Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
This paper addresses a triple challenge – improving access to growth-stage capital, the ability to direct this toward green technology, and doing so during the pandemic and economic disruption. Four ideas are proposed: improved interaction with European institutions; using innovative funding structures; redesigning procurement; and giving founders a voice on …
In recent years there has been an increasing drive for public financial management (PFM) to transcend its traditional role of financial control and function to a greater extent as an enabler of service delivery. However, there is continuing difficulty in prioritising PFM reforms based on a systematically derived link between …
The Index evaluates regional integration on the basis of five dimensions – trade integration, productive integration, macroeconomic integration, infrastructural integration, and integration in terms of free movement of people – for 54 African countries and for the eight RECs recognised by the African Union. ARII 2019 ranks African countries’ level …
India’s cultural heritage and, inparticular, its archaeological and built heritage is unparalleled in the world. An initial survey indicates the total quantum of India’s built heritage and archaeological remains may roughly amount to a total of 400000 plus heritage structures across the country including the centrally protected monuments, state protected …
The key factor that will determine the attainment of Africa’s development objectives is how the continent responds to its increasing need for access to adequate, secure and reliable energy services to industrialize, trade, provide better health and education services, reduce poverty and increase inclusion, boost economic growth and cater for …
Biodiversity underpins all economic activities through the provision of a range of ecosystem services, and it is experiencing dangerous and unprecedented declines due to the current model of economic development. The world’s ecosystems have declined in size and condition by 47% globally compared to estimated baselines, and the continued degradation …
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the need for businesses and investors to adjust to a world of increasing uncertainty or mounting risks. To be viable, businesses can no longer focus only on short-term financial returns; they must anticipate and prepare for future risks, including growing risks from climate change and …
This paper considers the implications of the Covid–19 crisis for the UK public finances. The Covid-19 crisis will affect the public finances through higher unemployment, reduced tax revenue and substantial government spending on schemes to support the economy. Already there are calls for a return to austerity once the most …
The report highlights key milestones of 2019—the first full year of implementation of the bank’s long-term corporate strategy, Strategy 2030. It sets out how ADB has been providing finance, knowledge, and other expertise as it works to help achieve a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. The …
As the human and economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic have unfolded, the global financial system has been both a source of strength—with banks and fintechs helping distribute support to small businesses and households in need—and an area of potential risk, with record levels of market volatility and growing concern …
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are key to the economies of various countries. Their numbers and contribution towards employment is well documented and there is acceptance amongst policy makers that these enterprises are critical for economic development. Increasingly, access to finance has been recognised as a major hurdle in …
In March 2019, India’s government-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC) acquired 52.3% the Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd. (REC) to form the country’s largest non-banking finance company (NBFC), and a critically important lender for India’s power sector with a total asset book approaching US$100bn as of December 2019. In this report we …
State finances of Madhya Pradesh mirrors the fiscal situation of states in India and emerging challenges that include lack of buoyancy of internal revenue, prolonged slow economic growth and uncertainties regarding central transfers, and impact of recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission. While the State adhered to fiscal rules, the …
Digital financial services, powered by fintech, have the potential to lower costs by maximizing economies of scale, to increase the speed, security and transparency of transactions and to allow for more tailored financial services that serve the poor. This report - Digital Financial Services - describes the tools of digital …
As the world grapples with the Coronavirus crisis, urgent action is required from all parts of the financial system, not just in the immediate health and economic emergency, but in the recovery that follows.
Climate change is affecting every aspect of life on the planet, putting the lives of the most vulnerable people under threat and multiplying risks they are already struggling with. The world urgently needs to make the shift to a low-carbon future to avoid irreversible damage to our planet. But the …
Notwithstanding the potential impacts of the pandemic on health and health systems in sub-Saharan Africa, at this stage of the crisis the indirect economic impacts are of more immediate concern. Economies in sub-Saharan Africa are being hit by the global economic slowdown, and by the effects of national measures to …
The global economic recession and financial turmoil from COVID-19 are derailing implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Even before the pandemic, the 2020 Financing for Sustainable Development Report (FSDR) of the Inter-agency Task Force noted that there was backsliding in many …
The Covid-19 pandemic is taking a human toll and has unleashed a series of shocks on the Fund’s entire membership, creating severe disruption in the global economic and financial system. As a result, many emerging market and developing country (EMDC) members face urgent and unprecedented financing needs, creating significant immediate …
The COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a human crisis. Its most direct impact is on health and human well-being. The medical emergency and the public response to it — most importantly restrictions on movement — have also had a dramatic impact on economic activity, and led to significant job …
