Beirut: Death stalks the corridors of Beirut s Rafik Hariri University Hospital, where losing multiple patients in one day to COVID-19 has become the new normal. On Friday, the mood among the staff was even more solemn as a young woman lost the battle with the virus. There was silence as the woman, barely in her 30s, drew her last breath. Then a brief commotion. The nurses frantically tried to resuscitate her. Finally, exhausted, they silently removed the oxygen mask and the tubes and covered the body with a brown blanket.
The woman, whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons, is one of 57 victims who died on Friday and more than 2,150 lost to the virus so far in Lebanon, a small country with a population of nearly 6 million that since last year has grappled with the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history.
Building corridors of growth through the Sahel and beyond
Format
World Bank Practice Manager for the Environment, Natural Resources and the Blue Economy in West Africa
Temperatures in the Sahel are increasing 1.5 times faster than the global average, and around 80 percent of the farmland has lost some degree of its natural productivity. Together, these factors diminish the availability of land for food production or grazing, deplete water, and increase the vulnerability of the people living in the region.
Adding to these challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic could drive up to 40 million people into extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, erasing five years of progress in fighting poverty. In the Sahel alone, over 17 million people are food insecure.
English News and Press Release on World and 8 other countries about Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Drought, Flood and more; published on 19 Jan 2021 by GEF
Modern Diplomacy
Published 4 months ago
The World Bank Group, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC (Masdar), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Uzbekistan signed today loan and guarantee agreements to finance the first 100-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in the country, in support of its efforts to produce clean energy, strengthen the security of supply and combat climate change.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and ADB are providing up to $60 million in the financing of the project which will be the first large-scale, privately developed and operated renewable energy facility in Uzbekistan. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing an equity bridge loan to Masdar to fund the equity needs of the project. Meanwhile, the World Bank is providing a $5.1 million payment guarantee for the Government of Uzbekistan to backstop the payment obligations under the project along with its upstream support to create an enabli