Fair Growth

Nancy Birdsall

Until recently, students of development have put much more energy into understanding the causes and consequences of absolute poverty than of inequality. But globalization—with its new opportunities for winners and losers, and its new insecurities and competitive pressures—is changing that. Nowhere is the issue of inequality more worrying than in Latin America, the setting for many of the world's most unequal societies. This book presents a dozen ideas or "tools" meant to make life in Latin America more equitable and fair for the great majority of its people. It suggests policies and programs for making tax structures more progressive; giving small businesses a chance; protecting labor mobility and workers' rights; tackling corruption head on; and raising the levels of quality, efficiency, and equity of the education systems. Change and reform in the direction of greater fairness will require not only political leadership and technical know-how on the part of government officials and legislators, but support and input from the progressive business community, the increasingly effective and vocal civil society, and students and intellectuals.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286167
• Publication Date: Jan 2008
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Exclusion, Gender and Education

Maureen A. Lewis

Girls have achieved remarkable increases in primary schooling over the past decade, yet millions are still not in school. In their previous book, Inexcusable Absence, Maureen A. Lewis and Marlaine E. Lockheed reported the startling new finding that nearly threequarters of the girls who are not in school belong to ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial, or other minorities. In this companion volume, they further analyze the determinants of school enrollment, completion, and learning in seven countries: the highly heterogeneous populations of Laos, China, Pakistan, India, and Guatemala and the homogeneous populations of Bangladesh and Tunisia. The authors find that in ethnically and linguistically diverse populations, minority groups—minority girls in particular— lag significantly behind the majority population in school attendance, while highly homogeneous populations like Bangladesh and Tunisia have successfully integrated girls into school on a par with boys. By increasing understanding about the major impediments to universal primary education, Exclusion, Gender and Education provides valuable new knowledge to those who are working to bring gender equity to the education systems of poor countries.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286228
• Publication Date: Oct 2007
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

The White House and the World

Nancy Birdsall

The last few years have seen a steep decline in the perceived legitimacy of U.S. policies and values in the world. How will the next American president regain the country's power and influence so that it is capable of tackling the global challenges of the 21st century? T he White House and the World explores areas where changes in U.S. policies can conceivably improve the lives of the poor in developing countries, thereby not only protecting our own national security but also restoring America's credibility in the world. In selected essays, Center for Global Development fellows explore a range of topics such as trade policy, migration, foreign aid, and climate change and offer practical recommendations for effective change to the next president. Authors and topics include Michael Clemens on migration, Dennis de Tray on corruption, Kimberly Elliott on trade, Ruth Levine on health, Theodore Moran on private investment, Mead Over on HIV/AIDS, Stewart Patrick on fragile states, Steve Radelet on foreign assistance, Vijaya Ramachandran on development in Africa, and David Wheeler on climate change.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286242
• Publication Date: Aug 2008
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Africa's Private Sector

Vijaya Ramachandran

Why is business performance lagging in Africa? To provide answers, this volume focuses on the day-to-day problems that private sector managers and entrepreneurs there encounter. Through enterprise surveys conducted in several African countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, these businesspeople identify poor infrastructure—particularly the lack of a reliable source of power—as a huge constraint on private sector activity.Politics also plays a key role in limiting the success of African businesses. Many countries there have private sectors that are ethnically segmented or dominated by ethnic minorities or both. Segmented networks in already sparse economic environments limit competition, encourage an ambivalent attitude toward facilitating a good business environment, and constrain the growth of firms outside the dominant network. Consequently, Africa has yet to see the emergence of a broad-based business class. Africa's Private Sector identifies several solutions to address both the infrastructure and political economy constraints hampering business growth in Africa.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286280
• Publication Date: Jan 2009
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Performance Incentives for Global Health

Rena Eichler

This volume demonstrates how incentives can improve the delivery and use of health services in low- and middle-income countries. The authors describe the rationale for introducing incentives tied to achievement of specific health-related targets, and they provide clear guidance about designing, implementing, and evaluating programs that provide incentives to health care providers and patients. A set of case studies focuses on recent uses of incentives addressing a range of health conditions in diverse countries. In particular, these studies emphasize how explicit incentives can be used to strengthen weak health systems.The book will be of use to policymakers and program managers in both developing countries and the donor community interested in improving health outcomes through the strategic use of performance-based incentives.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286297
• Publication Date: Apr 2009
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Beyond Lending

Guillermo Perry

When he began this book in early 2008, Guillermo Perry argued that developing countries remained highly vulnerable to external risks such as commodity price declines, capital flow reversals, and natural disasters. The economic crisis that has since ensued confirmed Perry's analysis. It has also made his proposal more important than ever: multilateral development banks (MDBs) should move beyond lending to provide innovative risk-management tools for developing countries to manage volatility. The risk that MDBs will fall into complacency as the short-term demand for traditional loans increases during the crisis should not deter innovations to ensure long-term stability.Contents1. Causes and Consequences of High Volatility in Developing Countries2. The Role of Financial Insurance and Hedging3. Dealing with Liquidity Shocks and the Procyclicality of Private Capital Flows4. Dealing with Currency Risks5. Dealing with Commodity Price, Terms of Trade, and Output Risks6. Dealing with Natural Disaster Risks7. Why Multilateral Development Bank Practices Are So Far from Their Potential8. An Agenda Going Forward

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286327
• Publication Date: May 2009
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Due Diligence

David Roodman

The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is?Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286488
• Publication Date: Dec 2011
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Emerging Africa

