Private sector development and the creation of small businesses spur investment, jobs, opportunity, and hope. It empowers the market to meet local needs, whether for food, basic goods, or services.

One of the challenges for sub-Saharan Africa is that markets are of modest size. This makes regional integration important.

In London, Washington, and Paris, people talk of bonuses or no bonuses. In parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, the struggle is for food or no food.

Private sector development and the creation of small businesses spur investment, jobs, opportunity, and hope. It empowers the market to meet local needs, whether for food, basic goods, or services.

There are many roads to prosperity, but one must be taken. Inaction leads nowhere.

It is vital that the World Bank Group continually challenges itself to refresh our development thinking. It is vital that a modernized multilateralism be open to new ideas.

The world is only one poor harvest away from chaos. We are so close to the edge that politically destabilising food prices could come at any time