Latest news with #WorldBank
Time of India
38 minutes ago
- Business
- Time of India
UGD, water supply projects unsustaibale without tax, says Coimbatore corporation
Coimbatore: Corporation commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran on Friday said the tax demand for underground drainage (UGD) and water supply projects was essential to secure loans from the World Bank and outline future developments. At the council meeting on the day, most of the councillors, including those from the ruling party and the opposition, urged the civic body to cancel the previous resolution revising the deposit and monthly tariff for the UGD and water supply connections. The corporation commissioner, however, told the councillors that the projects were unsustainable without tax demands. "These two projects were implemented by procuring a partial amount as a loan from the World Bank. Maintenance of these projects will require funds. The tariff announced is common for all corporations across the state." Accepting the objections from the councillors, mayor R Ranganayaki said the matter would be discussed at the next council meeting, The AIADMK councillors, meanwhile, opposed the resolution to find contractors to maintain the 16 indoor stadiums in the city and fix a user fee of Rs75 per month. D Ramesh, councillor from ward 90, said, "To date, all these stadiums were maintained by the resident's welfare associations or other welfare boards in the locality. They are in good condition. If these get to the hands of contractors, they will end up like the parks and other infrastructure in the city without much maintenance. " AIADMK councillors R Prabhakaran and Ramesh later staged a walkout, raising slogans against the DMK govt. The mayor subsequently suspended the two AIADMK councillors for the next two council meetings as a disciplinary action.
Miami Herald
40 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Organized crime stifles Latin America's economic development
June 27 (UPI) -- Latin America and the Caribbean rank among the regions with the highest rates of criminal activity worldwide, marked by a strong presence of illicit markets and limited institutional capacity to combat them. Organized crime has become one of the biggest obstacles to economic development in the region, according to a World Bank report. The report points to four main drivers: territorial control, criminal governance, institutional capture and systemic violence. In addition to producing and consuming large quantities of cocaine, Latin American criminal groups play a central role in trafficking the drug to the United States and the European Union. These networks are tightly linked to criminal organizations around the world and have a significant impact on the region's economy, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, or GI-TOC. Although the region makes up just 9% of the world's population, it accounts for about one-third of global homicides, with rates up to eight times higher than the global average. Twelve Latin American countries are among the 50 most affected by organized crime, according to GI-TOC. A study by the Inter-American Development Bank, led by Argentine researcher Santiago Pérez-Vicent, estimates that criminal organizations cause economic losses equal to 3.5% of the region's gross domestic product. That figure represents 78% of the regional education budget, twice the amount spent on social assistance and 12 times the investment in research and development. Colombia, Peru and Bolivia dominate global cocaine production, while Mexico, Brazil and several Central American countries serve as key transit and distribution routes to major consumer markets in North America and Europe. Cocaine's impact in Latin America goes beyond the global illicit economy, fueling violent clashes among rival cartels across the region. In Mexico, about 30,000 teenagers are involved in organized crime, according to the Legal Research Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. They engage in 22 types of criminal activity, including drug trafficking and kidnapping, with many recruited as hitmen due to their age and vulnerability. Alongside major cartels in Colombia and Mexico, new groups have emerged, including Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and Brazil's Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC. These organizations have developed new strategies to traffic drugs -- including substances beyond cocaine -- into the United States and the European Union. Experts and international organizations say organized crime in the region has evolved significantly. Fragmented and diversified networks are expanding through alliances with foreign groups, including Albanian and Italian mafias. While most governments in the region focus on combating drug trafficking, cocaine production is only one part of a broader criminal economy. According to The Evolution of Organized Crime in Latin America, a report by researchers Lucía Dammert and Carolina Sampó, organized crime also drives illegal mining, migrant smuggling and human trafficking -- activities that severely impact communities and threaten regional and global security. Illicit activities have expanded into markets with direct human impact, including logging, livestock operations, the cultivation of prohibited plant species and large-scale illegal and unregulated fishing, according to the report. "Human and arms trafficking, prostitution, the spread of synthetic drugs, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, contract killings and illegal mining -- which in countries like Peru and Colombia generate as much or more revenue than drug trafficking -- are among the criminal enterprises that have taken hold," said Pablo Zeballos, a former intelligence officer and international organized crime consultant, in an interview with the BBC. In recent years, several Latin American countries that were once relatively free of gang-led violence have experienced growing insecurity, violence and lawlessness. Organized crime has shaped life in places like Mexico, Colombia and Brazil for decades, said Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, in a podcast for Americas Quarterly. "Now, historically more peaceful countries such as Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay are starting to experience rising levels of violence," he added. The expansion of organized crime in Latin America has been driven by a lack of effective coordination among regional governments, limiting joint responses to transnational threats such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling and human trafficking, according to reports from GI-TOC and InSight Crime. This structural weakness is compounded by the steady erosion of institutions in several countries, marked by high levels of corruption, impunity and limited operational capacity within law enforcement. Together, these conditions have created power vacuums that criminal groups exploit to establish sophisticated networks of territorial control, infiltrate legal economies and overwhelm national response systems. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The Hill
41 minutes ago
- Business
- The Hill
World Bank warns that 39 fragile states are falling further behind as conflicts grow, get deadlier
