05/19/2026
๐ฌ PARTNERING ON LEGAL & REGULATORY REFORMS TO DRIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOBS
Investors don't walk away from opportunity. They walk away from uncertainty. In many developing economies, unclear regulations, unpredictable enforcement, and legal risk can stop investment before it starts โ and when investment stalls, so do jobs. Jobs are the surest path out of poverty, which is why job creation is the centerpiece of the World Bank Groupโs development strategy.
The challenge is more urgent than ever: In the coming decade, 1.2 billion young people will reach working age in developing countriesโbut fewer than half that number of jobs are projected to be created. Closing that gap requires private sector investment to support the private firms and entrepreneurs that create nearly 90 percent of all jobs. Above all else, it requires investor confidence.
Investors look for four things: market opportunity, rules they can understand, institutions they can trust, and risks they can manage. When those conditions are missing โ or simply in doubt โ capital goes elsewhere and so do jobs. Shaping a business environment that promotes investment is therefore an indispensable pillar of job creation. At the center of this is the legal system โ the rules, institutions, and processes that enact, implement, and apply laws and regulations fairly, efficiently, predictably, transparently, ethically and with accountability. When these work well, investment follows. When they don't, even strong market opportunities go untapped. It is critical, then, for emerging economies to create legal and regulatory environments that boost investor confidence with clear rules and predictable outcomes, managed by government institutions โ administrative, regulatory, and judicial โ with competence and integrity.
As we advance our Jobs agenda, the World Bank Group (WBG) collaborates with a wide range of key partners to help shape better policy dialogue, strategies, plans, and outcomes. No partners are more important to this work than Ministers of Justice, Attorneys General, and other senior legal leadership in our member countries.
As the chief legal officers in their governments, Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General (MOJs/AGs) lead their countriesโ legal and regulatory regimes and many of the systems and processes of their application and enforcement. They advise their governments on policies and regulations generally, and on projects specifically. They are responsible for drafting national laws and implementing regulatory frameworks. Their responsibilities and decisions affect everything from business registrations and licensing to contract enforcement and dispute resolution โ and ultimately the administration of justice that underpins public and investor trust. Equally importantly, they bring the accumulated institutional knowledge and leadership needed to put policy and reform commitments into practice.
Building on the successful gathering of MOJs/AGs at our Law, Justice and Development Week 2025, the WBGโs Legal Department is proud to launch the Attorneys General Public/Private Partnerships Accelerating Collaboration & Transformation (PACT) Forum. This new series of regional engagements will convene MOJs/AGs to discuss and identify specific collaborative engagements aimed at creating business-enabling environments in countries and the sectors identified by their countries as development priorities. The PACT initiative is well-aligned with the WBGโs three-pillar jobs strategy:
โค Investing in the foundational physical and human infrastructure that is so critical to job creation โ from roads, ports, electricity, and digital access to healthcare, nutrition, education, and skilling.
โค Supporting policy and regulatory reforms that establish an enabling environment โ including a favorable legal ecosystem that underpins investor confidence and encourages business creation, investment, and expansion.
โค Mobilizing private investment at scale by providing capital, equity, guarantees, and political risk insurance.
Anchored on these pillars, the WBG is drawing on expertise and input from a wide range of partners. We engage our member countries in policy dialogue to inform their development priorities to achieve their objectives โ our country-led approach to development. We then support those priorities with knowledge, data analytics, financing, and investment, advice, and capacity-building.
Legal reform rarely makes headlines. But its effects do: in businesses that open, in contracts that get honored, in investors who invest, and in jobs that are created. None of this happens without the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General who set the rules, drive their application, and drive reform and results from the inside. Their partnership โ and their ownership of this agenda โ is indispensable to our shared mission, and will largely determine the success of our goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity on a livable planet.
โ๏ธ ๐๐บ ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด, ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ค๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฑ
