23) World Bank Report

The World Bank recently held a two-day competition as part of its Development Marketplace event.
The event was held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Competitors presented ideas for new businesses designed to reduce poor conditions in developing countries.
The World Bank received more than 2,000 proposals.
The bank chose three hundred projects to be presented at the Development Marketplace later this month.
World Bank President James Wolfensohn said the competition is about the future of development.
He said it also is about making things happen now.
Mister Wolfensohn said people must act now to prevent an increase in poverty
along with the world's increasing population.
More than 700 international organizations from more than sixty countries took part in the competition.
They included governments, development banks, private groups and educational organizations.
Experts judged theproposals on their effect on poverty,their creativity,
and their costs compared to possible profits.
Judges also looked for businesses that could be owned by communities
that would most gain from the product or service.
Forty-four projects won prizes at the Development Marketplace competition.
They won between 27,000 dollars and 380,000 dollars.
The World Bank gave a total of 5,000,000 dollars in prizes.
One of the winners was a plan to end the cutting of female sexual organs in African countries.
This traditional operation often leads to serious health problems.
However, the people who perform these operations are considered very important and have much influence in their communities.
The proposal called for giving these people business training.
This way they could establish other small businesses instead of performing female circumcisions.
Another winning project was a low-cost way for people to purify water.
A project to put libraries on the Internet also won an award.
And a project to help communities learn to protect their environment also won an award