I thank the Chairman for his warm words of welcome and I thank him and the distinguished members of the committee for inviting me here this morning. It is a great pleasure to return to Ireland for my second visit as executive director of the World Bank. This year again I have had very productive discussions with Ministers Noonan, Howlin and Costello, senior officials and with representatives of civil society organisations and the business community. I was also privileged to visit part of the west of Ireland. I made my way to Galway, to the Maritime Institute, where I had the opportunity to discuss the recently launched Global Partnership on Oceans.
My yearly visit to Ireland is important because it affords me a privileged occasion to discuss the policy and programming direction of the World Bank Group, WBG, focusing on those areas where Ireland has special interests. Of course, I also maintain frequent contact with Dublin throughout the course of the year. I am very pleased that my visit this year coincides with an International Finance Corporation, IFC, outreach event - to which the Chairman alluded - organised jointly with Enterprise Ireland. The IFC is the private sector development arm of the World Bank. This event taking place today focuses on emerging markets at a time when most of the growth in output and trade generated in the world economy is coming from middle-income and developing countries. It also comes after governors at the bank discussed the importance of leveraging the private sector for development at the latest spring meetings this April.
Whereas I could speak today on a broad range of issues, given the breadth and depth of involvement of the WBG, I will just touch briefly on developments in the following five areas: food security and nutrition, the importance of social safety nets; the world development report on gender which was issued last fall; the bank as a global knowledge institution; and the modernisation agenda of the World Bank.
I will begin with food security. The World Bank Group is firmly part of what we like to refer to as the global development architecture and is guided in its policies and actions by the objectives set out in the millennium development goals, MDGs. Overall, there is significant progress in respect of the MDGs. The committee will be interested to learn that the World Bank has been leading the international statistical effort to measure and build developing country capacity to measure progress against poverty, MDG 1, a major effort which endures. While we can be satisfied with progress so far, some MDGs lag behind, specifically those related to child and maternal mortality. The World Bank Group's global monitoring report 2012 highlights the linkages between food price volatility, nutrition and these MDGs.
The response to food security challenges must be tailored to suit each country and region's need. These are, by definition, multisectoral, including sound agricultural policy, the implementation of safety nets to improve resilience and the development of nutritional policy. I am pleased that the WBG is maintaining a high level of effort in the agriculture sector and it is currently working to update its next three-year action plan, together with partners like Ireland and Canada. The World Bank is also paying increasing attention to nutrition. I would like to stress that the International Finance Corporation plays an important role in the field of agriculture in supporting private sector development.
Food security issues also present immediate crisis management challenges. Irish Aid and CIDA moved early to support those facing imminent famine in the Horn of Africa last year. The World Bank also reacted speedily, along with UN organisations, and it remains active in the region, with a view to implementing programmes and policies aimed at improving the medium and long-term outlook beyond the immediate crisis situation. The World Bank has been a leader and vocal supporter of the creation of safety nets in developing countries. At the spring meetings in April, World Bank governors approved a new document and policy direction entitled, Safety Nets Work: During Crisis and Prosperity. These are non-contributory programmes which provide transfers, thereby preventing poor people and those vulnerable to shocks from falling further into poverty. Safety net transfers can include vouchers, food stamps, coupons and in-kind transfers such as school supplies and uniforms. Spending on safety nets averages from 1% to 2% percent of GDP across developing and transition countries, although there is wide variability. The World Bank is working with local governments and partners such as Irish Aid and CIDA to tailor safety net programmes to meet needs, including in countries like Ethiopia, a country I understand the committee had the occasion to visit recently.
I am pleased to say that the World Bank is also showing leadership on gender equality. While the lives of girls and women have improved dramatically in the past decades, further progress is required. The 2012 world development report on gender equality and development argues that gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. The report lays out clearly that gender equality can enhance productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation and make institutions more representative. President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, coined the sentence, "Gender Equality is Smart Economics". The report targets four priority areas: reducing excess female mortality and closing the education gap; increasing women's voice and agency in the household and society; improving access to economic opportunities; and limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations. Projects and strategies presented to the board for approval include gender impact analyses.
