December 15, 2025
Dear USAID Implementing Partners,
As the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) continues to finish closing the agency, USAID is taking additional immediate and decisive action to safeguard taxpayer funds and enhance financial oversight across its assistance portfolio.
Continue readingReforms focus on expanding primary care, improving affordability, and supporting job-rich growth
TOKYO, Dec. 6, 2025 — Countries and partners today reported continued progress toward the World Bank Group’s goal—set in April 2024—to help deliver affordable, quality health services to 1.5 billion people by 2030. Building on that momentum, 15 countries introduced National Health Compacts, outlining practical, five-year reforms that aim to expand primary health care, improve affordability, and support job-rich economic growth.
Continue readingWASHINGTON, November 28, 2025 – On November 24, 2025, the World Bank released US$500 million to support the Philippine Government’s recovery and reconstruction efforts in areas battered by Typhoon Kalmaegi (locally known as “Tino”).
Continue readingMANILA, PHILIPPINES, December 4, 2025 — World Bank Group President Ajay Banga and Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda today announced the first two Pacific projects to be delivered under the Full Mutual Reliance Framework, an innovative cofinancing model that will boost development impact.
Continue readingFor five decades the IDR, along with the associated International Debt Statistics (IDS) database, has helped shape policies in development finance by sharing timely and comprehensive external debt data and analysis with the international community. Drawing on data collected through the World Bank’s Debtor Reporting System, the IDR has tracked evolving borrowing patterns and new lending instruments over the years, measured the impact of initiatives to relieve debt burdens, and promoted best practices in debt recording and reporting.
The newly published IDR 2025 includes an analysis of end-2024 external debt flows and debt stock positions as well as the macroeconomic and debt outlook for 2025 and beyond, and updates on the debt transparency agenda.
In addition, the IDS-DSSI database includes the actual debt service deferred from by each bilateral creditor and the projected monthly debt-service payments owed to all bilateral creditors.
“Credit: World Bank Group. All rights reserved”
Think of this: In a small, rural community a mother receives a mobile alert that her monthly cash transfer has arrived just in time to buy school supplies and food. Down the road, the local council approves a small grant to build a footbridge that will connect the community to markets, schools, and a clinic.
Continue readingWorld Bank Group and Global Fund sign a new Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen primary healthcare and the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria
Washington, D.C. / Geneva, 6 December 2025 – The World Bank Group and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to help developing countries build stronger, more resilient health systems and secure sustainable financing for primary health care and the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.
Continue readingBrazil’s Northeast is poised to play a pivotal role in the country’s progress and prosperity, according to a new World Bank report, “Routes to the Northeast: Productivity, Jobs, and Inclusion,” which outlines how the region can unlock its potential and create jobs by pivoting to a more dynamic growth model. Home to 54 million residents—80 percent of them of working age—, the region offers one of Brazil’s largest and most dynamic labor pools.
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I’ve traded field boots for Board papers, but I still keep the map handy. Since last September, I’ve been Senior Advisor and (the most magical job title ever) temporary permanent alternate ED, in the Dutch Executive Director’s Office at the World Bank, where my portfolio spans the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE), trade, procurement, and a mix of regional and thematic files.
Before the Boardroom, my compass pointed firmly toward the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I built extensive field experience in the Western Balkans as regional security coordinator on counter‑terrorism issues, and in Kenya as Deputy Ambassador for Somalia, leading a cross‑ministerial team drawn from four ministries.
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2025 has been a year of steep ups and downs for the global economy—at least where growth forecasts have been concerned. The consensus forecasts of economists have swung from optimism to pessimism and back again. Yet actual economic activity has remained remarkably resilient. Forecasters now expect global growth of about 2.7 percent—broadly in line with expectations at the start of the year (figure 1A).
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Netherlands for the World Bank 