knowledge ideas jobs and opportuni no
child should be hungry we depend on each
other and I'm the new president of the
World
Bank no surprise the economic crisis in
the rich countries is on many people's
minds angelbert from
Tanzania says that it affects the rest
of the world and especially developing
countries developed countries must
recognize the impact their action or
inaction can have on the poorest
countries in this interconnected World
decisions in Europe have real impact on
the most vulnerable around the world as
president of the World Bank I'm
particularly worried about the impact on
developing countries since 2008 we've
invested over 300 billion dollars to
support lower and middle-income
countries to weather the crisis so what
are the things we do we make sure that
children can stay in school we make sure
that health clinics stay open we've done
a lot of work on food security including
providing food directly in times of
Crisis now an issue that many of you
care about and one of the top topics on
our Facebook
pages Roman from Germany asks how can we
ensure that economic growth translates
into jobs and
opportunities as I've talked to people
across the world the issue of jobs is at
the top of everyone's agenda this is
because jobs determine what we earn how
we prosper and develop and often Who We
Are
at the World Bank we're making a new
push to understand how to create jobs
and how to create jobs that are good for
development and Society our next World
development report examines this very
issue and beyond that we're working with
countries to protect and create good
jobs during the global crisis by helping
companies to find sufficient credit to
grow by connecting them to markets
through better and more reliable
infrastructure by ensuring that workers
have social protection and access to
skills in training and by supporting
self-employment and Entrepreneurship if
there's one thing we've learned it's
that there is no Silver Bullet to
creating good jobs Veronica Cho from
Korea sends us this message on Twitter
she believes that investing in girls can
break the cycle of poverty Veronica I
agree with
you as you might know the World Bank
published a world development report on
gender and development last year and it
found that gender equality is not only
the right thing to do but key to
breaking the cycle of poverty this is
why we launched a global think equal
campaign I'm wearing the button right
now many girls face inequality because
their mothers and grandmothers did and
often particularly in poor countries
many think that this is just the way
it's supposed to be but we found that
when you prevent the repetition of
gender inequality across Generations
through assistance economic
opportunities and political voice you
also reduce poverty
much progress has been made more girls
are going to school than ever before
finally maternal deaths are decreasing
and more and more women are getting Land
Titles that increase their income but we
have so much more to
do we're looking at making all
development policies gender smart
already a very high percentage of our
lending and grants are informed by how
they would affect gender inequality with
the aim to improve the lives of women
and girls we want to increase this
number even further we really think it's
the right and the smart thing to do a
question from Stefan in Ghana how can we
clamp down on child
malnutrition of all the symptoms of
poverty child malnutrition is one of the
most heartbreaking I saw a lot of it
when I worked with poor communities in
Latin America and Africa when children
don't get enough to eat especially when
they're very young they don't grow
they're brains don't develop fully and
they may never catch up and the only
reason why this happens is that their
parents mainly their mothers don't have
the means to provide enough food they're
simply too poor malnutrition is not just
a health issue it's an economic issue
and it's also a moral issue it's about
not having work it's about bad
infrastructure it's about not having
education it is about better
development we must all make a more
moral commitment in this day and age to
ensure that every child has enough food
to
eat we're looking at how we can connect
the dots the World Bank is working with
countries to provide affordable and
effective safety nets we make sure that
children can stay in school we make sure
that Health CL stay open to see children
we've done a lot of work on food
security and sustainable approaches to
Agricultural Development we reached
people in 83 countries through these
programs and tripled the volume of
assistance since the global financial
crisis put so many people at risk our
Focus will always be on the most
vulnerable children and single mothers
as well as the elderly so you're right
and we agree and we should all agree no
child should be hungry