The Commonwealth

The Rebirth of Education

Lant Pritchett

Despite great progress around the world in getting more kids into schools, too many leave without even the most basic skills. In India's rural Andhra Pradesh, for instance, only about one in twenty children in fifth grade can perform basic arithmetic.The problem is that schooling is not the same as learning. In The Rebirth of Education, Lant Pritchett uses two metaphors from nature to explain why. The first draws on Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom's book about the difference between centralized and decentralized organizations, The Starfish and the Spider. Schools systems tend be centralized and suffer from the limitations inherent in top-down designs. The second metaphor is the concept of isomorphic mimicry. Pritchett argues that many developing countries superficially imitate systems that were successful in other nations— much as a nonpoisonous snake mimics the look of a poisonous one.Pritchett argues that the solution is to allow functional systems to evolve locally out of an environment pressured for success. Such an ecosystem needs to be open to variety and experimentation, locally operated, and flexibly financed. The only main cost is ceding control; the reward would be the rebirth of education suited for today's world.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286778
• Publication Date: Oct 2013
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Rescuing the World Bank

Nancy Birdsall

The World Bank is assailed by critics on the left, right and center on the grounds it is not effective, not accountable, not democratic or legitimate, and most threatening of all, not relevant in a global economy where private capital, production, and ideas dominate. Yet the world needs a strong World Bank working with other international institutions to manage development and the related global challenges of the 21st century. Are the Bank's shortcomings exaggerated or potentially fatal? If potentially fatal, can this critical institution be rescued? Rescuing the World Bank explores the answers to these questions. The first part of the book, The Hardest Job in the World: Five Crucial Tasks for the New President of the World Bank, is a report by a Center for Global Development (CGD) Working Group delivered to Paul Wolfowitz on his first day in the office in June 2005. The second part comprises selected essays, many first presented at a CGD Symposium in the fall of 2005. The Working Group members and essay authors represent a rich array of experience and views. CGD president Nancy Birdsall was co-chair of the Working Group and selected and edited the essays. Her view that the Bank is a crucial global institution but potentially at risk is widely—but not universally—shared by the Working Group members and the essay authors. The provocative volume will be widely read and discussed by those who are actively grappling with how to strengthen the World Bank, by its many stakeholders, and by readers with a broad interest in development seeking a better understanding of this vital and complex institution as it struggles to adapt to the demands of the 21st century.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286112
• Publication Date: Aug 2006
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

A Risky Business

Center for Global Development Global Health Forecasting Working Group

Access to medicines is an issue of life or death for millions of people in poor countries. While great strides have been made in the last decade to improve health in poor countries the global supply chain that connects the dots does not work well. This report of the Global Health Forecasting Working Group, which was convened in early 2006 by senior fellow and director of programmes Ruth Levine, provides an elegant analysis of the problem and a sensible agenda for action.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286181
• Publication Date: Sep 2014
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

George Bush's Foreign Aid

Carol Lancaster

Over the past seven years, the Bush administration has launched a revolution in U.S. foreign aid. At no time since the administration of President Kennedy have there been more changes in the volume of aid, in aid's purposes and policies, in its organization, and in its overall status in U.S. foreign relations. George Bush's Foreign Aid: Transformation or Chaos? analyzes in detail the array of recent reforms of U.S. economic assistance and the difficult issues these reforms raise, while placing the changes and the manner of their implementation in a historical and political context. Lancaster draws out the challenges and opportunities this transformation of U.S. aid offer for the next administration to engage the emerging world of the 21st century.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286273
• Publication Date: Apr 2008
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Growing Pains in Latin America

Liliana Rojas-Suarez

This book tackles the complex issue of how to accelerate economic growth and ensure sustainability in Latin America. It first lays out the framework designed by experts in the economics and politics of growth in the region. Although simple and intuitive, the framework addresses the many ingredients that shape economic growth there, including macroeconomics, the quality of political institutions, productivity, income inequality, democracy, and resistance to reform.A second group of experts then apply the framework to five countries: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. They provide specific policy recommendations on how to proceed with the reform process while taking into account the local conditions (economic, social, and political) that characterize the individual countries.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286310
• Publication Date: Jun 2009
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

A Guide to Lories & Lorikeets

Peter Odekerken

• Imprint: ABK Publications
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780957702448
• Publication Date: Apr 2002
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

A Guide to Incubation & Handraising Parrots

Phil Digney

• Imprint: ABK Publications
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780958710213
• Publication Date: May 1998
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

A Guide to Australian Grassfinches

Russell Kingston

• Imprint: ABK Publications
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780958710220
• Publication Date: Sep 1997
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

A Guide to Neophemas & Psephotus Grass Parrots

Toby Martin

• Imprint: ABK Publications
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780958710244
• Publication Date: Jun 1997
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

A Guide to Black Cockatoos as Pet & Aviary Birds

Neville Connors

• Imprint: ABK Publications
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780975081730
• Publication Date: Aug 2006
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

