The World Bank Institute launched an “e-Institute” in July 2011 which is designed to support self-motivated learners to get up to speed on the latest development trends, enhance their skill-sets, and share knowledge through on-line learning communities.

The first round of courses offered by the “e-Institute” includes Health, Urban, Governance, Climate Change, Fragile States, and Growth & Competitiveness.  New courses on cross-cutting themes will featured regularly in addition to monthly webinars and other free resources.
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Upcoming e-Learning Courses

For more information and application, please visit each course webpage.

Exploring Topics in Development
Apply by May 21, 2012

Energy Sector Strategies to Support Green Growth
Apply by June 11, 2012

Course Calendar by Month

Please visit e-Institute website.
You can also search by theme or by keywords.

Webinar Series: Emerging Issues in Economics

The ‘Emerging Issues in Economics’ is a free monthly webinar series that discusses cutting edge issues in development. Experts from the World Bank will share the latest approaches on topics such as social entrepreneurship and green growth through online presentations. The goal of the webinar series is to educate and foster discussion around pressing issues in development.

The World Under Pressure: How China & India Are Influencing the Global Economy & Environment
Date: June 05, 2012
Time: 10:00AM (EST) / 11:00PM (JST)

Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) has been providing logistical support for Carbon Finance Fund Participant Meetings organized by the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit (ENVCF) since June 2007.  A number of funds (the Prototype Carbon Fund, the Community Development Carbon Fund, and the BioCarbon Fund) hold regular meetings with their stakeholders linking to their Japanese stakeholders by videoconference at the TDLC.  In 2012, the BioCarbon Fund and the Community Development Carbon Fund will hold their annual meetings in June in Tokyo at our center, as they did in June 2007.

TDLC serves as a knowledge sharing platform on development, providing the facilities, connectivity, network outreach and expertise to allow our clients and partners to deliver a range of knowledge and learning activities in key strategic areas. In addition to our support for the activities of ENVCF, we offer seminars on environment related themes as well as our flagship Blended Learning Program on Climate Change (Science and Policy of Climate Change).

Carbon Finance at the World Bank

The World Bank is the trustee of 12 carbon funds and facilities capitalized at $2.5 billion, designed to support developing countries in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emission reductions and pursue pathways to low carbon growth.

The funds and facilities support some 174 active projects that are expected to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by an estimated 220 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, equivalent to the emissions per year of The Netherlands. About 25 governments and government agencies, and 64 private companies from various sectors have made financial contributions to the World Bank carbon funds and facilities.

The World Bank is developing new carbon initiatives that will support the carbon markets post-2012 and will channel funds to projects in sectors which are vital to the world’s poorest. With support from public and private sector resources, projects and programs will be implemented in areas of energy access, energy efficiency, clean cooking, afforestation/reforestation, climate smart agriculture, landscape restoration, waste management, and others.

The priorities of the World Bank’s new carbon finance activities are to scale up carbon finance in low-income countries and poor rural areas, unlock new mitigation potential while saving forests, and to step up mitigation activities and develop new carbon market mechanisms and domestic emissions trading schemes in middle-income developing countries.

It does this through five post-2012 initiatives:

• The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)
• The Carbon Partnership Facility (CPF)
• The Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR)
• The Carbon Initiative for Development (Ci-Dev)
• The BioCarbon Fund Tranche 3 (BioCF T3)

For more information on carbon finance and the specific carbon funds, please see: www.carbonfinance.org

Tokyo Development Learning Center, the World Bank (TDLC) co-chaired a session at the 23rd Kuala Lumpur Regional Training Centre Program (KLRTC XXIII) on Integrated Urban Planning which was hosted by Kuala Lumpur City Hall and organized by United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), CITYNET and others, from December 13-15, 2011.

During this session, practical lessons from planning the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were introduced. Tokyo Metropolitan Government presented ‘Tokyo’s New Earthquake Resistance Measures’ - promoting seismic retrofitting of roadside buildings to help secure emergency transportation roads during times of crisis with case examples. City of Yokohama explained about the unique development challenges and solutions relating to the rapid urbanization and pollution that city has been experiencing.

The session offered an opportunity for experience and knowledge sharing on integrated urban planning by connecting Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo via video conference, involving city government officials from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India, and Nepal and officers from Yokohama and Tokyo.

Integrated Urban Planning covers all aspects of the urban living environment. Participants shared knowledge and information in real-time (via video conference) during a dynamic discussion that contributed to build up the knowledge of the city government officials of each country present.

Over 80 people gathered at The International Workshop on Water and History held at the Tokyo Development Learning Center in the presence of H.R.H. Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan on December 13th, 2011. The two day workshop focused on lessons learnt throughout history in the area of water management and the relationship between sustainable water management and global challenges such as poverty reduction and climate change. Keynote speakers and panelists included experts on water and history from government, academia, CSOs and other stakeholder organizations. The World Bank speakers included Mr. Kazushige Tanigichi, Special Representative, Japan and Dr. Stephen F. Linter, Senior Technical Adviser, Quality Assurance & Compliance who made a presentation titled ‘Water Resources: History and Sustainable Development’.

Organizers

- Government of Japan
- The United Nations Secretary-general’s Advisory Boards on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB)
- United Nations Educations, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- The World Bank Tokyo Office
- International Workshop on Water and History Committee

Co-sponsors

- Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)
- Japan Water Agency (JWA)

Support

- Asian Development Bank (ADB)
- Japan Water Forum (JWF)

Venue

- Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC), The World Bank

Affiliates from the South Asia and East Asia and Pacific GDLN regions will meet from December 5 -9, 2011 in New Delhi, India for the next GDLN Asia Pacific Regional Meeting.  The meeting will be hosted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Distance Learning Center.

The goal of this regional meeting is to discuss development issues pertaining to the East Asia and Pacific and South Asia regions which can be effectively tackled through GDLN programs and examining the possibilities of cooperating with each other in various capacity building programs for exchange of knowledge and best practices.

The GDLN Asia Pacific Governing Committee is very grateful to the TERI Distance Learning Center and to Mr. Vinod Bhargava for hosting what promises to be an exciting and productive GDLN Asia Pacific Regional Meeting.

Update:  For you convenience we have gathered all the presentation material on the Meeting Minutes Page.

*This briefing session is finished.
Please visit our Program news page for details.

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With the start of the 19th ASEAN Summit & Related Summits, the Secretary-General of ASEAN has committed to brief the public via videoconference and the worldwide web on the key highlights and outcomes of the Summits which will take place in Bali, Indonesia this week.

Dr Surin Pitsuwan’s engagement with the public will be made possible by the World Bank and the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) in the East Asia and Pacific region. On Monday 21 November, those who are interested in ASEAN affairs and have a good internet connection on their computer may point their browser to http://streaming.jointokyo.org before 10:00 AM Bali time (11:00AM Tokyo time) and join the discussion. Members of the press who are unable to join the Summits in Bali this week are also encouraged to participate in the video discussion.

Dr Surin has set aside three hours to brief the public on the discussions and decisions agreed by the Leaders at the Summits. Members of the public are also encouraged to ask Dr Surin questions, which can be sent to media@asean.org from 10:00 AM Bali time (11:00 AM Tokyo time), with the subject title: “My Question”. He will be conducting the web-stream video discussion from the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Centre, which is the official venue of the Summits this week.

The briefing will also include some ASEAN Member States and ASEAN Dialogue Partners, all of which will engage via video conference from their respective capitals. ASEAN Member States have invited representatives from regional and international organisations, diplomatic community, policy and law makers, civil society, academic, media, and the private sector to the sites in Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore, Bangkok and Ha Noi. Those from Dialogue Partner countries will participate from the sites in Canberra, Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul.

To read about the topics that were raised at the previous briefings, please see the press releases from last year’s pre-Summit briefing from the 17th ASEAN Summit & Related Summits, and this year’s post-AMM/PMC/ARF briefing on ASEAN website.

Field Visit, Technical Meetings, and High-level Workshop

The Great East Japan Earthquake has many implications for disaster management, along which there has been an increasing expectation in the world for global knowledge exchange and knowledge sharing (KE/KS) of these lessons. Following the March 11, 2011 disaster in Japan, the Government of Japan and the World Bank have been jointly developing a collaborative framework on disaster risk management. The objective of this collaboration is to capture the lessons learnt from the mega-disasters in Japan to be shared with the rest of the world. The three-day event organized during October 5-7, 2011, comprised of a field visit to the Tohoku region, technical meetings (technical discussions on thematic matters), and a launch high-level workshop.

The technical meeting and the workshop were conducted at TDLC, and TDLC will continue to function as primary platform to deliver KE/KS activities during this project.

You can visit The World Bank Tokyo Office website for further information of the technical meeting and the high-level workshop.

A new pilot learning program introducing the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) was jointly organized by Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC), World Bank (WB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The program was developed based on the partnership between the WB and JICA and particularly targeted JICA staff members to help them build their understanding of the fundamentals of country-based programming by sharing Bank’s experiences in CAS.

JICA has intended to strengthen its country-based approach for increased development impact and results. A Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) is a customized business plan of the World Bank Group (WBG) at the country level for reviewing and guiding the country-based programs for the next four years and, ultimately, judging the impact of its work. The CAS is built with four main building blocks: country’s development vision, diagnosis of its development challenges, development results to be influenced by the Bank, and an indicative program of Bank lending and non-lending activities.

This pilot learning program consisted of two distance lectures and on-line learning modules; these learning contents were provided by the Operations Policy and Country Services Unit of the Bank. In addition, the task team leader of the CAS Philippines also shared her own challenges and successes in working on CAS.  The program has received a high degree of positive feedback from participants who joined via videoconferencing from Tokyo, Colombo, Manila, and Washington DC.

TDLC’s Deputy Manager, Lucy King introduced TDLC’s activities at Hills Breakfast on July 28th.  She shared updated information on programs and other opportunities available from TDLC to 150 audiences.

TDLC’s presentation video is available at Hills Breakfast web page.

Hills Breakfast is a monthly event hosted by Roppongi Hills where people and organizations present and exchange innovative and interesting ideas and information. Please visit Hills Breakfast website for more information (Japanese only).