The World Bank is now accepting applications for the 2009 Summer Internship Program. Deadline to apply is January 31st, 2009. You can also apply to Region-Specific Internships.

Please read the instructions carefully. Questions? Here are some answers to the most FAQs. If you have more questions, please contact human resources directly.

Good luck to those who apply.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS day.

A new report from UNAIDS, AIDS OUTLOOK/09, highlights the achievements but also and the pressing challenges in addressing HIV.

The World Development Report, the World Bank's flagship publication, looks this year at Economic Geography (a very current issue thank you also to the Nobel Prize).

The full report and more related information available on-line.

Some comments on the report from blogs: ODI Blog, From Poverty to Power

The latest issue of Poverty in Focus, the magazine published by UNDP's International Poverty Centre, is out. This issue is fully devoted to the linkages between employment, economic growth and poverty reduction.

"What is the role of employment in the nexus of economic growth, poverty reduction and progress towards achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals? Although employment is not an explicit component of the MDGs, it has a key role in economic and social development.

As labour is the main resource that most poor people are endowed with, labour intensive growth is the most effective way to reduce poverty. Employment is the key source of income, consumption and other material aspects of improved livelihoods. Moreover, it enhances also other dimensions of wellbeing including skills, physical abilities and self-respect."

Access the full issue on-line: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, The Policy Challenge

 As usual on Fridays, from Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

Gender and Monetary Policy: Introduction

The monetary system in any country comprises of banks and other financial institutions, such as credit unions, micro-credit schemes, and housing societies.  In more developed countries, stock markets, investment banks, insurance companies and other institutions also take deposits and provide financial services.  Monetary policy instruments are mainly money supply and interest rates, while regulations related to facilitating transactions of payments, assets, debts and credit.
 
The broad objective of monetary policy conducted by Central Bank of a country is to maintain low inflation (that will also ensure low real interest rates) and stable and realistic exchange rates by managing money supply and setting interest rates.  Low inflation, low real interest rates, and realistic exchange rates benefit the poor, while high inflation hampers growth, and the poor are unable to protect their consumption levels.  However, moderate inflation in the range of about 20-30% is observed not to have an adverse effect on GDP growth. But, inflation erodes the real incomes and as such, is harmful to the poor, who already have lower incomes. Overvalued exchange rates harm the living standards of the rural poor who are predominantly women who depend upon agricultural exports.

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The Commission on Growth and Development has published the paper International Finance and Growth in Developing Countries: What Have We Learned?, by Maurice Obstfeld.

"Despite an abundance of cross‐section, panel, and event studies, there is strikingly little convincing documentation of direct positive impacts of financial opening on the economic welfare levels or growth rates of developing countries. The econometric difficulties are similar to those that bedevil the literature on trade openness and growth, though if anything, they are more severe in the context of international finance. There is also little systematic evidence that financial opening raises welfare indirectly by promoting collateral reforms of economic institutions or policies. At the same time, opening the financial account does appear to raise the frequency and severity of economic crises. Nonetheless, developing countries continue to move in the direction of further financial openness. A plausible explanation is that financial development is a concomitant of successful economic growth, and a growing financial sector in an economy open to trade cannot long be insulated from cross‐border financial flows. This survey discusses the policy framework in which financial globalization is most likely to prove beneficial for developing countries. The reforms developing countries need to carry out to make their economies safe for international asset trade are the same reforms they need to carry out to curtail the power of entrenched economic interests and liberate the economy’s productive potential."

read more

Gender, Economic Development and Poverty Reduction E-course
December 1, 2008 - January 5, 2009

The goal of this course is to introduce participants to the linkages between gender equality, growth and poverty reduction and to enhance their ability to participate in the design and implementation of poverty reduction strategies. The course will explore the concepts of gender inequality, the relationship between gender inequality and poverty; discuss the importance of gender issues in economic development, and how gender equality relates to attaining the Millennium Development Goals. After the introductory module the course will study gender inequality in access to education, health, labor markets, employment opportunities, and productive resources, and how it affects growth. The course will also revise tools available to identify gender issues in poverty analysis, and policies managing foreign direct investment and promoting economic growth and gender equality.

The course is fee based. There will be a $100 fee to participate in this course.

WBI is announcing an essay contest for this course. The winner will be sponsored to travel to Washington D.C. to participate in the course on Gender and Economic Empowerment tentatively organized in June 2009 by the World Bank.

Apply on-line. Deadline to apply is November 28th.

Full announcement and contact information.