In the face of ongoing global financial turmoil, governments that wish to sustain PPP programs are having to innovate and fill financing gaps because of the declining appetite of banks for long-term lending. Clive Harris manager of Public Private Partnerships will look at approaches governments around the world are using in his presentation.

Urban flooding is a serious and growing challenge, particularly for the residents of the rapidly expanding towns and cities in developing countries. Against the backdrop of demographic growth, urbanization trends and climate changes, the causes of floods are shifting and their impacts are accelerating as Abhas Jha, Lead Urban Specialist at the World Bank Institute discusses in his presentation.

What do cities need to become globally competitive? What can city leaders do to generate sustainable economic growth these are some of the issues covered. As Professor Stanley Nollen from Georgetown University discusses in his presentation.

The analysis of the economic growth of cities is no different from that of countries: High performing cities, which can serve as engines of growth are those that excel at mobilizing resources from domestic and external sources and channeling them into productive tradable activities with the greatest longer term potential as Shahid Yusuf an economic adviser for the World Bank Institute discusses in his presentation.

Social entrepreneurs and the social enterprise sector are now ready to share center stage with the public sector and the private sector in producing growth with equity. Arvind Gupta, Lead Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank Institute explains in his presentation.

In a world where countries are increasingly engaged in experience exchange and mutual learning, the role of multilateral organizations is changing from providers of knowledge to connectors of know ledge. Han Fraeters, former Manager of the Knowledge Exchange Practice at the World Bank Institute explains in his presentation.

Big financial institutions, conglomerates and large-size entities such a big government, big labor unions and the like are usually powerful and pose a systematic risk to the economics of the smaller players in development. Raj Nallari, a manager in Growth and Competitiveness practice at the World Bank Institute discusses the policy options of dealing with large entities in his presentation.

The rapid rise of China and India is reshaping our global economic and environmental systems raising mayor issues of stability, governess, and sustainability. This podcast will discuss framework that shows the interdependence between economics size, trade, finance, technology, environment, security, and global governess. Carl Dahlman, who is professor at International relations and information technology at Georgetown University, discusses the subject in his presentation.