Economics & Development

Ratings of the WAEMU Affordable Housing Finance for West African Economic and Monetary Union were as follows: outcome was satisfactory, Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was high. The project demonstrated that deploying a concessional refinancing window alongside a market-based facility can effectively motivate financial institutions to extend lending to lower-income segments; to maximize impact, eligibility criteria should be clear and realistic, extensively communicated to participating institutions, and paired with sustained technical assistance, with sufficient flexibility to adapt to evolving market conditions while preserving the development objective. Leveraging microfinance institutions to reach underserved households is justified but requires substantial internal capacity building, dedicated funding, and innovation in credit assessment for borrowers with irregular incomes; the World Bank should coordinate closely with the International Finance Corporation to reinforce the financial and technical capabilities of microfinance institutions for housing finance. Addressing low-income housing constraints benefits from a holistic approach that tackles both demand and supply, including bottlenecks along the housing value chain; the World Bank should work with clients and collaborate internally with IFC and the Urban, Resilience and Land (URL) team to deliver integrated solutions. Regional technical assistance through a political body can be effective but is ambitious and slow for driving national-level change, with significant transaction costs; teams should identify champions in regional and national institutions and engage an independent executive agency early to accelerate delivery and accountability. Operating in fragile and conflict-affected settings requires agility; projects should be designed with built-in flexibility and mechanisms for rapid restructuring so that unforeseen shocks can be accommodated without altering the project development objective.

Each year, water pollution accounts for 1.8 million deaths and costs businesses an estimated 425 billion dollars. The 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) supports industries and utilities to use water more efficiently and recycle more of the freshwater they consume. By changing incentives, strengthening regulatory frameworks, and improving markets, one can make water treatment and reuse a smart investment.