Environment Matters at the World Bank : Annual Review 2005

In line with one of the major themes in
the Bank's Environment Strategy, this 2005 annual
review is devoted to the theme of environmental health.
Viewpoint articles in this edition reflect several external
perspectives: the World Health Organization (WHO) lays out
the panorama of environmental risk factors; a successful
example of combating urban air pollution is provided by the
former mayor of Bogotá; successful strategies to enhance
sanitation among poor people are suggested by a
nongovernmental organization (NGO) - WaterAid - with an
impressive implementation record; and a leading researcher
gives his perspective on indoor air pollution. As usual,
Environment Matters provides a Bank-wide review of our
safeguard policies, and conveys the latest data on our
environmental lending and analytical work. This year's
feature articles all cluster around the main theme of
environmental health: Ruta and Sarraf explain the basics of
economic valuation of health impacts of environmental risks;
Kaufmann summarizes a recent study that provides an overview
of what we know about the effectiveness of interventions in
water and sanitation; Ahmed and Awe return to the theme of
indoor air pollution, with a study from Guatemala; Constant
and Procee explain how the Bank's Clean Air Initiative
works in several regions; and, Tynan concludes the section
with an article on the risks that chemicals pose to human
health. This edition reviews each of the Bank's
Regions. With attention to the environmental health theme,
each Region has chosen a number of issues and projects to
feature in their annual review. This section illustrates the
diversity of issues the Bank is confronting in collaboration
with client countries. The regional reviews are complemented
by the institutional perspectives of the International
Finance Corporation (IFC), which deals with private sector
development, and the World Bank Institute, which is
responsible for capacity building in client countries.