World Bank Group

Private investment is essential to creating jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, and supporting businesses in countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). But what does it take to attract investment in some of the world's most challenging markets?

In this edition of You Ask, We Answer, our experts respond to questions submitted by audiences around the world about the challenges and opportunities of investing in fragile and conflict-affected economies.

Drawing on real projects and practical experience, our experts will explain how financing, guarantees, and partnerships can address the risks that often hold investors back. They will also discuss how governments, development institutions, and businesses work together to create opportunities for local businesses and communities.

Join us for a conversation shaped by your questions and learn how the World Bank Group mobilizes private investment that supports jobs, growth, and economic recovery in countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence.

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September 2, 2026; 10:00 a.m. EDT

Water underpins good health and the energy that powers businesses. It also supports 1.7 billion jobs worldwide. Yet as countries face major water financing gaps, ~28% of budgets already allocated goes unspent. Learn why better budgeting matters.

Money on the Table: Why Better Budget Planning Is Key to Fixing the Water Crisis Money on the Table: Why Better Budget Planning Is Key to Fixing the Water Crisis — Explore how weak public financial management leaves billions in water budgets unspent, and why strengthening planning systems is essential to closing the global WASH financing gap.

Over 70,000 students across Albania🇦🇱 are learning to code, collaborate, and think critically thanks to 216 SmartLabs established with World Bank Group support. These investments are paying off. 96% of first-grade students assessed in digital skills met or exceeded national competency standards. ⁠
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☑️ By pairing technology with teacher training, curriculum reform, and improved inter-agency coordination, Albania's SmartLabs offer a model for other countries looking to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow. ⁠Learn more: https://bit.ly/4g0hiKD

Commodity booms are easy to celebrate but hard to manage. For resource-rich economies, commodity windfalls—if managed well—can finance investment, strengthen public finances and lift growth. Poorly managed, they can trigger a spending spree that leads to higher debt, rising inflation and an eventual bust. Whether a boom delivers lasting gains or sets the stage for the next bust depends critically on how fiscal policy is managed.

The past quarter century makes the point clearly. In emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the commodity supercycle of the 2000s helped many exporters deliver stronger growth, improve fiscal balances, and reduce debt. The 2010s were much less favorable: commodity prices weakened and debt rose. Then the 2020s brought the pandemic, supply disruptions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, higher inflation and borrowing costs, trade tensions, and conflict in the Middle East. By 2025, median government debt in commodity-exporting EMDEs had nearly doubled from its 2010 level.

Today, the stakes extend far beyond the next boom or bust. Around 1.2 billion young people in EMDEs are set to reach working age between 2025 and 2035. Creating productive jobs for this generation is a defining development challenge. For many commodity-exporting EMDEs, home to nearly half of this youth wave, sound fiscal management is about much more than stabilizing budgets: it is also about creating the conditions for jobs, investment, and growth.

The task is becoming harder because commodity markets themselves are changing. The energy transition and new technologies are reshaping demand for raw materials. Lower fossil fuel use could erode an important revenue source for energy exporters, while electrification, renewable energy, and digital infrastructure are boosting demand for metals and critical minerals. Yesterday’s fiscal frameworks cannot simply be carried into tomorrow.

Our latest study, Fiscal Policy in Commodity Exporters: A Balancing Act, provides the World Bank Group’s first comprehensive assessment of these fiscal challenges across commodity-exporting EMDEs. It traces fiscal outcomes since 2000, examines fiscal procyclicality and volatility and their consequences for growth, analyzes the implications of the energy transition for metal and oil exporters, and brings these strands together into a practical menu of policy options.

The topic has an enduring appeal, because commodity dependence remains pervasive: about two-thirds of EMDEs, and roughly 90 percent of low-income countries, rely heavily on commodities. Too often, fiscal policies in these economies tend to amplify commodity shocks instead of cushioning them: they are more procyclical and more volatile than in other EMDEs, with real economic costs.

