So-called “impact investors” -- providers of capital to businesses that solve social challenges while generating a profit -- are the current rage in economic development. US President Barack Obama’s Office for Social Innovation and Civic Participation recently convened more than 100 practitioners to discuss how impact investing could be unleashed in the United States and the developing world.

The World Bank has taken up a mega-project, touted to be the first of its kind, for conserving the rich biodiversity and boosting socio-economic development of the Sundarbans area in West Bengal. "This has been done according to the recommendation of the Planning Commission of India and (the project) is expected to be complete at the end of this year," state's Sundarbans Affairs Minister Shyamal Mondal said.

Visa Europe in cooperation with Visa Inc. today issued a set of mobile acceptance security best practices for software and hardware providers, retailers and their acquirers. These best practices form part of Visa Europe’s ongoing strategy to advance security measures to help protect cardholder and account data when using consumer mobile devices such as smart phones to facilitate the acceptance of card payments.

Abu Dhabi, UAE, may be overflowing with oil, but the Emirate is also brimming with ideas and commitments to a green energy future. Such was the key take-a-way at the star-studded opening session of the World Future Energy Summit 2011 this morning. The summit is taking place not far from the emerging city of Masdar – designed to be a showpiece of cleantech innovation and green urban planning.

Services called Microfinance plus services can be regarded as interesting in the framework of integrated development. Since these services include social and sanitary dimensions, indeed we can reasonably consider Microfinance to have a great potential as a powerful social and sanitary tool. Nonfinancial services can be powerful development tools in many environments and communities, provided they are designed with the populations and with care to respond to the real needs of the populations served; they can even be of greater importance to rural women via whom, their families and their whole communities can benefit from them and be empowered.

Food prices hit a record high last month, outstripping levels that prompted riots in 2008, and key grains could climb even further as weather patterns give cause for concern, the UN's food agency said on Wednesday. Record high food prices are moving to the top of policymaker agendas, driven by fears it could stoke inflation, protectionism and unrest and dent consumer demand in key emerging economies.

Former US vice-president Al Gore took part in the 2011 Global Urban Development Forum in Beijing. Gore said Thursday China and the United States -- the world's biggest polluters -- should work on designing greener cities as part of their efforts to tackle climate change.

More than 1.5mn loans worth $831mn have been given out in the past seven years, said the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA), which was set up by the government in 2003 to coordinate the sector. Thirty years of conflict have shattered Afghanistan’s economy and infrastructure, leaving two-thirds of the roughly 30mn population illiterate and at least a third in dire poverty.

In an attempt to revive the crisis struck Microfinance sector, the International Financial Corporation, IFC a private sector arm of the World Bank Group is exploring avenues to facilitate fund flows to MFIs. This is an important development in the wake of the industry suffering continuous setbacks.

The government in Laos has funneled revenue generated from electricity sales from a hydroelectric plant to the public sector, the World Bank said.

The Group of 20 Summit scheduled for November in Seoul will provide a forum for a wide range of economic and fiscal issues, ranging from World Bank governance to fossil fuel subsidies.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick is set to launch a new multi-million dollar fund in Mexico on Wednesday to help emerging market countries set up their own carbon markets, the bank said on Tuesday.

A meta-evaluation on microfinance released by the Evaluation Cooperation Group of international financial institutions reports that microfinance operations have had difficulty in reaching the very poor.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Microfinance Index ranked Lebanon in 49th place among 54 countries worldwide and in last place among 14 countries in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) in terms of the environment for microfinance.

Claudia McKay and Mark Pickens from CGAP have pulled together a comprehensive global pricing study on banking services targeting poor, unbanked and underbanked people in Africa, Asia and Brazil. The study examines pricing for services targeting unbanked and underbanked poor people in 10 countries. The conclusion: mobile banking and other forms of branchless banking are cheaper than traditional banking, but the gap between the two may not be as wide as some may think.

The International Financial Corporation (IFC), entering into the World Bank (WB) Group, together with the Financial Commission on Regulation of Mongolia and Micro-Finance Development Fund (MFDF) has organized awareness-raising tour to Mongolia on studying of legislative practice on microfinancing for regulators from Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Why the time is right for sustainable thinking by pension funds and institutional investors: When Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at Towers Watson, the investment consultant, turns his mind to a subject, the pensions world listens. Urwin, one of the most influential investment advisors around, has worked with many of the world’s largest retirement schemes. His recent attention to the theme of sustainable investing is notable because of his experience in the reality of pension fund practice and governance.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) at Colorado State University provides innovative training in community-based development (online and face-to-face), consultation, evaluation, and project support services for individuals and governmental, international non-governmental, and community-based organizations around the world.

