The first extended analysis of selectivity policies of important bilateral and multilateral aid donors, this book combines a policy-analytical with a quantitative-empirical approach. Bringing out the conflicts that may exist between foreign assistance agendas and the desire of governments in developing countries to set priorities for their national development policies, the author: describes in detail the policies of aid selectivity adopted by the World Bank, the Netherlands and the United States since the end of the 1990s including the underlying assumptions looks at key decisions related to a selection of developing countries compares policy-making and different approaches to selectivity in the United Kingdom with those in developing countries. Critical and analytical in style, this book is, among other areas, an invaluable resource for students of various sub-fields of development studies and policy analysis as well as appealing to researchers and policy makers working in the area of foreign assistance across the globe.

This book assesses the prospects of official development assistance (ODA) for poverty reduction. It analyzes the entire value chain of ODA, including provision, allocation and utilization. Within each of these components, coverage examines scope and limits of aid. The horizontal interactions between donors and recipients as well as the vertical connections to local and region-specific conditions represent the heart of this book's approach.

Have the lives of the world's poorest, neediest people improved over the past few decades? What policies have lifted some people out of the worst forms of poverty, and what conditions keep others mired within it? The Poorest and Hungry: Assessment, Analyses, and Actions answers such questions, bringing together studies of both what causes and what reduces severe poverty from a diverse group of development specialists. The book focuses on the poorest and hungry in society and identifies areas for action. Stable economic growth; targeted social programs and insurance that invest in and protect nutrition, health, and education; and political and social inclusion of previously marginalized groups emerge as the essential requirements for poverty reduction, and this book's contributors identify strategies for promoting all three. The Poorest and Hungry is an important resource for policymakers, development specialists, and others concerned with helping the world's poorest people.

A twentieth-century innovation, foreign aid has become a familiar and even expected element in international relations. But scholars and government officials continue to debate why countries provide it: some claim that it is primarily a tool of diplomacy, some argue that it is largely intended to support development in poor countries, and still others point out its myriad newer uses. Carol Lancaster effectively puts this dispute to rest here by providing the most comprehensive answer yet to the question of why governments give foreign aid. She argues that because of domestic politics in aid-giving countries, it has always been—and will continue to be—used to achieve a mixture of different goals. Drawing on her expertise in both comparative politics and international relations and on her experience as a former public official, Lancaster provides five in-depth case studies—the United States, Japan, France, Germany, and Denmark—that demonstrate how domestic politics and international pressures combine to shape how and why donor governments give aid. In doing so, she explores the impact on foreign aid of political institutions, interest groups, and the ways governments organize their giving. Her findings provide essential insight for scholars of international relations and comparative politics, as well as anyone involved with foreign aid or foreign policy.

'Global Development Finance' the World Bank's annual report on the external financing of developing countries provides monitoring and analysis of development finance, identifying key emerging trends and policy challenges in international financial flows that are likely to affect the growth prospects of developing countries. As major financial institutions currently recognize losses from the U.S. subprime mortgage market crisis and rebuild their balance sheets through a more conservative approach to lending and risk management, the central theme of this year's report will be the market for international bank credit to developing countries.It is an indispensable resource for governments, economists, investors, financial consultants, academics, bankers, and the entire development community. 'Vol I: Analysis and Outlook' reviews recent trends in financial flows to developing countries.

Never has the World Bank's relief work been more important than in the last nine years, when crises as huge as AIDS and the emergence of terrorist sanctuaries have threatened the prosperity of billions. This journalistic masterpiece by Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby charts those controversial years at the Bank under the leadership of James Wolfensohn—the unstoppable power broker whose daring efforts to enlarge the planet's wealth in an age of globalization and terror were matched only by the force of his polarizing personality. Based on unprecedented access to its subject, this captivating tour through the messy reality of global development is that rare triumph—an emblematic story through which a gifted author has channeled the spirit of the age. This edition features a new afterword by the author that analyzes the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz as Wolfensohn's successor at the World bank

This book is among the first to take the poverty reduction paradigm as its central focus. Offering a comprehensive introduction, overview and critique, it traces the emergence of the framework and illustrates its consequences with global case studies.