DAILY RENDEZVOUS

Daily Rendezvous  Ishioma Emi for Ventures Africa  International lenders such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have issued warnings of a potential global recession. This situation would be particularly dire for emerging economies, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa. A depreciating currency and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine are causing instability in the global market, leading to food insecurity and slowing developed economies. Last September, the World Bank, in a press release, noted how central banks around the world have been raising interest rates with a degree of synchronicity not seen over the past five decades—a trend that is likely to continue well into 2023. Yet “the currently expected trajectory of interest-rate increases and other policy actions may not be sufficient to bring global inflation back down to levels seen before the pandemic. Investors expect central banks to raise global monetary-policy rates to al...

Daily Rendezvous  Close to 1 billion people in low- and lower-middle income countries - 1 in 8 of the world’s population –are served by health-care facilities that lack a reliable electricity supply, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO), the  World Bank , the  International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) , and  Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) . Access to electricity is critical for quality health-care provision, from delivering babies to managing emergencies like heart attacks, or offering lifesaving immunization. Without reliable electricity in all health-care facilities, Universal Health Coverage cannot be reached, the report notes. Increasing electrification of health-care facilities is essential to save lives The joint report,  Energizing Health: Accelerating Electricity Access in Health-Care Facilities,  presents the latest data on electrification of health-care facilities in low- and middle-income count...