13/4/2016/World Bank

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today announced that the World Bank Group would invest $2.5 billion over 5 years in education projects that directly benefit adolescent girls, whose empowerment is central to the Bank Group’s development efforts. The announcement, made at the Let Girls Learn event during the World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings, was followed by a call to action from the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, urging key policymakers and influencers from around the world to commit to urgent action in support of adolescent girls.

“I’m very excited to join the First Lady in announcing this major boost in funding for adolescent girls’ education,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “Empowering and educating adolescent girls is one of the best ways to stop poverty from being passed from generation to generation, and can be transformational for entire societies. This increased funding will help provide countries, especially in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with the tools to expand access to quality education so that all adolescent girls can go to school and reach their full potential.”

First Lady Michelle Obama highlighted the power of this investment in adolescent girls, as well as the transformative impact that adolescent girls’ education has on girls, their families and their countries.

“This isn’t just a breathtaking investment of resources, it’s also a powerful statement of mission – it’s an expression of our belief in the power of education to transform the lives and prospects of millions of girls worldwide – as well as the prospects of their families, communities and countries,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.  “The evidence is very clear: when we invest in girls’ education, and we embrace women in our workforce, that doesn’t just benefit them, it benefits all of us.”

By 2020 the Bank Group expects to invest at least $2.5 billion in education projects targeting adolescent girls (ages 12-17). About 75 percent of these investments are expected to be from IDA, the Bank Group’s fund for the poorest countries, and largely in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which have the highest number of out-of-school girls.

Programs to be supported will include a range of efforts to provide adolescent girls with access to quality education at the secondary level, ensure they are enrolled in and stay in school, and provision of scholarships, conditional cash transfers, and schools with basic facilities like clean drinking water and toilets that promote enrollment.

Today, 62 million girls around the world are not in school, and half of them are adolescents. A World Bank study found that every year of secondary school education is correlated with an 18 percent increase in a girl’s future earning power. Research shows that educating girls has a multiplier effect: better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn more income, give birth to fewer children, marry at a later age, and provide better health care and education to their children.

Educating adolescent girls and promoting gender equality is part of a broader, holistic effort by the Bank Group. This includes financing and analytical work in support of removing financial barriers that keep girls out of school, delaying child marriage, improving access to reproductive health services, and strengthening skills and job opportunities for adolescent girls and young women.

This multidimensional approach is outlined in the Bank Group’s new global strategy for gender equality. Today’s commitment represents a major step toward implementing the goals of this strategy as well as helping achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 4, which calls for access to quality education and lifelong learning for all, and Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls.

As always, Bank Group financing depends on country demand, the state of the global economy, and a strong replenishment this December of IDA, the Bank’s fund for the world’s poorest countries.

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13/4/2016/World Bank

Remittances to developing countries grew only marginally in 2015, as weak oil prices and other factors strained the earnings of international migrants and their ability to send money home to their families, says the World Bank’s latest edition of the Migration and Development Brief, released today.

Officially recorded remittances to developing countries amounted to $431.6 billion in 2015, an increase of 0.4 percent over $430 billion in 2014. The growth pace in 2015 was the slowest since the global financial crisis. Global remittances, which include those to high-income countries, contracted by 1.7 percent to $581.6 billion in 2015, from $592 billion in 2014.

The slowing in remittances growth, which began in 2012, was exacerbated last year by low oil prices, which are taking a toll on many oil-exporting remittance-source countries, such as Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

As a result, many remittance-receiving countries, including India, the world’s largest remittance recipient, and Egypt saw remittances contract in 2015, as flows from the GCC countries slowed considerably. Remittances contracted by 20 percent to countries in the Europe and Central Asia region, with the heaviest impacts on Tajikistan and Ukraine , as a struggling Russian economy, and depreciation of the Russian ruble against the dollar contributed to the decline in remittances to the region.

India retained its top spot in 2015, attracting about $69 billion in remittances, down from $70 billion in 2014. Other large recipients in 2015 were China, with $64 billion, the Philippines ($28 billion), Mexico ($25 billion), and Nigeria ($21 billion).

“Remittances are an important and fairly stable source of income for millions of families and of foreign exchange to many developing countries. However, if remittances continue to slow, and dramatically as in the case of Central Asian countries, poor families in many parts of the world would face serious challenges including nutrition, access to health care and education,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group.

Remittance flows are expected to recover this year, after a bottoming out in 2015, with growth driven by continued economic recovery in the United States and the Euro Area, and a stabilization of U.S. dollar exchange rates of remittance-source countries. In addition to currency movements, oil prices are a key downside risk to this outlook. Should the price of oil suffer unexpected declines, remittances from Russia and the GCC would be further buffeted.

The global average cost of sending $200 was about 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, down slightly from the previous quarter and 0.6 percentage points below the end of 2014. Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average cost of 9.5 percent, remains the highest-cost region.

