Joining Brazil’s bid to overcome extreme poverty, the Bank announced that its new partnership strategy with the county will include investments of approximately $6 billion to support development programs and continued economic growth, especially in Brazil's less-developed Northeastern region. The commitment, made public during a visit by World Bank Group president Robert B. Zoellick, will help support President Dilma Rousseff's recently launched 'Brasil sem Miséria' plan (Brazil without extreme poverty) to boost poor families' income and improve their access to basic services and economic opportunities.

In the same vein, the Bank approved, in April 2011, a $400 million project to expand access to health care services for Argentina’s uninsured. The Provincial Public Health Insurance Development Project aims to provide coverage to all children and youth younger than 20 years of age and women aged 20-64 who currently lack health insurance.

Other projects include: an innovative loan of $1 billion to the City of Rio de Janeiro, which will help improve fiscal management, health and education services for the poor; a $200 million loan to bolster Brazil's flagship conditional cash transfer program, “Bolsa Família” and a $1 billion project to expand access to water and sanitation services in Argentina’s northern provinces.

A pioneering initiative to promote the well being of small children in Latin America provided health care, adequate nutrition and early education to more than half a million kids during its first year in operation. The Early Childhood Initiative: an Investment for Life, a joint venture of the World Bank and Shakira’s advocacy group ALAS launched in February 2010, aims to mobilize all sectors of society towards the implementation of comprehensive, well-articulated, and efficient Early Childhood Development policies and programs to equalize opportunities for low income children.

As part of its emergency response to the mudslides that left thousands homeless in Rio de Janeiro in January 2011, the Bank approved a $485 million housing project that will benefit two million people living in informal low-income settlements or ‘favelas’. It will also help local government manage disaster risks and improve planning and territorial growth management. A new $ 107 million federal loan will support Brazil’s efforts to tackle risks linked to increasing extreme weather events.

Support for Haiti’s earthquake reconstruction continued to be an important part of the Bank’s response to natural disasters in the region. To date, $479 million in grants and other financing has been provided to Haiti, including $49.6 million in support to the private sector by the IFC, the World Bank’s private arm. Among other initiatives, the Bank supported safety inspections of 400,000 homes; provided grant financing for repair and reconstruction, and helped get thousands of children back to school.

International aid contributions, debt forgiveness and increased remittances helped the Haitian economy do better than expected. The country’s economic contraction in 2010 was less severe than forecast, with GDP declining by 5.5 percent rather than the 8.5 percent that had been anticipated. Haiti’s central bank has been able to build up international reserves and stabilize its currency.

 In December 2010 a final agreement was reached on a $49.3 billion funding package for IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries. Donors and partners also endorsed special crisis funding from within IDA to help low income countries deal with the impact of natural disasters and severe economic shocks. This new Crisis Response Window will include a special allocation of $500 million for Haiti as it continues to recover from the 2010 earthquake.

As food prices continue to spike around the world, Latin America & the Caribbean has the potential to help solve the food crisis given the region’s huge natural resources and agricultural expertise, according to a newly released World Bank report. International food prices have jumped by more than 43 percent since June 2010, igniting concerns about a repeat of the 2008 food crisis.

The report, titled 'High Food Prices: Latin American and Caribbean Responses to a New Normal' The report, titled notes that the region is already one of the world’s granaries. It accounts for almost one third of world corn exports, 52 percent of soybeans exports, 44 percent of beef exports, and 42 percent of poultry. In 2006-2009, LAC's share of world agricultural exports reached 14 percent, up from 11 percent in 1995-1999.

The region’s cutting edge farming expertise has already turned some countries into leaders in a "food revolution" of sorts, the report argues. For example, in just three decades Brazil turned a largely unproductive region, the ‘Cerrado’, into one of the globe's largest food reserves. This unique position has allowed Brazil to launch a South-South partnership with Africa to help countries there improve their agricultural productivity.

Central America's spiraling wave of crime and violence threatens the region's prosperity as countries face huge economic and human losses resulting from it. Aside from the pain and trauma inflicted upon victims, violence can cost the region up to eight percent of its GDP when taking into account law enforcement, citizen security and health care costs, notes the report, ‘Crime and Violence in Central America, a Development Challenge’. The problem is so severe that in several Central American countries the violent death tally - 14,257 homicides per year - surpasses the number of victims from the civil wars of the 1980s. The report presents a set of policy options for confronting the challenges of crime and violence which , it argues, are caused by increased drug trafficking, gang activity and easy access to firearms, among other causes.

The Bank has provided more than $5 billion in support for 175 ‘green’ programs in the region. In July 2010 it expanded its strategic partnership with Mexico deepening its support of the country’s already extensive ‘green’ programs. Analytical work on low-carbon growth in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay has focused on the impacts of climate change on water resources and agricultural productivity.

Latin America and the Caribbean account for just 6 percent of global greenhouse emissions. As a result of the dominance of hydroelectricity over coal-fired plants, the region’s power sector generates 40 percent less carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy than the world as a whole. Despite its own relatively low emissions, the region is a leader in efforts to develop a comprehensive approach for mitigating and adapting to climate change.