World Bank Group: Ask Citizens Where Public Money Should Go – The Surprising Results

As citizen engagement gains traction in the development agenda, identifying the extent to which it produces tangible results is essential. Participatory budgeting, a process in which citizens decide upon and monitor budget allocation, offers promising results, including increased local government

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IFC: Capital Markets Key to Development

Ending extreme poverty for good and building shared prosperity across the developing world takes money – a lot of money. Take infrastructure: for the foreseeable future, an estimated $50 billion per year is needed in Africa alone to deliver basic

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BRIC-à-Brac: Requiem for a Wishful Thought

In the end, it may have been nothing more than a flash in the pan. Unable to fulfil the promise of a new world order, the BRICS countries have largely ceased to be of note. With sputtering economies and political

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Dambisa Moyo: Looking From a Unique Angle

Growing up in Zambia, amid a failing economy where prospects were far from plentiful, Dambisa Moyo was constantly told that she would not be able to achieve anything. But when her dream of being educated at places like Harvard or

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Evan Harvey, Nasdaq: Emerging Markets Leverage ESG Strategy

Over the last decade, emerging market exchanges (EMEs) have outperformed the rest of the world in a few key ways related to sustainability performance and disclosure. The primary markets in two emerging economies – South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSX)

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PwC: Africa’s Hospitality Sector Poised for Growth

Africa’s hospitality industry is set to meet the rising demand from international tourists, local business travellers, and the continent’s own growing middle class. The sector has seen substantial growth with many international brands descending around commercial and retail centres, growing

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Statement on World Bank’s $2.1 Billion Support to Nigeria

On Tuesday, July 21, 2015 the World Bank Group President Jim Kim held a meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at Blair House in Washington, D.C. In the meeting it was indicated that Nigeria has up toUSD $2.1 billion of

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At High-Level Forum, UN Official Calls for Final Push Towards New Sustainability Agenda

The international community stands on the cusp of eradicating extreme poverty and reaching the world’s most vulnerable people with “a chance to live a life of dignity,” the Vice-President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) declared today,

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Enhancing Integration, Unlocking Investment in West Africa

West Africa is stepping up efforts to integrate regional economies and improve the investment climate with the support of the World Bank Group. At a mid-June event in Dakar, a regional public-private dialogue framework was launched to jointly identify regional

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The Time Is Now: Paradigm Shift Signals Opportunity

Few people realise that in 2013 a turning point was reached. In that year, emerging economies displaced developed markets as the main engines of global economic growth. This was not a one-off event or an oddity: it signalled no less

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