WASHINGTON (AP) — The world's most desperate countries are falling further and further behind, their plight worsened by conflicts that are growing deadlier and more frequent. That is the sobering conclusion of the World Bank's first comprehensive study of how 39 countries contending with 'fragile and conflict-affected situations'' have fared since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. 'Economic stagnation —rather than growth —has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability,' said Ayhan Kose, the World Bank's deputy chief economist. Since 2020, the 39 countries, which range from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to Mozambique in sub-Saharan Africa, have seen their economic output per person fall by an average 1.8% a year. In other developing countries, by contrast, it grew by an average 2.9% a year over the same period. More than 420 million people in the fragile economies are living on less than $3 a day — the bank's definition of extreme poverty. That is more than everywhere else combined, even though the 39 countries account for less than 15% of the world's people. Many of these countries have longstanding problems with crumbling infrastructure, weak governments and low levels of education. People in the 39 countries get an average of just six years of schooling, three years fewer than those in other low- and middle-income countries. Life expectancy is five years shorter and infant mortality is twice as high. Increasing conflicts have made things worse. In the 2000s, the world saw an annual average of just over 6,000 conflicts — in which organized groups used armed force against other groups or against civilians and cause at least one death. Now the annual average exceeds 20,000. The conflicts are more lethal, too: In the 2000s, they took an average of fewer than 42,000 lives a year. From 2000 through 2024, the number averaged almost 194,000. Of the 39 countries, 21 are involved in active conflicts, including Ukraine, Sudan, Ethiopia and Gaza. The World Bank finds that countries involved in high-intensity conflict — which kill more than 150 out of every 1 million people — see a cumulative drop of 20% after five years in their gross domestic product, the output of goods and services. More conflict also means more hunger: The World Bank estimated that 18% — around 200 million – of the people in the 39 countries are 'experiencing acute food insecurity'' compared with just 1% in other low and middle-income countries. Some countries have managed to escape the cycle of conflict and economic fragility. Kose cites Nepal; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Rwanda; and Sri Lanka as relative success stories. And the World Bank report notes that the 39 countries do enjoy strengths, including natural resources such as oil and natural gas and a lot of young, working-age people at a time when many economies are aging. 'Some of them are very rich when it comes to their tourism potential,'' Kose said. 'But you need to have security established. You and I are not going to go and visit these places unless they are safe even though they might be the most beautiful places in the world.''
The Independent
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Independent
World Bank warns that 39 fragile states are falling further behind as conflicts grow, get deadlier
The world's most desperate countries are falling further and further behind, their plight worsened by conflicts that are growing deadlier and more frequent. That is the sobering conclusion of the World Bank's first comprehensive study of how 39 countries contending with 'fragile and conflict-affected situations'' have fared since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. 'Economic stagnation —rather than growth —has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability,' said Ayhan Kose, the World Bank's deputy chief economist. Since 2020, the 39 countries, which range from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to Mozambique in sub-Saharan Africa, have seen their economic output per person fall by an average 1.8% a year. In other developing countries, by contrast, it grew by an average 2.9% a year over the same period. More than 420 million people in the fragile economies are living on less than $3 a day — the bank's definition of extreme poverty. That is more than everywhere else combined, even though the 39 countries account for less than 15% of the world's people. Many of these countries have longstanding problems with crumbling infrastructure, weak governments and low levels of education. People in the 39 countries get an average of just six years of schooling, three years fewer than those in other low- and middle-income countries. Life expectancy is five years shorter and infant mortality is twice as high. Increasing conflicts have made things worse. In the 2000s, the world saw an annual average of just over 6,000 conflicts — in which organized groups used armed force against other groups or against civilians and cause at least one death. Now the annual average exceeds 20,000. The conflicts are more lethal, too: In the 2000s, they took an average of fewer than 42,000 lives a year. From 2000 through 2024, the number averaged almost 194,000. Of the 39 countries, 21 are involved in active conflicts, including Ukraine, Sudan, Ethiopia and Gaza. The World Bank finds that countries involved in high-intensity conflict — which kill more than 150 out of every 1 million people — see a cumulative drop of 20% after five years in their gross domestic product, the output of goods and services. More conflict also means more hunger: The World Bank estimated that 18% -- around 200 million – of the people in the 39 countries are 'experiencing acute food insecurity'' compared with just 1% in other low and middle-income countries. Some countries have managed to escape the cycle of conflict and economic fragility. Kose cites Nepal; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Rwanda; and Sri Lanka as relative success stories. And the World Bank report notes that the 39 countries do enjoy strengths, including natural resources such as oil and natural gas and a lot of young, working-age people at a time when many economies are aging. 'Some of them are very rich when it comes to their tourism potential,'' Kose said. 'But you need to have security established. You and I are not going to go and visit these places unless they are safe even though they might be the most beautiful places in the world.''
Arab News
an hour ago
- Business
- Arab News
Surge in conflicts fuels extreme poverty: World Bank
WASHINGTON: Conflicts and related fatalities have more than tripled since the early 2000s, fueling extreme poverty, the World Bank said in fragile and conflict-affected regions have become 'the epicenter of global poverty and food insecurity, a situation increasingly shaped by the frequency and intensity of conflict,' the bank added in a new year, 421 million people get by on less than $3 a day in places hit by conflict or instability — a situation of extreme poverty — and the number is poised to hit 435 million by attention has been focused on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East for the past three years, said World Bank Group chief economist Indermit 'half of the countries facing conflict or instability today have been in such conditions for 15 years or more,' he 39 economies are classified as facing such conditions, and 21 of them are in active conflict, the Washington-based development lender list includes Ukraine, Somalia, South Sudan and the West Bank and also includes Iraq although not report flagged that moves to prevent conflict can bring high returns, with timely interventions being 'far more cost-effective than responding after violence erupts.'It also said that some of these economies have advantages that could be used to reignite growth, noting that places like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo are rich in minerals key to clean tech like electric vehicles and solar panels.'Economic stagnation — rather than growth — has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability over the past decade and a half,' said Ayhan Kose, World Bank Group deputy chief bank's report noted that high-intensity conflicts, which kill more than 150 per million people, are typically followed by a cumulative fall of around 20 percent in GDP per capita after five years.