In the average commodity-exporting EMDE, procyclical fiscal policy has made commodity price shocks more than one-fifth worse. Advanced-economy commodity exporters have tended to do the opposite: they use fiscal policy to dampen the shocks. The risks also vary by country: energy exporters rely most heavily on resource revenues, while agricultural exporters are especially susceptible to spending practices that increase debt and amplify the shock. This fiscal volatility weakens investment and growth, leaving less room to create productive jobs.

So, what should policymakers do? The first priority is to put some distance between government spending and the ups and downs of commodity prices. A growing number of countries have adopted fiscal rules. These rules set numerical limits on deficits, debt, spending, or revenues, with the goal of improving fiscal sustainability. But rules on paper are not enough. They must be credible, enforceable, flexible, embedded in medium-term frameworks, and supported by transparent budgets and independent oversight. Our study finds that such frameworks work best when backed by strong institutions, implementation capacity, and sustained political commitment.

Sovereign wealth funds can also stabilize public finances by saving windfall revenues during booms and creating room to support activity during slumps. But they work best when integrated with the budget and protected from political pressure. The broader lesson is simple: institutions matter at least as much as instruments.

The second priority is to turn temporary resource income into lasting productive capacity. Stronger non-resource revenues can make budgets less vulnerable to commodity prices, while commodity windfalls can finance well-chosen investments in infrastructure, human capital, technology, and stronger institutions. This matters for jobs: across EMDEs, stronger investment growth tends to go hand in hand with stronger employment growth, while macroeconomic stability helps preserve the fiscal space needed for productive employment.

Different exporters face different challenges. Metal exporters may enjoy substantial new revenues as the energy transition advances, but they should avoid turning those windfalls into permanent spending. Oil and gas exporters face the opposite challenge: they should rely less on fossil-fuel revenues and diversify their economies. In either case, the goal is the same: convert volatile and exhaustible resource income into productive capacity, more diversified economies, and more and better jobs.

Several country examples provide reasons for optimism. Chile’s structural balance rule is often regarded as a good example of a commodity-linked framework which adjusts fiscal targets for the economic cycle and long-run copper prices. Savings accumulated during the 2000s commodity boom were later drawn down after the global financial crisis and again during the pandemic. Botswana also saved its resource revenues and used them to cushion downturns.

These experiences show that procyclicality is not destiny and commodity dependence need not become a curse. With credible institutions, prudent saving, stronger revenues, and sustained investment in people and productive capacity, commodity exporters can turn volatility into resilience and resource wealth into durable development. That is the balancing act commodity exporters face: difficult, certainly, but achievable.

✍️ By M. Ayhan Kose, Deputy Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Director of the Prospects Group; and Garima Vasishtha, Senior Economist, Prospects Group, World Bank.

In Guinea🇬🇳, decades of deforestation, slash‑and‑burn agriculture, and unregulated land use have left soils exposed, and watersheds increasingly degraded. The Guinea Water and Sanitation Project is placing nature‑based solutions at the center of efforts to secure safe, reliable drinking water for nearly 2.6 million people.

Nature-Based Solutions Secure Guinea's Water at the Source How nature-based solutions are transforming water resources and improving economic conditions in Guinea

☑️ WBG Young Professional Program: Information Sessions

Join us to discover the World Bank Group's Young Professionals Program—our flagship leadership development programme for exceptional talent committed to tackling global challenges.

You'll get an inside look at how the programme works, from the competitive selection process and international rotations to the training, mentorship and career opportunities available across the World Bank, IFC and MIGA.

We'll also share what we look for in successful candidates, what to expect throughout the application process, and how the programme can help you build a meaningful global career.

➤ September 01, 11:00 AM ET https://bit.ly/3TObQ4Y
➤ September 16, 09:00 PM ET https://bit.ly/4wovNwK
➤ September 24, 08:00 AM ET https://bit.ly/4wRFDbp

Indigenous midwives and community caregivers bring trusted knowledge, language, and support to families far from formal care. Investing in their skills helps strengthen primary healthcare.

