Too global to fail Evans, J. Warren; Davies, Robin; World Bank
The World Bank eBooks,
2014., 2015, 2014, 12-15-2014
eBook, Book
Open access
This report is about global public goods (GPGs), particularly those related to the environment, in the context of the global development process. This concerns the long-term sustainability of ...development, as the distinction between developing and developed countries is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This report contends that global sustainability depends (indeed, consists of) the provision of certain GPGs, and that the prevailing approach to development assistance does not sufficiently recognize this fact. A key question is whether the country-ownership model is even compatible with global sustainability. A second key question is whether the political will exists to make the provision of GPGs an explicit and central objective of official development assistance, especially in the face of objections from those who believe aid should be solely concerned with the eradication of poverty through national or community-level interventions. A third key question concerns the mobilization and use of resources for the World Bank's work to support the provision of GPGs. The Bank is a major player on many regional and global issues, but its work at these levels is usually enabled by donor contributions, most often in the form of grants, targeted for a particular purpose. International development assistance needs to undergo a major transition, such that it takes as an explicit and principal objective the provision of GPGs important for development. The World Bank can play a leadership role in this transition, working within new kinds of coalitions but not abandoning the fundamentals of its operating model. Some of the most important GPGs are provided through the separate and cumulative actions of multiple countries, so the challenge for the Bank is to find ways of investing strategically and sharing knowledge across countries, while keeping faith with their national development strategies, so as to achieve maximum global impacts. The World Bank can also play a unique role in stimulating the private provision of GPGs through risk-sharing and market creation.
Rural tourism development George, E. Wanda; Mair, Heather; Reid, Donald G
2009., 2009, 2009-03-18, Volume:
17
eBook
This book of cases about rural tourism development in Canada demonstrates the different ways that tourism has been positioned as a local response to political and economic shifts in a nation that is ...itself undergoing rapid change, both continentally and globally.
This book argues that renewable electrification in developing countries provides important opportunities for local economic development, but new pathways are required for turning these opportunities ...into successful reality. Building Innovation Capabilities for Sustainable Industrialisation offers a novel input into the debate on development of capabilities for sustainable industrialisation and delivers key insights for both researchers and policy makers when it comes to the question of how to increase the economic co-benefits of renewables expansion. The chapters in the book use a tailored analytical framework in their studies of renewable electrification efforts in Kenya and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. They draw on a mix of project, sector and country level case studies to address questions such as: What capabilities are developed through on-going renewable electrification projects in developing economies? How can the expansion of renewable electrification be supported in a way that also encourages sustainable economic development? What role do international linkages (South-South and North-South) play and what role should they play in the greening of energy systems in developing economies? The authors provide a new understanding of how green transformation and sustainable industrialisation can be combined, highlighting the opportunities and constraints for local capability building and the scope for local policy action. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of development studies, energy studies, sustainability and sustainable development, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in development organisations and national governments.
Capacity Development in Practice Fowler, Alan; Ubels, Jan
Capacity development in practice,
2010, 20100923, 2010-09-23, 20100101
eBook
The international development community invests billions of dollars to improve organisational capacity. But real-life practice is poorly understood and undervalued as a distinct professional domain. ...Written by practitioners, this innovative publication is designed to make capacity development more professional and increasingly effective in achieving development goals.
Practical illustrations draw on experiences from the civic, government and private sectors. A central theme is to understand capacity as more than something internal to organisations. This book shows how capacity also stems from connections between different types of actor and the levels in society at which they operate.
The content is crafted for a broad audience of practitioners in capacity development: consultants, managers, front-line workers, trainers, facilitators, leaders, advisors, programme staff, activists, and funding agencies.
Published with SNV
In Low-fee Private Schooling and Poverty in Developing Countries, Joanna H rm draws on primary research carried out in sub-Saharan African countries and in India to show how the poor are being failed ...by both government and private schools. The primary research data and experiences are combined with additional examples from around the world to offer a wide perspective on the issue of marketized education, low-fee private schooling and government systems. H rm offers a pragmatic approach to a divisive issue and an ideologically-driven debate and shows how the well-intentioned international drive towards 'education for all' is being encouraged and even imposed long before some countries have prepared the teachers and developed the systems needed to implement it successfully. Suggesting that governments need to take a much more constructive approach to the issue, H rm argues for a greater acceptance of the challenges, abandoning ideological positions and a scaling back of ambition in the hope of laying stronger foundations for educational development.
Voice and agency Klugman, Jeni; Hanmer, Lucia C; Twigg, Sarah ...
2014, 2014., 9-29-2014
eBook, Book
Open access
This report on voice and agency, which builds on the 2012 World Development Report, focuses on several areas key to women's empowerment: freedom from violence, control over sexual and reproductive ...health and rights, ownership and control of land and housing, and voice and collective action. It explores the power of social norms in dictating how men and women can and cannot behave, deterring women from owning property or working even where laws permit, for example, because those who do become outcasts. The report distills vast data and hundreds of studies to shed new light on constraints facing women and girls worldwide, from epidemic levels of gender-based violence to biased laws and norms that prevent them from owning property, working, and making decisions about their own lives. It highlights promising reforms and interventions from around the world and lays out an urgent agenda for governments, civil society, development agencies, and other stakeholders. Among its keys findings: girls with little or no education are far more likely to be married as children, suffer domestic violence, live in poverty, and lack a say over household spending or their own health care than better-educated peers, which harms them, their children, and communities.
Why Australia prospered McLean, Ian W
2012., 20121111, 2012, 2013-01-01, 20130101, Volume:
43
eBook
This book is the first comprehensive account of how Australia attained the world's highest living standards within a few decades of European settlement, and how the nation has sustained an enviable ...level of income to the present. Beginning with the Aboriginal economy at the end of the eighteenth century, Ian McLean argues that Australia's remarkable prosperity across nearly two centuries was reached and maintained by several shifting factors. These included imperial policies, favorable demographic characteristics, natural resource abundance, institutional adaptability and innovation, and growth-enhancing policy responses to major economic shocks, such as war, depression, and resource discoveries.
Natural resource abundance in Australia played a prominent role in some periods and faded during others, but overall, and contrary to the conventional view of economists, it was a blessing rather than a curse. McLean shows that Australia's location was not a hindrance when the international economy was centered in the North Atlantic, and became a positive influence following Asia's modernization. Participation in the world trading system, when it flourished, brought significant benefits, and during the interwar period when it did not, Australia's protection of domestic manufacturing did not significantly stall growth. McLean also considers how the country's notorious origins as a convict settlement positively influenced early productivity levels, and how British imperial policies enhanced prosperity during the colonial period. He looks at Australia's recent resource-based prosperity in historical perspective, and reveals striking elements of continuity that have underpinned the evolution of the country's economy since the nineteenth century.
Seekings and Nattrass explain why poverty persisted in South Africa after the transition to democracy in 1994. The book examines how public policies both mitigated and reproduced poverty, and ...explains how and why these policies were adopted. The analysis offers lessons for the study of poverty elsewhere in the world.
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