Bridging The Humanitarian-Development Divide On Famine Response

Bridging The Humanitarian-Development Divide On Famine Response

By Franck Bousquet

Tue, 07/18/2017

People wait to fill containers with water at a borehole provided by UNICEF in the Muna Dalti Internally Displaced People's camp, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, Thursday 2 March 2017.
Credit: UNICEF

Last week, I represented the World Bank Group at the United Nations Security Council on the famine response in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. In these four countries, more than 20 million people face famine or the risk of famine over the coming six months, and urgent action is needed to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

Putting Women’s Health and Empowerment at The Center of Development

Putting Women’s Health and Empowerment at The Center of Development

By Kristalina Georgieva

Thu, 07/20/2017

Registered nurses look after new-borns at a maternity hospital in Freetown Sierra Leone. © Dominic Chavez/World Bank


Last week on World Population Day, I was thinking of the joy of children and the right of women to decide when to have them. It matters to women, but it matters to society as a whole. There can be no sustainable development without women’s empowerment, and there can be no women’s empowerment without access to comprehensive maternal and reproductive health services. Family planning is part of them.

At the London Family Planning Summit, more than 60 partners came together and pledged over $2 billion to ensure that 120 million more women and girls get access to voluntary family planning services by 2020. It is the right thing to do, and it is also the smart thing to do. The economy of the future demands women’s full participation. Deciding whether, when and how many children to have is one of the most basic decisions a woman can make, and it determines how effectively she can participate in the economic life of her society. One study in Bangladesh found that communities with access to family planning had 30% lower child mortality, 40% higher wages among women and 25% more physical assets per adult than communities that did not.

Despite the need and the fact that it makes economic sense to invest in family planning, public-sector investment in family planning in lower middle income countries amounts to just 17%. Fifty-four percent of the cost of contraceptives is paid out-of-pocket by users, which means women are paying for their own care. Development partners, who have not made sustained commitments to this issue, also bear responsibility for a large and growing financing gap. This is unacceptable and unsustainable.

This is why I was especially pleased to hear not just Ministers of Health but also Ministers of Finance from Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Uganda, and Bangladesh agreeing that family planning is crucial for the long-term success of their economies and societies. Family planning by any measure is a ‘best buy’ in development.

The World Bank has been investing in family planning as part of comprehensive reproductive and maternal health services for decades. In the last IDA cycle, the Bank’s arm to help the poorest countries, we have invested nearly $1 billion in reproductive and maternal health and $4 billion to strengthen health systems essential for delivering all priority services, including family planning. A regional initiative we launched in 2015 called SWEDD, working with UNFPA in the six countries of the Sahel region in Africa, includes reproductive health and nutrition services, education and skills for girls, strong safety nets, community-based behavior change interventions, and high level advocacy.

Since 2015, we have also stewarded the creation of the Global Financing Facility (GFF), housed at the Bank, which is the main financing arm of the UN Secretary General’s Every Woman Every Child initiative to reach the global SDG goals on maternal, newborn and child health and family planning. The GFF relies on country-created investment cases to cohesively pull in funding from domestic resources, development partners and the private sector. Each dollar from the GFF Trust Fund is catalytic, linking to $4 in IDA concessional financing.

The successful model of the GFF, as well as the scale of IDA 18, offers us all a major opportunity now to make good on the promise of sustainable financing for women and children’s health. This is especially true in countries with the highest need, and in fragile and conflict-affected areas, where women and girls face even higher barriers trying to access basic health services. I came away from London convinced that now is the time to combine ambition with innovation and scale on this issue.

Are cash transfers better chunky or smooth? Evidence from Nigeria

Are cash transfers better chunky or smooth? Evidence from Nigeria

By Gautam Gustav Bastian  co-authors: Sreelakshmi Papineni

 Fri, 09/01/2017

Imagine this: You open your mail and it says that you are owed $1,200 from overpaid taxes! After recovering from your elation, you read on. The letter requests you to choose if you would like to be paid over the next year in increments of $100 every month or $300 every three months?

Can agriculture create job opportunities for youth?

Can agriculture create job opportunities for youth?

By Luc Christiaensen

Wed, 09/06/2017

Many good job opportunities on and off the farm remain in agriculture. Can agriculture provide job opportunities for youth? 

Technology and the internet are probably the first things that come to mind when you think about the future of work for young people; not agriculture or farming. This makes historic sense, as agriculture sheds labor when countries develop. And the traditional ways of producing food do not look particularly sexy. Yet, technology and the internet are also opening up opportunities for agriculture, and urbanization and changing diets are calling for new ways to process, market and consume our foods. So, can agriculture provide job opportunities for youth?

