Climate change and natural disasters increasingly affect people’s well-being and development prospects. A recent World Bank study shows that climate change may cause 216 million people to migrate in their own country by 2050, and push as many as 132 million people into poverty by 2030. Fragile contexts such as Somalia have recently faced cyclical climate-induced shocks from drought, to flooding and locust infestations. Because of Somalia’s economy reliance on natural resources and man-made degradation of natural resources such as charcoal production and overgrazing, climate change could make the country more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity. Greater drought exposure tends to decrease consumption by a significant margin in rural Somalia, increasing the poverty levels. This adverse impact of climate change on the poor will be far-reaching.
Data-driven tools can support decision-making and improve implementation – especially in crises like COVID-19 Following major shocks due to conflict, natural disasters, or even pandemics such as COVID-19, this kind of data collection can be impossible or too slow to be useful. Governments and development organizations can sometimes find themselves in a catch-22, with well-designed interventions being most needed in the very places where timely data are impossible to collect.
To improve our ability to respond to these challenges, the World Bank has developed an innovative toolbox for rapid data collection and evidence-based policymaking. The first suite of tools aims to collect poverty and inequality data in a timely and cost-effective way, while the second helps managers make informed decisions related to portfolio allocation, project targeting, and project monitoring. The tools help projects to quickly adapt to changing circumstances and reach the people most in need of assista