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By Frannie A. Leautier , Vice President, World Bank Institute

The World Bank provided more than $17,000 million in loans last year to more than 100 developing countries, with the primary goal of helping to reduce poverty. Believing that knowledge builds capacity, and capacity building leads to growth, security, and empowerment of the poor, much of the bank's work has focused on promoting learning and the sharing of knowledge and experience. The bank's learning approaches include innovations such as global electronic knowledge networks and distance learning to extend the reach of knowledge and learning, which lead to an improved quality of life and a reduction in poverty worldwide.

Sustainable development is central to the World Bank's mission of reducing poverty. Progress has been made on poverty reduction in the last 10 years, and absolute poverty has been reduced by impressive amounts, even as poor populations have grown. During the past generation, life expectancy has increased by 20 years and the number of literate adults has doubled. Nevertheless, nearly 3,000 million people -- almost half the world's population -- live on less than $2 a day, over 1,500 million people do not have clean drinking water, and in the next 25 years the world's population is expected to increase by an additional 2,000 million people, mostly in poor countries.

The World Bank's poverty reduction mission and sustainable development efforts mean working across traditional sectoral boundaries in environment, agriculture, health, education, energy, water and sanitation, social development, and infrastructure. Our approach to sustainable development means being committed to building long-term collaborative working relationships with partners in the public and private sectors and with civil society to build capacity and help our clients achieve their sustainable development objectives.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide a framework for all our poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts. These goals, agreed to by over 150 heads of state and government at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, provide the measurable targets we need to collectively measure global progress in improving living standards. Our lending program and policy work will directly support achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Translating Lessons Learned and Operational Experiences into Policies and Practice

The World Bank uses its lessons of experience in the implementation of poverty reduction and sustainable development projects and programs to enhance support to developing countries. We have increased the effectiveness of our programs through country assistance programs that are more selective, more participatory, and better coordinated. As one of the world's largest sources of development assistance, the World Bank provided more than $17,000 million in loans last year to more than 100 developing economies, with the primary goal of helping to reduce poverty. It is only through sustainable development that this assistance can be effective.

The World Bank is the world's largest external provider of funds for health and education programs, and for the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Since 1996, we have launched more than 600 anti-corruption programs and governance initiatives in almost 100 client countries. Since 1988, the World Bank has become one of the largest providers of international funds for biodiversity projects, and the current portfolio of our projects with clear environmental objectives is $16,000 million.

The World Bank is addressing global environmental concerns as an implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and works closely with the GEF in supporting projects in biodiversity conservation, as well as projects addressing climate change, the phase-out of ozone depleting substances, and the protection of international waters. Through our cooperation with the Montreal Protocol's Multilateral Fund, we support programs in 20 countries for the phase-out of ozone depleting substances. Mainstreaming the priorities of the Biodiversity Convention, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Convention on Desertification into our regular investment lending is underway.

Poverty Reduction Strategies

Effective poverty reduction strategies and poverty-focused lending are central to achieving development objectives. Many of the lessons learned by countries about poverty reduction and sustainable development are being put into action through the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) development process.

James D. Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, recently described PRSPs as strategies that need to be "based on broad citizen participation and assent, comprehensive in scope, long-term in perspective, results-oriented in approach, and supported by external partners." (Opening remarks at the International Conference on Poverty Reduction Strategies, January 14, 2002.) This approach to poverty reduction recognizes that development is a comprehensive, holistic, and long-term process, and it is an approach that recognizes the multi-dimensionality of poverty.

Country-owned poverty reduction strategies provide the basis for all World Bank and International Monetary Fund concessional lending as well as debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). Eight countries have completed their first PRSPs and over 40 have prepared interim PRSPs. In partnership with the donor community and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 24 highly indebted poor countries will receive more than $34,000 million in debt service relief.

