Download or read book Policy based Lending and Poverty Reduction written by Richard Bolt and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With reference to Asia.

Download or read book Poverty Reduction Support Credits written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-05-21 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This evaluation examines the relevance and effectiveness of Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs), introduced by the Bank in early 2001 to support comprehensive growth, improve social conditions, and reduce poverty in IDA countries. PRSCs were intended to allow greater country-ownership, provide more predictable annual support, exhibit more flexible conditionality, and strengthen budget processes in a results-based framework. By September 2009, the Bank had approved 99 PRSCs totaling some $7.5 billion and representing 38% percent of IDA policy based lending. The evaluation finds that in terms of process, PRSCs were effective in easing conditionality, increasing country ownership and aid predictability, stimulating dialogue between central and sectoral ministries, and improving donor harmonization. In terms of content, PRSCs succeeded in emphasizing public sector management and pro-poor service delivery. Yet in terms of results, it is difficult to distinguish growth and poverty outcomes in countries with PRSCs from other better performing IDA countries. There is scope for further simplifying the language of conditionality and underpinning PRSCs with better pro-poor growth diagnostics. PRSCs can also strengthen their results frameworks and limit sector policy content in multi-sector DPLs to high-level or cross-cutting issues. Today, Bank policy has subsumed PRSCs under the broader mantle of Development Policy Lending and the rationale for a separate brand name although differences linger from the past. Since PRSCs and other policy-based lending have gradually converged in design, remaining differences compared to other Development Policy Loans should be clearly spelled out, or the separate PRSC brand name should be phased out.

Download or read book Poverty Reduction Support Credits written by Anjali Kumar and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This evaluation examines the relevance and effectiveness of Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs), introduced by the Bank in early 2001 to support comprehensive growth, improve social conditions, and reduce poverty in IDA countries. PRSCs were intended to allow greater country-ownership, provide more predictable annual support, exhibit more flexible conditionality, and strengthen budget processes in a results-based framework. By September 2009, the Bank had approved 99 PRSCs totaling some $7.5 billion and representing 38% percent of IDA policy based lending. The evaluation finds that in terms of process, PRSCs were effective in easing conditionality, increasing country ownership and aid predictability, stimulating dialogue between central and sectoral ministries, and improving donor harmonization. In terms of content, PRSCs succeeded in emphasizing public sector management and pro-poor service delivery. Yet in terms of results, it is difficult to distinguish growth and poverty outcomes in countries with PRSCs from other better performing IDA countries. There is scope for further simplifying the language of conditionality and underpinning PRSCs with better pro-poor growth diagnostics. PRSCs can also strengthen their results frameworks and limit sector policy content in multi-sector DPLs to high-level or cross-cutting issues. Today, Bank policy has subsumed PRSCs under the broader mantle of Development Policy Lending and the rationale for a separate 'brand name' although differences linger from the past. Since PRSCs and other policy-based lending have gradually converged in design, remaining differences compared to other Development Policy Loans should be clearly spelled out, or the separate PRSC brand name should be phased out.

Download or read book Education Poverty and the World Bank written by Philip W. Jones and published by Sense Publishers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains why the World Bank's commitment to education is important. It considers how the nature of the Bank as a financial institution has shaped its view of economic growth, development and poverty reduction. In shaping its education policies and programs from a banking point of view, a particular World Bank approach to educational development has emerged, with major implications for the future of education worldwide. The book examines the reasons why the Bank is involved in education, the evolution of its education policy stances, and how the Bank uses education as part of its program of economic globalisation. The author provides a framework for assessing the Bank's impact and effectiveness in its education lending, especially in terms of poverty reduction. Bank work in education is hugely controversial. All around the world, in industrial countries, in transition economies and in the poorest countries, the Bank continues to be under fire for its policy prescriptions and its modes of operation. From both left and right, the Bank is a major target of discontent. At the same time, the Bank is frequently misunderstood and misrepresented. The book is based on thousands of classified Bank documents examined over the past twenty years, and on wide-ranging interviews with past and present Bank officials. Although critical of many aspects of Bank work in education, the book will be recognised as a uniquely authoritative guide to Bank policy formation in education. [Back cover].

Download or read book Microfinance and Poverty Reduction written by Susan Johnson and published by Oxfam. This book was released on 1997 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book emphasizes the importance of studying the local context, and then considering the macroeconomic factors which may be operating upon the economy of a particular country. Five extended case studies, in the Gambia, Ecuador, Mexico, Pakistan, and the UK are examined with reference to further aspects of sustainability and impact assessment.

Download or read book Macroeconomic Policy and Poverty Reduction written by Mr.Brian Ames and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2001-08-20 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pamphlet excerpts a chapter on macroeconomic policy from the Poverty Reduction Policy Source book, a guide prepared by the World Bank and IMF to assist countries in developing and strengthening their poverty reduction strategies. It probes the relationship between macroeconomic policy matters, such as growth and inflation, and the fight against poverty, and explains how sound monetary and fiscal policies-key tools of the macroeconomist-can help to spur growth and ease poverty.

Download or read book Why Doesn t Microfinance Work written by Milford Bateman and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, movie stars, royalty, high-profile politicians and ‘troubleshooting’ economists. In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn’t actually work. In fact, the case for it has been largely built on hype, on egregious half-truths and – latterly – on the Wall Street-style greed of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies, from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico, Bateman demonstrates that microfi nance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction. As developing and transition countries attempt to repair the devastation wrought by the global financial crisis, Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work? argues forcefully that the role of microfinance in development policy urgently needs to be reconsidered.