Honoring Indigenous Midwives: Recognizing Indigenous Women’s Role in Delivering Family and Community Healthcare Across the World Indigenous midwives provide trusted maternal and community healthcare, preserving ancestral knowledge while supporting families. Growing recognition, training, and integration into health systems are improving outcomes for women and children worldwide.

The African Continental Free Trade Area has created a historic framework for a larger and more integrated African market. But tariff liberalization and formal commitments, while essential, are no longer sufficient. The next gains depend on whether the systems that firms use every day; customs, transport, standards, payments, services, energy, finance, and data can work together across borders.

The report Integrating Africa: From Threads to Hubs brings new evidence to this implementation challenge. The report shows that Africa’s trade problem is not simply that the continent trades too little. It is that trade remains weakly connected to regional production, value addition, firm growth, and economic transformation.

Join us LIVE on August 28 (06:30 AM - 08:00 AM ET) for a policy dialogue focused on implementation where we bring together senior policymakers, regional institutions, development finance institutions, private sector leaders, researchers, and development parters to:

➤ Present evidence and analysis from the report and findings on regional value chains, trade costs, deep agreements, services integration, and regional public goods.
➤ Identify reforms that countries can implement now - without waiting for new negotiations - to reduce trade costs and improve interoperability.
➤ Clarify the respective roles of national governments, Regional Economic Communities, the African Union, the AfCFTA Secretariat, development finance institutions, and the private sector.
➤ Build momentum around measurable implementation priorities that can translate integration commitments into commerce, investment, production, and jobs.

✅ SIGN UP: https://bit.ly/4hRf01A

🗞️ 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐋𝐘 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄

➤ THE WATER FINANCING PARADOX: MORE MONEY ISN'T ENOUGH. Governments know water is essential. So why do they keep failing to deliver it? A new World Bank analysis finds the problem isn't funding — it's the institutional systems that are supposed to turn budgets into pipes, treatment plants, and taps. Without stronger planning frameworks, even well-funded water ministries will keep falling short. https://bit.ly/3UvBw6B

➤ ALBANIA IS REBUILDING ITS CLASSROOMS AROUND DIGITAL SKILLS. Albania has built 216 new SmartLabs and trained more than 800 educators to bring digital literacy, coding, and critical thinking into the classroom. With 70,000 students now developing skills employers actually need, the country is building a pipeline — not just a curriculum. https://bit.ly/4g0hiKD

➤ HOW CAMBODIA IS KEEPING REMOTE STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM. In Cambodia's most remote provinces, some students travel up to 70 kilometers to reach secondary school. New dormitories, upgraded campuses, and stronger teacher training are changing that — giving students from indigenous communities a real shot at education and the jobs that follow. https://bit.ly/4xLjXha

➤ NEPAL'S GRADUATES AREN'T JUST LOOKING FOR JOBS. THEY'RE CREATING THEM. Every year, thousands of young Nepalis enter a workforce that doesn't have enough jobs waiting for them. A World Bank-supported program is flipping the script — training graduates to start businesses, create employment, and build an economy that works for their generation. https://bit.ly/4xMjNq2

➤ A SKILLS PIPELINE BUILT FOR THE JOBS SOUTH AFRICA ACTUALLY NEEDS. Employers need cybersecurity analysts, data specialists, and digitally fluent workers. Yet South Africa's education system isn't producing them fast enough. A new World Bank/ Mastercard Foundation report diagnoses why — and what governments, universities, and the private sector need to do differently. https://bit.ly/45KGajF

➤ THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION REACHING THE PACIFIC'S REMOTEST COMMUNITIES. Broadband access in Tonga grew from 2 to 64 percent. Internet use increased twenty-fold in Micronesia. World Bank-supported digital connectivity is reaching the Pacific's hardest-to-reach communities — and opening the door to better jobs and economic growth. https://bit.ly/45Hg692

☑️ 𝘚𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘞𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘜𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴! 𝘕𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘣𝘰𝘹. http://wrld.bg/AMBV50ZelvQ