Asia’s emerging markets remain on edge over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s actions, damaging investor confidence from India to Indonesia. However, a new survey by the World Bank suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows won’t be drying up anytime soon. In its World Investment and Political Risk 2013 report released Thursday, the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) said macroeconomic instability and political risk ranked “neck and neck” as the top concerns for investors over the short and medium terms.

Shrestha and 80 other young techies and civil society representatives came together for the first time to create mobile applications to end gender-based violence as part of a hackathon sponsored by the World Bank. Patriarchy is a deeply rooted problem in Nepal. As someone who grew up there, I know of many instances in which women faced violence and discrimination. One-third of married women have experienced some form of emotional, physical, or sexual violence from their spouse in their marital relationship.

urkmenistan’s recent economic gains have not translated into equitable benefits to the population. Despite Turkmenistan’s vast oil and gas wealth, poverty persists. According to the United Nations Development Program’s human development indicators, Turkmenistan has the lowest life expectancy at birth in the region, at 65, and this rate has remained stagnant since 2006. Turkmenistan also has the second highest mortality rate under age 5 in the region, at 45 per 1,000 live births.

This funding will be one of the few sizable direct foreign investments in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake and will create jobs, generate business opportunities for small and midsize enterprises, promote sustainable growth in the tourism industry, and contribute to the reconstruction of essential business infrastructure destroyed by the earthquake.

Officials from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia working on higher education reform will exchange experiences with Malaysian counterparts at a 4-day workshop beginning today, supported by the World Bank and the British Council Malaysia.

Last month was the 333rd consecutive month that global temperatures were above the 20th century average, and 2012 will almost certainly be the hottest ever recorded in the US. Hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires and droughts blistered farmlands and ruined crops from Kansas to Assam, and Britain has had its wettest summer and driest spring to date.

What Dr Okonjo-Iweala's candidacy has brought to the fore is that the country still needs to invest in soft-power-enhancing structures in Africa - or 'playing Big Brother' so that it can leverage the goodwill of other African countries in moments like this to enhance its objectives. National interest is much more than immediate economic gratification.