The creation of closed-end country funds has been an important step in extending the globalization of finance to developing regions. This article examines three instances of closed-end fund creation ...and argues that international financial institutions (IFIs) have been necessary for the evolution of the closed-end funds industry in Africa. IFIs provide a certain amount of investment moneys; they reduce transaction costs, provide information and promote products that allow states, firms and investors to benefit. Eventually, if IFIs can demonstrate the benefits of investment, the networks they foster can make other private capital market activities exclusive of a particular IFI possible. The article specifically considers the International Finance Corporation and the Commonwealth Development Corporation and compares these examples with one where an IFI was not involved Morgan Stanley's Africa Investment Fund. Taken together, the examples conceptualize IFIs as go-betweens among state and non-state actors which can facilitate solutions to economic and political market failure in the contemporary era of global governance.
The World Bank Group (also known as the “Bank Group”) is the largest anti-poverty institution in the world, offering loans, advice, knowledge, and an array of customized resources to more than 100 ...developing countries and countries in transition. Established in 1944 and headquartered in Washington DC, the Bank Group is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is made up of 188 member countries. It works with country governments, the private sector, civil society organizations (CSOs), regional development banks, think tanks, and other international institutions on a range of issues—from climate change, conflict, and food crises to education, agriculture, finance, and trade—with the sole purpose of meeting two goals: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity of the bottom 40 percent of the population in all developing countries.The World Bank Group A to Z provides ready-reference insight into the history, mission, organization, policies, financial services, and knowledge products of the institution’s five agencies. Each of the more than 200 entries are arranged in encyclopedic A-to-Z format and are extensively cross-referenced to related information in the book. This volume also has a detailed index, reference materials on World Bank Group country membership, organizational charts of the five agencies, and information about how to connect with or work for the institution. Building on previous editions of A Guide to the World Bank, The World Bank Group A to Z has been completely revised and updated to reflect the wide ranging reforms of recent years, including the new World Bank Group Strategy; new approaches to development assistance; the establishment of new Global Practice Groups and Cross Cutting Solutions Areas; and the goal of becoming a “Solutions Bank”, one that will marshal the vast reserves of evidence and experiential knowledge across the five World Bank Group agencies and apply them to local problems.An indispensable guide for anyone interested in understanding what the World Bank Group does and how it does it, this book shows readers who want to learn more where to begin.
it was an astounding scene, unprecedented in the history of the World Bank. Just nine months into his tenure as president, James Wolfensohn was delivering a passionate tongue-lashing to the ...institution’s top management. Internal surveys, he declared, showed that nearly 40 percent of staff had little confidence in their supervisors. He berated the managers, “They may not trust me, but they don’t trust you. … ”1
Cajamarca is a picturesque colonial town in the northern highlands of Peru. Near the central square, travelers can visit a very old one- room house, built on the foundations of an Inca edifice, where ...the conquistador Francisco Pizarro held the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, prisoner for several days in November 1532. William Prescott, in his classic History of the Conquest of Peru, describes what happened next: “It was not long before Atahuallpa sic discovered, amidst all the show of religious zeal in his Conquerors, a lurking appetite more potent in most of their bosoms than either religion or ambition. This was the love of gold. He determined to avail himself of it to procure his own freedom.”1 Atahualpa told Pizarro that he would fill the room—some 22 by 17 feet—up to where he could point (around eight feet high) once with gold and twice with silver, if his life would be spared.
Tiger Talk Rich, Bruce
Foreclosing the Future
Book Chapter
in saint petersburg it was the most glamorous event in memory, set in an imposing nineteenth-century Tsarist palace. Supermodel Naomi Campbell attended with her billionaire companion, real estate ...oligarch Vladislav Doronin (known as “the Donald Trump of Russia”). Hollywood megastar Leonardo DiCaprio’s first two attempted airplane flights to Russia encountered emergency delays; he scrambled to find other connections before arriving many hours late. Harrison Ford called in via videoconference. What lured them? They and hundreds of wildlife specialists and government officials were gathering in the former Russian imperial capital in November 2010 at a summit to save the world’s tigers. Indeed, only 3,200 tigers remain alive in the wild, down from over 100,000 a century ago. In the first decade of the twenty-first century alone, the world tiger population declined by 40 percent.1 If the tigers were ever going to be saved, it was now or never.
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