However, major international banks continue to close correspondent banking accounts of money transfer operators (MTO) to limit exposure to money laundering and other financial crimes. A World Bank survey confirms that account closures are widespread, with adverse impacts on remittance costs and flows in rural and remote regions. For example, over the past two years, 84 accounts of 32 Philippine remittance providers (including both banks and MTOs) were closed by 33 foreign banks in 13 major remittance-sending countries, according to the Philippine central bank.

A special feature on natural disasters and epidemics notes that migration and remittances have long played important roles in helping to cope with natural disasters, although the vast majority of people displaced by a disaster move for only a short period and remain in their home country.

The diaspora has assisted people affected by disasters by sending more money home. However, remittances may also fall if the disaster disrupts the money-transfer infrastructure. While climate change is likely to result in increased frequency and severity of weather-related disasters, the international community currently lacks a legal and institutional framework to cope with the resulting migration from the affected areas.

“The diaspora provides significant help during natural disasters, as in the case of Nepal’s earthquake last year. However, we know little about how it responds to communities in times of epidemics such as Ebola. We need more data and research on this topic,” said Dilip Ratha, lead author of the Brief and head of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).

Regional Remittance Trends

Among geographical regions, Latin America and the Caribbean saw the most rapid growth rate in remittances in 2015, of 4.8 percent, due to the recovery in labor markets in the United States. Growth is expected to continue in 2016, albeit at a slower pace, with remittances expected to reach $69.3 billion this year, from $66.7 billion last year.

Remittances to East Asia and the Pacific rose by 4.2 percent in 2015, down from 7.4 percent in 2014. Nevertheless, the region remained the top remittance recipient amongst all geographical regions. Remittances are projected at $131 billion this year, up from $127 billion in 2015.

Remittances to South Asia grew by 2 percent in 2015, down from 4.3 percent in 2014, due to a contraction in flows to India, the world’s largest remittance recipient, and Sri Lanka, despite a spike in remittances to Nepal in response to the earthquake. The region is expected to attract $123.3 billion in remittances this year, compared to $117.9 billion in 2015.

Sub-Saharan Africa saw a modest growth of 1 percent in remittances in 2015, compared to 0.2 percent in 2014. Remittances to the region are expected to increase further this year, by 3.4 percent, to $36 billion, from $35.2 billion in 2015.

Remittances to the Middle East and North Africa contracted by 0.9 percent in 2015, from 4 percent growth in 2014, largely due to a decline in inflows to Egypt, the region’s largest remittance recipient. However, remittances to the region are expected to grow by 2.6 percent this year to $51.6 billion, from $50.3 billion in 2015.

Remittance flows to Europe and Central Asia were severely affected in 2015, contracting by 20.3 percent, due to the depreciation of the Russian ruble against the dollar and the slowdown in economic activity in Russia, a major source of remittances for the region. The region should, however, see a robust recovery this year, with remittances expected to grow by 5.1 percent to $36.3 billion, from $34.6 billion in 2015.

The Migration and Development Brief and the latest migration and remittances data are available at www.worldbank.org/migration and www.knomad.org

Interact with migration experts at http://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove/

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Posted on April 7, 2016 by iMFdirect

By Carla Grasso

If there’s one thing all economists can agree on, it’s the importance of numbers. Without good data, it is difficult to assess how an economy is performing and formulate smart policies that help improve lives.

In little over twenty years, the southern African country of Mozambique has gone from having no national accounts or consumer price index to creating one of the leading statistical agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

I saw firsthand Mozambique’s progress in collecting data on my recent trip to Africa. It was my first trip there as an official representative of the IMF. I met with Isaltina Lucas, the then-President of Mozambique’s Institute of Statistics (and now Vice-Minister of Economy and Finance), who told me about the government’s impressive strides in compiling key economic statistics—thanks, in part, to the IMF.

Over the course of my 10-day visit in early March, I saw many more instances of how IMF technical assistance and training—which together we call “capacity development”—is helping policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa take charge of their own economic future.

Tapping the experience of peers

In Tanzania, for example, I witnessed a workshop organized jointly by the IMF and the central bank, where officials from across the region discussed their own countries’ experiences with expanding access to finance and exchanged views on how to deal with financial vulnerabilities that are emerging as a result. Many participants emphasized the importance of this type of experience-sharing—known as “peer-to-peer learning”—in building capacity.

We are hearing more and more that the knowledge-sharing that takes place outside formal courses is important for capacity development. So we have been exploring ways to cultivate peer learning and support, both in person and online. Through such platforms, policymakers facing similar challenges can not only learn from each other but also set common policy goals.

Such efforts are beginning to bear fruit.  Take, for example, Senegal, which is successfully using peer learning to implement its new development strategy with the goal of becoming an emerging market economy within the next two decades. Senegal is drawing on the experience of policymakers in Cape Verde, Mauritius, and Seychelles to introduce tax identification numbers, set up credit information bureaus, and develop tourism and special economic zones.

Click to read full article “Capacity Development in Africa: the Faces behind the Numbers”

Culled—— iMFdirect

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