Steven Radelet

Emerging Africa describes the too-often-overlooked positive changes that have taken place in much of Africa since the mid-1990s. In 17 countries, five fundamental and sustained breakthroughs are making old assumptions increasingly untenable:• The rise of democracy brought on by the end of the Cold War and apartheid• Stronger economic management• The end of the debt crisis and a more constructive relationship with the international community• The introduction of new technologies, especially mobile phones and the Internet• The emergence of a new generation of leaders.With these significant changes, the countries of emerging Africa seem poised to lead the continent out of the conflict, stagnation, and dictatorships of the past. The countries discussed in the book are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286518
• Publication Date: Sep 2010
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Cash on Delivery

Nancy Birdsall

Foreign aid has no shortage of critics. Some argue that it undermines development and inherently does more harm than good; others insist that aid must be seriously reformed to work properly. Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid proposes serious reform to make aid work well by forcing accountability, aligning the objectives of funders and recipients, and sharing information about what works.Public and private aid can improve lives in poor countries, but the willingness of taxpayers and private funders to finance aid programs depends more than ever on showing results. COD Aid is a funding mechanism that hinges on results. At its core is a contract between funders and recipients that stipulates a fixed payment for each unit of confirmed progress toward an agreed-upon goal. Once the contract is struck, the funder takes a hands-off approach, allowing the recipient the freedom and responsibility to achieve the goal on its own. Payment is made only after progress toward the goal is independently verified by a third party. At all steps, a COD Aid program is remarkably transparent: the contract, the amount of progress made, and the payment are disseminated publicly to highlight the credibility of the arrangement and improve accountability to the public. COD Aid is a new approach to foreign aid, but one that complements other aid programs and would ultimately encourage funders and recipients to use existing resources more efficiently.Cash On Delivery Aid: A New Approach to Foreign Aid explains the approach in detail and investigates its application in one sector: education. More specifically, the authors show how foreign aid agencies could use COD Aid to help developing countries achieve universal primary school education. The example illustrates how to deal with potential challenges of the approach—challenges that are no greater than those of traditional aid—and includes model term sheets for contracts that could be used for any COD Aid agreement.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286600
• Publication Date: Apr 2011
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Oil to Cash

Todd Moss

What should a country do if it suddenly discovers oil and gas? How should it spend the subsequent cash windfall? How can it protect against corruption? How can citizens truly benefit from national wealth? With many of the world's poorest and most fragile states suddenly joining the ranks of oil and gas producers, these are pressing policy questions. Oil to Cash explores one option that may help avoid the so-called resource curse: just give the money directly to citizens. A universal, transparent, and regular cash transfer would not only provide a concrete benefit to regular people, but would also create powerful incentives for citizens to hold their government accountable. Oil to Cash details how and where this idea could work and how policymakers can learn from the experiences with cash transfers in places like Mexico, Mongolia, and Alaska.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286693
• Publication Date: Jun 2015
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Migration and Development

Wonderful Hope Khonje

This book contextualises migration and development to the peculiar vulnerabilities of small states. It includes case studies from small states in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific that will help policy-makers to embrace migration as an inevitable phenomenon and devise policies that will maximise the benefits from migration at a minimal cost.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291330
• Publication Date: Feb 2015
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Assessment of Debt Restructuring Operations in Commonwealth Small States

Michele Robinson

This paper highlights the concerns of Commonwealth small states about unsustainable debt burdens and the emerging challenges to their overall debt sustainability. It offers key lessons learned from Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Seychelles.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291354
• Publication Date: May 2015
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Small States in the Multilateral Trading System

Teddy Y. Soobramanien

This study provides a fresh perspective on how measures can be taken to enhance the participation of small states and least developed countries (LDCs) in the multilateral trading system. It contributes to the ongoing general debate about reforming the World Trade Organization and global trade governance.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291392
• Publication Date: Nov 2015
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Small States

This annual collection of key economic and statistical data is essential reading for economists, planners and policy-makers working on issues of concern to small states. This volume covers overseas development assistance and Post-2015 financing for development in small states; and contains 17 tables covering development indicators.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291439
• Publication Date: Nov 2015
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Achieving a Resilient Future for Small States

Denny Lewis-Bynoe

Written by influential researchers and drawing on a wide cross-section of regional stakeholders and thought leaders, the study contains an assessment of the main challenges and opportunities for the Caribbean, scenario modelling of where it could be by 2050, and a vision for the region with sector specific goals of how to get there.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291460
• Publication Date: Apr 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Achieving the Istanbul Programme of Action by 2020

Achieving the Istanbul Programme of Action by 2020 focuses on four specific themes: structural transformation and export diversification in the LDCs; prospects of graduation of countries from the LDC group; implications of the 2030 Agenda in view of LDC concerns; and new challenges facing LDCs in their pursuit for achieving SDGs.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291484
• Publication Date: Aug 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Capture Fisheries

This third volume in the Commonwealth Blue Economy Series, Capture Fisheries, describes challenges in managing capture fisheries, and strategies and activities that could be undertaken by SIDS to make improvements. Includes case studies illustrating positive actions that have been taken by SIDS and their outcomes.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291545
• Publication Date: Sep 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Marine Renewable Energy

This fourth volume in the Commonwealth Blue Economy Series, Marine Renewable Energy, explores the potential for the development of the blue economy by providing a high-level review of actions needed to progress marine renewable energy generation in SIDS.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291552
• Publication Date: Sep 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Small States

This unique annual collection of key economic and statistical data on small states is an essential reference for economists, planners and policy-makers. This volume contains 17 tables covering development indicators and an article focusing on climate change impacts, adaptation and policies for agriculture in African small states.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291583
• Publication Date: Oct 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Key Issues in Natural Resource Taxation and Revenue Management in the Commonwealth

Daniel Wilde

This Economic Paper analyses key issues in natural resource taxation and revenue management and recommends policies that can improve countries' economic performance. The discussion draws on economic theory, empirical evidence and the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291606
• Publication Date: Oct 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days