Country Representative World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

          

Country Representative

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

Kathmandu, Nepal

          
Job id : 105814
Country Representative
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Kathmandu, Nepal

  Apply by: 06 Oct 2017

WWF, the world's leading conservation organization, seeks a Country Representative for its office based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Founded in 1961, WWF is the world's largest non-governmental conservation organization, with 6,500 staff operating in more than 100 countries, with the support of six million members. VHVF started working in Nepal in 1967 with a rhino conservation program in Chitwan, moving on from localized efforts in the conservation of a single species in the 1960s to a new horizon of landscape level conservation encompassing national, regional and global scales of complexity in the early 2000s. WWF Nepal has, over the last ten years, mobilized over $75 million to support conservation and sustainable development initiatives in Nepal.

The Opportunity:

To lead one of the most progressive conservation organizations in Nepal with a 100+ member team and impact-driven programs in its conservation landscapes.

The Role:
• Strategic vision and leadership for continued development Of WWF Nepal's conservation program
• Partnership opportunities to articulate and support a shared vision with government agencies, international organizations, WWF Network, donors, and key stakeholders
• Fundraising and networking expertise to garner support from WWF Network Offices, Government Aid Agencies, foundations and corporate and private donors
• Empower staff and nurture innovation for solutions that achieve conservation goals
• A higher degree (PhD or Masters) in conservation, natural sciences, management, international development or a related field
• Demonstrated experience in leading a successful large scale innovative organization and in managing multi-disciplinary teams
• At least 12 years' professional experience in conservation, natural-resource management or international development, five years of which should be in the region
• A Nepali citizen with a proven record of building strategic partnerships with governments, multilateral and bilateral organizations and cross sectoral partners and successful fundraising for large scale multi-year programs for conservation and/or development
Interested applicants are requested to send their CV of no more than 3 pages in English, including contact information and a cover letter to the email address below by 5th October 2017. Please mention the position you are applying for as the subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be informed. Detailed TOR for the above-mentioned position can be downloaded from our website.

Website: http://www.wwfnepal.org

Email: hr@wwfnepal.org

PLEASE APPLY BY EMAILING YOUR CV AND COVER LETTER TO hr@wwfnepal.org ONLY.

WWF is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Please join us in Our mission to save life on Earth.

Apply Here: http://www.Click2apply.net/r8qk94prnm3b4frh

PI99286754  

Job Email id:  hr(at)wwfnepal.org

Programme Technical Lead, Inclusive Education

Job id : 105856

Programme Technical Lead, Inclusive Education

Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD)

Lusaka, Zambia Apply by: 24 Sep 2017

Programme Technical Lead, Inclusive Education Salary: Competitive Location: Southern Africa region (preferably based in Lusaka, but Harare and Johannesburg will also be considered). Hours: Full time Applicants will be hired with a package on local terms and conditions, and must have the right to live and work in one of these countries. This is an exciting opportunity for an outstanding Inclusive Education specialist to join Leonard Cheshire Disability's International Team. Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) is one of the world’s leading charities supporting persons with disabilities. We believe that persons with disabilities should have the freedom to live their lives the way they choose – with the opportunity and support to live independently, to contribute economically and to participate fully in society.  LCD has a proud record of having a positive and lasting impact on the lives of many persons with disabilities across the globe. This has been achieved through our inclusive programming, our advocacy initiatives and the research we carry out within our world renowned research centre at University College London. As Programme Technical Lead for Inclusive Education, you will be instrumental in leading and developing our education programmes across Africa and Asia. Based in the Southern African region, but with a global remit you will provide technical assistance in all aspects of inclusive education, driving innovative approaches, overseeing the project cycle management and working with the fundraising teams to attract new resources for the programme. You will have experience of developing and overseeing education programmes, within international development or humanitarian settings, and of working closely with local partner organisations, and institutional, corporate and government donors to deliver quality inclusive education programmes. We seek candidates with a genuine commitment to the values and ethos of Leonard Cheshire Disability and who are excited by this opportunity to make a difference to the lives of persons with disability. Leonard Cheshire Disability welcomes applications from all sections of the community. To apply, please go to: https://careers.leonardcheshire.org/jobs/vacancy/769/description  Closing date:  24 September 2017

The Nigerian Girl On My Mind

Submitted by Nabil Ali Shaiban

Thu, 07/20/2017

Children from Gwoza, an area within Borno State, North East, Nigeria. Photo by: Nabil Shaiban/World Bank

Her tears remain vivid in my mind. She was one of so many young Nigerian kids that we met while on mission in North East Nigeria. They and the rest of their communities were desperate for hope and livelihood. I was part of a World Bank inter-disciplinary crisis response/stabilization and operational support team that recently visited the region, which remains the home base for the Boko Haram insurgency.