World Bank

The World Bank is an international development finance institution owned by 189 member countries and headquartered in Washington, DC. Its research division produces datasets that shape global policy on poverty, labour markets, and humanitarian response. It works alongside the IMF as part of the Bretton Woods system established in 1944.

The Bank's most-cited 2026 output is a joint study with the ILO covering 135 countries, finding that women face double the AI displacement risk of men: 9.6 per cent of female employment in high-income nations falls into the highest AI-exposure category, against 3.5 per cent for men. That finding has anchored the policy debate across OECD governments weighing retraining obligations. Separately, the Bank is the primary source for displacement and infrastructure-damage estimates from the Iran conflict, documenting that one in five Lebanese are now displaced.

On pandemic finance, the Bank hosts the Pandemic Fund, which activated $220.6 million in emergency grant financing for the Bundibugyo Ebola response in June 2026. A significant structural shift followed in the same week when the Pandemic Fund Governing Board accredited Africa CDC as a direct implementing entity, ending the Bank's and WHO's joint intermediary role for African disbursements. The Bank's dual role as data authority on AI displacement and as host of pandemic emergency finance places it at the intersection of the three largest humanitarian and economic disruptions of 2026.