A Guide to Grey Parrots as Pet & Aviary Birds

Rosemary Low

• Imprint: ABK Publications
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780975081761
• Publication Date: Jul 2006
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

A Guide to Cockatiels and their Mutations as Pet & Aviary Birds

Terry Martin

• Imprint: ABK Publications
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780975081778
• Publication Date: Jan 2007
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Partners in Prosperity

Daniel S. Hamilton

One of the most dangerous deficits facing transatlantic relations today is not in trade, payments, or military capabilities. It is a deficit in understanding the vital stake Americans and Europeans have developed in the health of their economic relationship. Globalization is happening faster and reaching deeper between Europe and America than between any other two continents. The transatlantic economy generates roughly $3.5 trillion in total commercial sales a year and employs over 12 million workers in mutually "insourced" jobs. This book maps the increasingly dense web of investment, trade, and jobs that connects Europe's regions to America's states. It traces the impact of NAFTA and EU enlargement on transatlantic economic flows. It tracks intercontinental "connectivity" in the new knowledge economy, and it sets forth areas in which Europe and America continue to be global pathfinders. In the context of today's debates about globalization and transatlantic drift, this book offers some unanticipated and counterintuitive connections that have important policy implications.

• Imprint: Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780975332559
• Publication Date: Jun 2004
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Deep Integration

Daniel S. Hamilton

A Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS and Center for European Policy Studies publicationOne of the defining features of the global economic landscape over the past decade has been the increasing integration and cohesion of the transatlantic economy. Globalization is happening faster and reaching deeper between Europe and America than between any other two continents.Transatlantic markets are the cutting edge of globalization. Key sectors of the transatlantic economy are integrating as never before. Europeans and Americans have become so intertwined that they are literally in each other¡¯s business. These linkages underpin a $3 trillion economy that provides up to 14 million ¡®insourced jobs¡¯ on both sides of the Atlantic. Deep integration, however, can also generate frictions when different systems rub up against each other. Neither the framework for our relationship nor the ways our governments are currently organized adequately capture these new realities.Case studies illustrate the phenomenon of deep transatlantic integration and its implications for a truly free Transatlantic Market in such sectors as aerospace and civil aviation, biopharmaceuticals, services, financial markets and telecommunications, and in such controversial policy areas as climate change and emissions trading, corporate governance and chemicals regulation.Contributors include: Richard Aboulafia (Teal Group), Matthew Dixon(Tyler and Company), Christian Egenhofer (Centre for European Policy Studies), Frederick Erixon (Timbro), Daniel Gros (SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University), Arman Khachaturyan (Armenia Telephone Company and CEPS), Karel Lannoo (CEPS), Boaz Moselle (Brattle Group), Thomas Mayer (Deutsche Bank), Joseph A. McCahery (University of Amsterdam), Jacques Pelkmans (College of Europe, Bruges, and Scientific Council for Government Policy, The Hague), James Reitzes (Brattle Group), Andrea Rendo (CEPS), Garel Rhys (Centre for Automotive Industry Research), Dorothy Robyn (Brattle Group), Francoise Simon(Columbia University and

• Imprint: Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780976643418
• Publication Date: Jun 2005
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Transforming Homeland Security

Esther Brimmer

In this book U.S. and European experts explore possible roles for armed services, intelligence services, and the private sector in homeland security in different countries. The contributors examine lessons learned from transformation programs for homeland security, analyze evolving conceptions of security, and suggest a joint road map for immediate and long-term policy action at national, European, and transatlantic levels. Contributors include Sandra Bell (Homeland Security and Resilience Department, RUSI), Heiko Borchert (Dr. Heiko Borchert and Co. and Dusseldorf Institute for Foreign and Security Policy, DIAS),Yves Boyer (Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique), Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen (Danish Institute for International Studies), Gerd Foehrenbach (Bundeswehr Center for Transformation), BG Gustav Gustenau (Austrian Ministry of Defense), Daniel Hamilton (Center for Transatlantic Relations), Lawrence J. Korb (Center for American Progress), Gustav Lindstrom (European Union Institute for Security Studies), Pauline Neville-Jones (QinetiQ Group plc and the UK's Information Assurance Advisory Council), and Alexander Schuller (Free University-Berlin).

• Imprint: Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780976643449
• Publication Date: Feb 2006
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

The Transatlantic Economy 2005

Daniel S. Hamilton

One of the defining features of the global economic landscape over the past decade has been the increasing integration and cohesion of the transatlantic economy. Over the past few years the Center for Transatlantic Relations has offered a series of studies examining the changing nature of the transatlantic economy in a globalizing world. The Transatlantic Economy 2005 annual report offers the most up-to-date set of facts and figures describing the deep economic integration binding European nations to America's fifty states.

• Imprint: Center for Transatlantic Relations SAIS
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780976643470
• Publication Date: Feb 2006
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days