This podcast explains how a new generation of infrastructure projects that harness the power of nature can help achieve development goals, including water security and climate resilience. In a new report from the World Bank and World Resources Institute, both organizations are calling for green infrastructure, such as mangroves and wetlands, to play a bigger role in traditional infrastructure planning.

Putting Nature to Work

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the share of adults with a mobile money account now exceeds 10 percent. That mobile revolution began in Kenya. In this episode of Afronomics, World Bank Chief Economist for Africa, Albert Zeufack, speaks with Professor Njuguna Ndung’u who is currently the Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium and was the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya from 2007 to 2015. 
During Prof. Ndung’u’s tenure as Central Bank governor, Kenya stepped up as a global leader in financial inclusion. This was driven by the path-breaking M-Pesa program, which made mobile payments and mobile banking the norm for Kenyans everywhere.

AFRONOMICS: M-Pesa and the rise of digital financial services in Africa

This podcast explores the concepts and realities surrounding resilient housing. Through interviews, sound bites, and trips to countries where resilient housing is underway, our host, David Cavell, will teach you about the World Bank’s new effort to support building homes better before a disaster strikes. From structural engineers to government officials, you will hear from a wide variety of professionals working to strengthen the homes we live in.

Leveraging technologies, such as drones, street cameras, and machine learning, and pairing them with low cost, life-saving construction methods, the Global Program for Resilient Housing aims to strengthen retrofitting measures. Understanding which homes are at high risk and where they are located are vital components to successfully prioritize investments and distribute subsidies.

From complex algorithms to simple construction design, you will learn what it takes to make homes safer and more resilient to natural disasters and climate change.

There's No Place Like Home! Resilient Housing

Discussions on Sub-Saharan Africa often center on extreme poverty: the subcontinent is home to half of the world’s extreme poor, and the number of people living in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa keeps going up even though the rates of extreme poverty have declined. At the same time, on a continent as economically diverse as Sub-Saharan Africa, the issue of inequality cannot be ignored. Eight of the ten most unequal countries in the world, when looking at the Gini coefficient, are in Sub-Saharan Africa, and gaps persist when digging deeper into wage inequality, inequality of opportunity, and other areas where the playing field is far from level. There are no easy answers to reducing inequality, but several countries have taken positive steps to make their societies and economies more equitable. 

In this episode of Afronomics, Albert welcomes Haroon Bhorat, Professor of Economics and Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Global Economy and Development Program and the Africa Growth Initiative. His research focuses on labor economics, poverty, and income distribution, and this episode of Afronomics takes a closer look at his recent work on wage inequality in South Africa as part of the broader discussion on inequality in Africa.

AFRONOMICS: Analyzing Inequality in Africa

Quality: Unknown — The Invisible Water Crisis presents new evidence and data that call urgent attention to the hidden dangers lying beneath the water’s surface. This podcast explains how poor water quality stalls economic progress, stymies human potential, and reduces food production.

From Unknown To Urgency

Doing More With Less – Smarter Subsidies for Water Supply and Sanitation shows that most existing water supply and sanitation subsidies are pervasive, expensive, poorly-targeted, non-transparent and distortionary. Yet if designed in smart and targeted ways and implemented effectively, subsidies can be powerful and progressive tools that help ensure all people benefit from water supply and sanitation services.

Smarter Subsidies

The 2019 World Development Report focused on the Future of Work on a global scale, highlighting the real tension between job losses in “old” manufacturing sectors that are susceptible to automation, and potential job gains driven by innovation in “new” sectors. Our Africa-focused companion report, released in July 2019, finds that Africa has a chance to take a different path – if governments and businesses can take advantage of digital technologies, and if the right policies and investments are in place.
 
Part one of this two-part podcast looks at what’s different about the future of work in Africa compared to the rest of the world, and digs in to the potential of digital technologies to improve livelihoods and create jobs for all kinds of workers. Host Albert Zeufack welcomes Mark Dutz, Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for Africa at the World Bank, and co-author of the World Bank’s recent Future of Work in Africa report.

AFRONOMICS: The Future of Work in Africa, Part 1: Can digital technologies really work for all?

The 2019 World Development Report focused on the Future of Work on a global scale, highlighting the real tension between job losses in “old” manufacturing sectors that are susceptible to automation, and potential job gains driven by innovation in “new” sectors. Our Africa-focused companion report, released in July 2019, finds that Africa has a chance to take a different path – if governments and businesses can take advantage of digital technologies, and if the right policies and investments are in place.
 
Part two of this two-part podcast examines the role of social protection in helping workers, especially the most vulnerable, transition into the jobs and technologies of the future. Host Albert Zeufack welcomes Zainab Usman, Social Scientist in the Office of the Chief Economist for Africa at the World Bank, and co-author of the World Bank’s recent Future of Work in Africa report.

AFRONOMICS: The Future of Work in Africa, Part 2: The Role of Social Protection

Despite the incredible progress that so many African countries have made, poverty remains a defining part of the narrative around Africa. While the share of people living in extreme poverty has come down in the last decades, the number of people has gone up, due to rapid population growth during the same period, to reach nearly 416 million people. If left unchecked, extreme poverty in the world will become almost exclusively an African issue by 2030, in just ten years. In this episode of Afronomics, Albert Zeufack welcomes Kathleen Beegle and Luc Christiaensen, the main authors of a new World Bank study on Accelerating Poverty Reduction in Africa, to discuss what needs to be done differently to fight poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa.
For more information, access the full study here: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32354

AFRONOMICS: What will it take to accelerate poverty reduction in Africa?

This podcast explores the concepts and realities surrounding resilient housing. Through interviews, sound bites, and trips to countries where resilient housing is underway, we will share with you the World Bank’s new effort to support building homes better before a disaster strikes. From structural engineers to government officials, you will hear from a wide variety of professionals working to strengthen the homes we live in.

Leveraging technologies, such as drones, street cameras, and machine learning, and pairing them with low cost, life-saving construction methods, the Global Program for Resilient Housing aims to strengthen retrofitting measures. Understanding which homes put families at risk and where they are located are vital components to successfully prioritize investments. 

From complex algorithms to simple construction design, you will learn what it takes to make homes safer and more resilient to natural disasters and climate change.

Machine Learning Joins the Housing Revolution

Fighting poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results. http://www.worldbank.org/

The World Bank is one of the world's largest sources of development assistance. Our mission is to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results.

We are not a bank in the common sense; we aim to help people help themselves and their environment by sharing knowledge and providing financial and technical assistance. Conceived in 1944 to reconstruct war-torn Europe, we work in more than 100 developing countries. 

World Bank

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