Learning and Capacity Building

Agenda 21, the core agreement that emerged from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, emphasizes the importance of capacity building for sustainable development. The World Bank is fully committed to learning and capacity building as essential in the drive for poverty reduction and sustainable development. Much of our work focuses on promoting learning, sharing of knowledge and experiences, and building the capacity of people and institutions.

Our process of learning has meant benefiting from the lessons of our successes and failures as well as from the lessons of others. Knowledge builds capacity, and capacity building leads to growth, security, and empowerment of the poor. We have found that the best way to build capacity is by creating an enabling environment in which local knowledge is allowed to flourish and contribute to global knowledge; where people learn from one another as they also innovate on their own; and where global and local knowledge inform action and influence change. The ability of a society to problem-solve and innovate is key to sustainable development. That is what a process of learning ensures.

The World Bank Institute (WBI) supports the bank's learning and knowledge agenda through capacity building, and by providing learning programs and policy advice that address issues central to poverty reduction and sustainable development. WBI currently delivers nearly 600 learning programs and reaches over 48,000 participants in 150 countries through collaboration with more than 160 partner institutions.

Through these partnerships, which include local institutes, as well as donor countries and the private sector, the World Bank and partner institutions are using technology to help bring knowledge to the most remote and inaccessible corners of the earth. Our learning approaches often combine face-to-face and distance learning through new and traditional media, including the Internet and videoconferencing.

We are making strides in closing the digital divide, for example, through the development and wide use of global electronic knowledge networks and distance learning initiatives such as the Global Distance Learning Network (GDLN). These kinds of innovations will greatly extend the reach of knowledge and learning for sustainable development to improve the quality of life and to reduce poverty worldwide.

Clients use the knowledge and learning opportunities they get from WBI offerings to make real change in their countries. A public official from Chiapas, Mexico, who followed a learning series in anti-corruption for public officials, implemented a program in his state upon return. The changes he instituted resulted in a 64 percent increase in resources collected in his state.

The World Bank's Participation in WSSD

The World Bank is taking an active role in preparations for the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg in August 2002. As Ian Johnson, the bank's vice president of the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD) Network, said during the most recent WSSD PrepCom: "The World Bank approach to sustainable development has changed considerably since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. We have sharpened the poverty focus of our work, expanded support for social services, equitable broad-based growth, good governance, and social inclusion, and are integrating gender and environmental considerations into our development efforts." As we move together toward the Johannesburg Summit, the World Bank:

* Supports the U.N. process and is participating fully in regional and global preparatory meetings in preparation for the summit;

* Supports the poverty reduction focus of the sustainable development agenda;

* Strongly supports the alignment of the summit objectives and the Millennium Development Goals;

* Hopes to see increases in overseas development assistance, domestic resource mobilization, and market access;

* Urges the adoption of "accounting for sustainable development" in national accounts.

The World Bank is preparing a number of contributions to the Johannesburg Summit. The 2002/2003 World Development Report, entitled "Sustainable Development with a Dynamic Economy: Growth, Poverty, Social Cohesion, and the Environment," will help establish an integrated view of sustainable development. We are also carrying out analytical work on a number of key thematic issues, including innovative financing for sustainable development, poverty and environment linkages, "green" accounting, and a stock-taking of our implementation of Agenda 21.

Future Challenges

We face enormous challenges in reducing global poverty and improving the quality of life for people worldwide. We need to continue in our efforts to scale up successful development efforts based on lessons learned. We also need to share knowledge and experiences about what has worked in ways that will have a greater impact on a much larger scale. The nature and magnitude of the challenges will vary depending on the regional, country, and local context.

Much of our impact comes from work carried out at the local level. Partner institutions in client countries play increasingly more important roles in making sure that programs are grounded in the local culture and social conditions. Our working relationships with partners also help to build long-term local capacity.

At the global level, the World Bank will continue to work with governments, civil society, multilateral organizations, and the private sector. As Ian Johnson has said, "In moving forward, we have to aim to increase our impact in terms of outcomes, working on a scale that is commensurate with the development challenge. And to be truly effective, we need to work together."

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