopt, whether through conditional cash transfers, connecting farmers to markets or rural electrification. The lesson is that inequality is not an unsolvable mystery....