The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 56 independent and equal countries. It is home to 2.5 billion people, and includes both advanced economies and developing countries. 33 of our members are small states, including many island nations. Our member governments have agreed to shared goals like development, democracy and peace. Our values and principles are expressed in the Commonwealth Charter.
The Commonwealth Secretariat is the intergovernmental organisation that supports member countries to achieve the Commonwealth’s aims of development, democracy and peace. It publishes authoritative, evidence-based research and knowledge products for policymakers, academics, professionals and wider publics across the world. Our areas of focus and expertise include small and developing states; environment and climate change; democracy, law and government; and social issues concerning young people, gender, health and education.
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 infrastructureparticularly the lack of a reliable source of poweras 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
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
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 approachchallenges that are no greater than those of traditional aidand 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
Greenprint
Arvind Subramanian
Beleaguered by mutual recrimination between rich and poor countries, squeezed by the zero-sum arithmetic of a shrinking global carbon budget, and overtaken by shifts in economic and hence bargaining power between these countries, international cooperation on climate change has floundered. Given these three factorswhich Arvind Subramanian and Aaditya Mattoo call the "narrative," "adding up," and "new world" problemsthe wonder is not the current impasse; it is, rather, the belief that progress might be possible at all.In this book, the authors argue that any chance of progress must address each of these problems in a radically different way. First, the old narrative of recrimination must cede to a narrative based on recognition of common interests. Second, leaders must shift the focus away from emissions cuts to technology generation. Third, the old "cash-for-cuts" approach must be abandoned for one that requires contributions from all countries calibrated in magnitude and form to their current level of development and future prospects.
- Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 9781933286679
- Publication Date: Feb 2013
- Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 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
The Thief
Ulrik Langen
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9788712075400
- Publication Date: Aug 2024
- Availability: Not Yet Available - Pre-Order Now
Millions Saved
Amanda Glassman
- Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 9781933286884
- Publication Date: May 2016
- Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days
Aquinas on One and Many
David Svoboda
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9783868385632
- Publication Date: Apr 2016
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Illusions of Sceptics
Jirí Fuchs
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9783868385687
- Publication Date: Oct 2016
- Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days
Statistical Mechanics
S.L. Kakani
- Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 9789386385307
- Publication Date: Feb 2017
- Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days
Dance in the Mirror
Erik Aschengreen
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9788712047773
- Publication Date: May 2012
- Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days
When Architecture Tells the Story of the Virgin Islands of the United States
Ulla Lunn
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9788712057505
- Publication Date: Nov 2018
- Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days
Frederik V
Jens Gunni Busck
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9788772170404
- Publication Date: Jun 2019
- Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days
Christian VII
Jens Gunni Busck
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9788772170442
- Publication Date: Jun 2019
- Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days
Frederik VI
Jens Gunni Busck
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9788772170480
- Publication Date: Jun 2019
- Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days