Food security, safety nets for the poor and vulnerable and gender equality are important development priorities for Ireland that figure prominently in the WBG's agenda. The World Bank Group is well known for its investment lending programming and for its contribution to global partnerships and initiatives. It also serves three distinct and critical roles as a leading knowledge institution: a knowledge producer, a knowledge customiser, and a knowledge connector. I will share a few examples of this, beginning with its role as a knowledge producer. The World Bank undertakes policy research that is relevant not only to developing countries, who are its borrowers, but also to developed countries. The World Development Report, which has been produced annually since 1978, is the World Bank's major annual analytical publication yearly. It identifies and promotes public policy, based on solid evidence, in fields of specific general interest. I have referred to the last WDR on gender equality; the next WDR will focus on jobs and will be released this autumn at the World Bank's annual meeting in Tokyo. It will address the key challenges faced by low-income and middle-income countries relating to poor job opportunities in the context of poor economic growth. Where growth is high, it is often not inclusive enough and productivity is low. Creating jobs will lead to sustainable livelihoods only where growth is inclusive. This report will provide public decision-makers with practical policy recommendations for increasing job creation.
As a knowledge customiser, the bank works with borrowing countries, taking global best practices in a sector and applying them to the specific country context. Take, for example, conditional cash transfers. These modest sums of money are paid to poor families on condition that they do something proven to have strong developmental benefits for the family, such as keeping their children in school, or bringing their children regularly to the doctor for health checks. Conditional cash transfers have been used with great effect in countries such as Mexico and Brazil, initially with support from the World Bank. By providing financial support to conditional cash transfer programmes run by governments, the World Bank has developed experience in what works and what does not, and it is sharing these lessons with interested governments. New York has introduced a conditional cash transfer programme that reflects many of the best practices gleaned from the World Bank's experience.
Finally, as a knowledge connector, the bank engages in global partnerships with governments, civil society and private actors that are facing similar challenges to facilitate the sharing of knowledge. The bank is a leader in what we call South-South knowledge exchange. The bank has created knowledge platforms to bring together leading researchers, policy makers and practitioners to work on pressing, cross-cutting global development issues. At present, there are six such networks working on green growth, development in conflict-affected states, urbanisation, nutrition, jobs and information and communication technologies. The bank has also launched a cutting-edge open data initiative, making its extensive country-level databases, which are populated with the most up-to-date and credible information, available to researchers and anyone else interested in using these data.
Finally, I will turn to the ambitious modernisation agenda of the World Bank. I have been at the bank for only a little over a year and a half, but I can tell members it is truly a unique institution, which has adapted remarkably well through its more than 60 years of existence. It must continue to do so, and this is what the modernisation agenda aims to accomplish. The bank is now engaged in a review of procedures, instruments and its HR policy suite, which will ensure it can evolve to meet the changing needs of client countries in the face of what we know to be a rapidly evolving world environment.
I am pleased to report that the World Bank Group is making very good progress in its modernisation agenda and that we at the board of directors are taking a strong interest in this agenda, whose progress we review regularly. Of course, Irish Aid is also looking towards the future and I am pleased that we have had an opportunity to contribute to the consultative process.
I believe the work of multilateral institutions such as the World Bank Group in development remains highly effective and relevant. Ireland is a significant contributor to the World Bank effort in per capita terms and I can report that the effectiveness of Irish Aid programmes is recognised and praised. Ireland is appreciated as a partner. Aid effectiveness calls for strong partnerships between multilateral agencies and donor and borrowing countries, and strategic alignment and co-operation at an operational level. The World Bank has possibly unique convening powers to bring together the various development actors at individual country, regional and sectoral level. Through its voice at multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, Ireland can make a stronger contribution to the alleviation of poverty and support for development than could be achieved through bilateral aid efforts alone, especially on issues such as hunger and food security.
I thank members for their attention. It is a pleasure to be here and I look forward to their questions, comments and suggestions.
