News Investigators/ The World Bank says it has convened expert groups to plan for the return reconstruction of Gaza after cessation of hostilities with Israel, andUkraine.
The World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga, said this on Friday in Washington, at the 2025 Annual Meetings Plenary.
According to Mr Banga, the recent events in Syria and Gaza give reason to hope that peace is possible wherever conflict exists; DRC, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen, and beyond.
“As we hope for peace, we must also prepare for it, drawing on regional specialists from both the public and private sectors.
“The Gaza group is now coordinating with partners active in the region. Reconstruction is an essential part of our mandate,” he said.
Mr Banga said that the World Bank group, as an institution of development was equally committed to conflict prevention.
“Alongside rebuilding what has been lost, we must also focus on creating the conditions for opportunity and stability.
“That is what motivates our actions and decisions today. We are living through one of the great demographic shifts in human history.
“By 2050, more than 85 per cent of the world’s population will live in countries we call developing today.
In just the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people will enter the workforce, vying for roughly 400 million jobs. That leaves a very large gap,” he said.
The world bank president said that four young people would step into the global workforce every second over the next ten years.
Mr Banga said, “So, in the time it takes to deliver these remarks, tens of thousands will cross that threshold, full of ambition, impatient for opportunity.
“The pace of population growth is most staggering in Africa, which will be home to one in four people by 2050.
“Between now and then, estimates suggest that Zambia will add 700,000 people every year.
Mozambique’s population will double.”
He said that Nigeria’s population would swell by about 130 million, firmly establishing itself as one of the most populous nations in the world.
According to him, the young people, with their energy and ideas, will define the next century.
He said that with the right investments, focused not on need, but opportunity, the World Bank could unlock a powerful engine of global growth.
“Without purposeful effort, their optimism risks turning into despair, fueling instability, unrest and mass migration, with implications for every region and every economy.
“This is why jobs must be at the centre of any development, economic, or national security strategy.
“But what do we mean by a job? It can mean working for a company and advancing through it to higher levels or being employed at a small business.
“It could also mean starting your own as an entrepreneur. A job is more than a paycheck. It is what allows both women and men to pursue their aspirations. It is purpose. It’s dignity,” he added.
Mr Banga described job as the anchor that holds families steady and the glue that keeps societies together.
“It is the straightest line to stability, and the hardest progress to reverse once achieved.
“That is why we have reframed what we do, how we measure it, and how we deliver it around this reality,” he said.
NAN