Village Earth's mission is to help reconnect communities to the resources that promote human well-being by enhancing social and political empowerment, community self-reliance and self-determination.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, will work with Bank Constanta to improve its risk management practices, which will help the bank increase lending to smaller businesses in Georgia. This initiative is part of a broader IFC strategy to strengthen local banks in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Rural Finance is about providing financial services for people living in rural areas. This Learning Centre aims to assist organisations in developing countries to build their capacity to deliver improved financial services which meet the needs of rural households and businesses.

Oikocredit, the innovative development financing organisation, has been given an award in recognition of its contribution to socially responsible investing. The award has been made by The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).

Thirty-five bankers and trainers from 15 institutions in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam yesterday participated in a training programme on building sustainable small and medium-sized banking operations in HCM City.

The International Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has announced a record investment volume in Sub-Saharan Africa for its 2010 fiscal year, underscoring its commitment to the region's private sector development, especially to supporting growth in the lowest income countries and those affected by conflict including Liberia.

According to a recent study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the development arm of the United Nations, a humanitarian organization promoting peace and better living standards, 21 percent of the Nigerian adult population – 18 million people – have access to financial services, with women and youth least likely to have access.Limitations of the Nigerian microfinance industry are attributed to lack of capacity, inadequate coordination, policy shortfalls and a lack of strategy regarding stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities.

As part of efforts to bridge the gap between the banked and the unbanked population of Nigeria, eTranzact in conjunction with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have embarked on a pilot project for the rural areas in Nigeria called Rural Telephony Project (RTP) MobileMoney.

Offbeat financal avenues find buyers slowly but steadily. With the global meltdown behind, European debt crisis ahead, global economists are busy pondering new sectors like microfinance, carbon finance, water credit and so on to find hope for market expansion.

Jacqueline Novogratz interviewed by David Serchuk (Forbes). Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and chief executive officer of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to combat global poverty.

The G-20 agreement is a historic and watershed achievement in international development. Leaders from developed and developing countries got together and reaffirmed the interconnectedness of the global economy and individuals around the world. These leaders jointly agreed to tackle economic problems around the world with same strategies and expected outcomes. The Agreement is a good first step. However, Africa and other poor regions of the world still face significant economic and development challenges. The agreement falls short in addressing these challenges.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute and economics professor at Columbia University reacts to the decisions made at this week's G20 summit and answers questions on the plight of poor countries in the midst of the global economic crisis: "There is considerable work to do still to put the urgent concerns of the poor countries on the world's agenda." "There is a real possibility of rising political instability in many countries, including street violence, coups, assassinations, or political paralysis."

The combined effects of the financial crisis, increased protectionist policies, continued rich country subsidies, and climate-induced changes in patterns of agricultural production are likely to hit developing countries hardest. Thanks to the confluence of these factors, a long-term solution to the global food crisis has not been reached, experts agreed at two recent summits on agriculture. But producers in some poor countries that lack strong links to the international market may not yet be feeling the full effects of that price drop. In some cases, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, prices remain high for key staples.

As G20 leaders gather in London on 2 April, the focus of their agenda will be on working together to promote effective, coordinated responses to the global economic crisis and to the state of global trade. In the context of the crisis, the immediate priority of many governments and trade experts is rightly to create and implement a strategy that will offset declining trade and investment, particularly in developing countries where the crisis threatens to impede economic growth and development progress made in recent years. In an effort to address these pressing issues and provide suggestions for G20 leaders’ deliberations, ICTSD partnered with the Global Economic Governance Programme (GEG) to gather short essays from a broad range of scholars and experts around the world.

Government policy responses to the global financial meltdown must focus on the role of women as economic agents in order to address the all-too-familiar trend of women and girls suffering disproportionately during times of economic crisis, speakers told the Commission on the Status of Women this afternoon as it held an expert panel discussion on the gender perspectives of the crisis.

The head of China's central bank proposed Monday a plan to displace the American dollar as the world's standard and replace it with a global reserve currency operated from the International Monetary Fund.

The World Bank president has said that 2009 is turning into "a very dangerous year" for the economy. Robert Zoellick also warned G20 members against protectionist policies, ahead of a G20 finance ministers' meeting in the United Kingdom on how to tackle the economic downturn.

Finance officials from 20 of the world's leading economies pledged Saturday to substantially boost funding for the International Monetary Fund and "take whatever action is necessary" to stimulate growth around the world. The meeting came after days of disagreement between U.S. and European officials about the best approach to tackling the economic problems. The United States has urged countries to enact bigger spending programs to fuel growth, while some European countries have focused on passing new regulations for financial markets.

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