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The International Finance Corporation’s Sustainability Framework FY2012–25: An Independent Evaluation (Approach Paper)
Get PDFThe Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is evaluating the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Sustainability Framework to identify lessons for its planned update. The evaluation will focus on how IFC and its clients have applied the framework, assessing the systems and processes used for its implementation. It will also examine the adequacy of the framework's policy architecture and coverage, in coordination with the ongoing evaluation of the World Bank's Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). Introduced in 2006, the IFC Sustainability Framework represents IFC's strategic commitment to sustainable development and is integral to its risk management approach. The framework outlines the E&S responsibilities of IFC and its clients, ensuring that projects financed by IFC contribute to positive development outcomes while effectively managing E&S risks. It replaced the 1998 Safeguards Policies with an integrated approach to managing environmental and social (E&S) risks. The framework includes the Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability, Performance Standards, and Access to Information Policy, supplemented by over 80 publications providing detailed implementation guidance
Access to Capital and Women's Entrepreneurship
Get PDFThis paper presents a systematic review of the literature that evaluates the causal impact of interventions designed to enhance women's access to productive capital in low- and middle- income economies. The review identifies 27 studies that meet certain criteria, with wide geographic coverage. Overall, the evidence suggests that grants can spur entrepreneurship, but that such effects are mostly short-lived and not experienced by women operating subsistence businesses. For individual-liability loans, the evidence shows some positive impacts --- but only when credit products are designed to overcome flexibility needs and collateral constraints, and again often only for existing women entrepreneurs with higher baseline profits. The review also identifies an emerging research frontier, focused on the use of alternative data for credit scoring and the development of novel credit products facilitated by these data sources
Shared Infrastructure for Clean Hydrogen
Get PDFStudies of the development of clean hydrogen have often focused on the production side. Infrastructure built and used for storage and transportation warrants more attention. Among the topics that should be assessed are system design, operation, integration,
and ownership; market design and governance; and planning. This Live Wire examines case studies and literature on the infrastructure for hydrogen hubs, with an emphasis on the benefits of shared infrastructure. Given the breadth of hydrogen production and infrastructure, the focus is on renewable hydrogen production for domestic use and for export after conversion to
ammonia
The Path to Climate Resilience
Get PDFClimate education and youth entrepreneurship are pathways for young people to become agents of change in their communities in response to the environmental challenges of today,
particularly climate change. This report provides recommendations on developing climate education and youth entrepreneurship in Central Asia, as the region transitions to building resilient and green economies. This report presents key findings from the study Rural Schools and the Development of Entrepreneurship Skills Related to Natural Resources and Climate in Central Asia—a three-year initiative aimed at integrating climate change awareness and entrepreneurship education with landscape restoration investments across the region
Achieving Energy Efficiency in Buildings
Get PDFBuildings in Pakistan account for over 43.7 percent of the country’s total energy use and represent a significant opportunity for energy efficiency and conservation. The high energy consumption in buildings is primarily attributed to Pakistan’s predominantly sunny and hot climate, which drives high demand for cooling for most of the year—and the widespread reliance on inefficient gas and firewood appliances for heating and cooking. Driven by rapid urbanization, population growth, and increasing construction demand, energy use in buildings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with buildings are projected to grow considerably. The buildings sector drove higher electricity demand in 2024, growing four times faster than in 2023. Global electricity consumption in buildings increased by more than 600 terawatt hours (5 percent) in 2024. Globally, buildings account for 37 percent of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In addition to the high overall levels of energy consumption in buildings, seasonal variation in electricity and gas load patterns also pose a problem. For instance, electricity peak demand in summer rises briefly to over 25,000 megawatts (MW) from a baseload of only 8,500 MW. The benefits of energy efficiency in buildings however extend beyond reduced energy consumption or peak demand management. Energy-efficient buildings provide a healthier and more supportive living and work environment by improving indoor air quality and enhancing overall occupant comfort. In addition, demand for new construction materials and techniques in the building industry generates livelihood opportunities. Key findings from the World Bank’s comprehensive assessment on Buildings Energy Efficiency in Pakistan, conducted in 2022 and 2023, are presented below; details on the assessment’s approach, data collection, and methodology are provided in annex 1
