Creating Jobs Requires Economic Transformation and Investments in Human Capital

Creating new and better jobs is critical to ending extreme poverty and to fostering sustainable development. We know that jobs are the most direct pathway out of poverty. And the challenge is immense: 600 million new jobs will be needed over the next 15 years to keep employment rates stable. In many poor countries, too few-high productivity jobs are being created.

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Rising With Rice in Côte d’Ivoire 3: The Contours of a Pilot Project

Issouf Ouattara, sales manager of the Lopé lowlands in the Hambol Region, Côte d’Ivoire, shares a laugh with Sali Soro, smallholder rice farmer (Photo by Raphaela Karlen, World Bank) The second post of this blog series illustrated the potential for poverty reduction through value chain development (VCD) in Africa. This is an approach that Côte d’Ivoire hopes…

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Rising with rice in Côte d’Ivoire 2: More and better jobs by connecting farmers to markets

In the first post of this blog series, we traveled to the center of Côte d’Ivoire during rice harvesting season and met two people whose livelihoods depended on the outcome: Sali Soro, a smallholder farmer and member of a regional rice cooperative, and Zié Coulibaly, director of the Katiola rice mill. Their stories illustrate the challenges faced…

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