International Finance Corporation

Portrait photo of a woman

Microfinance was meant to help the world’s poor, but in Cambodia, it’s plunging people deeper into debt

Microfinance was hailed as a way to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people without access to credit. It worked so well that Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus was awarded a Nobel Prize. But then, banks jumped in to get in on the profits. To manage high debt levels, Cambodians are migrating for work, eating less and even pulling their children out of school.

A setting sun near a smokestack.

Luxembourg takes the lead on climate finance 

The Big Fix
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange, New York, March 20, 2020.

How the World Bank Group is helping developing countries respond to COVID-19

COVID-19