Access to water and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa is improving, but far too slowly. According to data from the World Health Organization and UNICEF's joint monitoring program, 840 million people in the region had access to basic drinking water services in 2024, up from 587 million a decade ago. But progress hasn't kept pace with population growth.Nearly one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack basic water access. The gap reflects service delivery failures, underinvestment and weak governance ...

Africa will be allocated 70% of the $100 billion that an arm of the World Bank has mobilized to provide affordable financing to the world’s poorest nations https://t.co/HwnDBiWM7O ...

Bretton Woods System Overview - The Bretton Woods system aimed to establish a stable international monetary system to foster global trade and economic stability after World War II [6] - The system placed the US at the center of the economic universe, with the US dollar pegged to gold at $35 per troy ounce, and other countries pegged their currencies to the dollar [21][22] - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were created to oversee the system, promote economic development, and ensure adherence to the fixed parity system [25] Systemic Flaws and Challenges - The system's reliance on a national currency (the US dollar) as the primary source of international liquidity contained an inherent contradiction, known as the Triffin dilemma [32] - The US's persistent balance of payments deficits led to a flood of dollars, eroding confidence in the dollar's convertibility into gold [36] - The US did not actively manage its exchange rate, placing the burden of adjustment on other countries and creating an "exorbitant privilege" for the US [28][31] Demise of Bretton Woods - Countries began swapping dollars for gold, leading to a depletion of US gold reserves [41][42] - On August 15, 1971, President Nixon ended the convertibility of dollars into gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system [44] - The end of Bretton Woods led to a system of free-floating exchange rates and a terminal decline in the value of many currencies [47] Legacy and Implications - Bretton Woods institutionalized the dollar's global role as the dominant reserve currency [21] - The system's flaws led to the erosion of the US domestic manufacturing base and a growing net international investment position deficit [39] - The end of Bretton Woods marked the birth of fiat currency, backed by nothing but the issuer's monopoly on violence [46]