Opportunities and Challenges for Sub-Saharan Africa
Get PDFThis study explores the link between digital skills, innovation, and economic transformation in the context of Africa, focusing on the role and potential contribution of higher education institutions in the development of advanced skills for the digital transition. It documents relevant global case studies from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America that showcase good examples of investment in skills development through higher education and their impact on innovation and economic growth. The study investigates the evolving global demand for digital skills and explores how advanced digital skills can create new economic development opportunities for Africa and help solve the big challenges faced by the subcontinent, such as food security, health threats, learning poverty, and climate change. It takes stock of existing capacities for digital skills training in Sub-Saharan Africa and proposes a bold vision for
improving and expanding digital skills education programs
Geopolitical Risks and Trade
No full textThis paper studies the impact of geopolitical risks on international trade, using the Geopolitical Risk (GPR) index of Caldara and Iacoviello (2022) and an empirical gravity model. The impact of spikes in geopolitical risk on trade is negative, strong, and heterogeneous across sectors. The findings show that increases in geopolitical risk reduce trade by about 30 to 40 percent. These effects are equivalent to an increase of global tariffs of up to 14 percent. Services trade is most vulnerable to geopolitical risks, followed by agriculture, and the impact on manufacturing trade is moderate. These negative effects are partially mitigated by cultural and geographic proximity, as well as by the presence of trade agreements
Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization (EE&D) Opportunities
Get PDFTextiles are Pakistan’s most critical manufacturing sector, contributing nearly one‑fourth of the industrial value added and employing about 40 percent of the industrial labor force. It has the longest production chain and inherent potential for value addition at each processing stage, from cotton to ginning, spinning, fabric, dyeing and finishing, made‑ups, and garments. Excluding seasonal and cyclical fluctuations, textile products have maintained an average share of about 54.5 percent in national exports and contribute to 8–9 percent of GDP. Concentrated mostly in the Punjab and Sindh, companies within the sector are associated with various value‑chain activities, manufacturing products such as linen and finished garments. Primary energy sources for the textile industry make up 17 percent of overall primary industrial energy consumption in Pakistan, comprising 28 percent of industrial electricity use, 5.1 percent of industrial fuel oil use, and 28.6 percent of industrial natural gas use. Due to unreliable grid supplied electricity, a considerable share of the electricity demand for textile manufacturing is met through captive generation in large textile mills. The textile sector is responsible for nearly 5 percent of the country’s overall industrial emissions onsite fuel consumption and energy sourced from the gas and electricity networks are key sources of these GHG emissions. This note describes decarbonization interventions to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions in the textile sector while increasing industrial competitiveness and providing wider economic and environmental benefits
The World Bank's Support for Repurposing of Agrifood Public Policies and Programs: Moving from Advocacy to Action
Get PDFThis report is prepared for the Hamburg Sustainability Conference to present the recent work of the World Bank on the repurposing of agricultural support. The report presents the case for using the existing public policies and programs for agrifood systems in a different way that helps accelerate a sustainable agrifood system transformation (i.e., the Repurposing agenda), takes stock of the volumes and composition of global agriculture support and across countries’ income groups, and
describes the World Bank’s recent initiatives that have moved the repurposing agenda from advocacy to action. The Food Systems 2030 Multi-donor trust fund (FS2030 MDTF) has played a crucial role in leveraging the World Bank’s recent repurposing engagement. It will remain crucial for future scale up
What’s New
Get PDFThe September 2025 update to the poverty and inequality platform (PIP) introduces changes to the data underlying the global poverty estimates. This document details the changes to underlying data and the reasons behind them. It also explains the change in methodology used for countries without data, as well as a minor change in how surveys are interpolated. Finally, the regional classification used in PIP has been aligned with the World Bank classification as of July 2025, although users continue to be able to construct their own regional aggregates from the underlying country-level data. Depending on the availability of recent survey data, global and regional poverty estimates are reported up to 2023, together with nowcasts up to 2025. The PIP database now includes 55 new country-years, bringing the total number of distributions to over 2,500 for 172 economies