Download or read book Policy based Lending and Poverty Reduction written by Richard Bolt and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With reference to Asia.

Download or read book Poverty Reduction Policies and Practices in Developing Asia written by Almas Heshmati and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at the major policy challenges facing developing Asia and how the region sustains rapid economic growth to reduce multidimensional poverty through socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable measures. Asia is facing many challenges arising from population growth, rapid urbanization, provision of services, climate change and the need to redress declining growth after the global financial crisis. This book examines poverty and related issues and aims to advance the development of new tools and measurement of multidimensional poverty and poverty reduction policy analysis. The book covers a wide range of issues, including determinants and causes of poverty and its changes; consequences and impacts of poverty on human capital formation, growth and consumption; assessment of poverty strategies and policies; the role of government, NGOs and other institutions in poverty reduction; rural-urban migration and poverty; vulnerability to poverty; breakdown of poverty into chronic and transitory components; and a comparative study on poverty issues in Asia and other regions. The book will appeal to all those interested in economic development, resources, policies and economic welfare and growth.

Download or read book The Effect of International Monetary Fund and World Bank Programs on Poverty written by William Easterly and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is some evidence that IMF and World Bank adjustment lending smooths consumption for the poor, reducing the rise in poverty for any given contraction of the economy but also reducing the fall in poverty for any given expansion. Adjustment lending plays a similar role as inequality, reducing poverty's sensitivity to the economy's aggregate growth rate. Structural adjustment - as measured by the number of adjustment loans from the IMF and World Bank - reduces the growth elasticity of poverty reduction. Easterly finds no evidence for structural adjustment having a direct effect on growth.The poor benefit less from output expansion in countries with many adjustment loans than they do in countries with few such loans. By the same token, the poor suffer less from an output contraction in countries with many adjustment loans than in countries with few. Why would this be? One hypothesis is that adjustment lending is countercyclical in ways that smooth consumption for the poor. There is evidence that some policy variables under adjustment lending are countercyclical, but no evidence that the cyclical component of those policy variables affects poverty. Easterly speculates that the poor may be ill placed to take advantage of new opportunities created by structural adjustment reforms, just as they may suffer less from the loss of old opportunities in sectors that were artificially protected before reform.Poverty's lower sensitivity to growth under adjustment lending is bad news when an economy expands and good news when it contracts. These results could be interpreted as giving support to either the critics or the supporters of structural adjustment programs.This paper - a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the effect of growth on poverty. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Download or read book Assessing Aid written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assessing Aid determines that the effectiveness of aid is not decided by the amount received but rather the institutional and policy environment into which it is accepted. It examines how development assistance can be more effective at reducing global poverty and gives five mainrecommendations for making aid more effective: targeting financial aid to poor countries with good policies and strong economic management; providing policy-based aid to demonstrated reformers; using simpler instruments to transfer resources to countries with sound management; focusing projects oncreating and transmitting knowledge and capacity; and rethinking the internal incentives of aid agencies.

Download or read book Reducing Poverty in Asia written by Christopher M. Edmonds and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, a group of distinguished authors addresses three broad questions: what broad strategies and macroeconomic policies best support poverty reduction efforts in Asia; what role should targeted antipoverty interventions play, and how should such interventions be designed; and how is poverty measured, what new approaches are needed, and how does measurement affect our understanding of poverty. Each of these three broad themes is also considered together in chapters examining the poverty situations in a number of countries in Asia and the Pacific.

Download or read book The Effect of International Monetary Fund and World Bank Programs on Poverty written by William Easterly and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: January 2001 There is some evidence that IMF and World Bank adjustment lending smooths consumption for the poor, reducing the rise in poverty for any given contraction of the economy but also reducing the fall in poverty for any given expansion. Adjustment lending plays a similar role as inequality, reducing poverty's sensitivity to the economy's aggregate growth rate. Structural adjustment--as measured by the number of adjustment loans from the IMF and World Bank--reduces the growth elasticity of poverty reduction. Easterly finds no evidence for structural adjustment having a direct effect on growth. The poor benefit less from output expansion in countries with many adjustment loans than they do in countries with few such loans. By the same token, the poor suffer less from an output contraction in countries with many adjustment loans than in countries with few. Why would this be? One hypothesis is that adjustment lending is countercyclical in ways that smooth consumption for the poor. There is evidence that some policy variables under adjustment lending are countercyclical, but no evidence that the cyclical component of those policy variables affects poverty. Easterly speculates that the poor may be ill placed to take advantage of new opportunities created by structural adjustment reforms, just as they may suffer less from the loss of old opportunities in sectors that were artificially protected before reform. Poverty's lower sensitivity to growth under adjustment lending is bad news when an economy expands and good news when it contracts. These results could be interpreted as giving support to either the critics or the supporters of structural adjustment programs. This paper--a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the effect of growth on poverty. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Download or read book Poverty Reduction in the 1990s written by Alison Evans and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'World Development Report 1990: Poverty' provided the foundation for the World Bank strategy to help achieve global poverty reduction. This report is a contribution to the strategy review process. It examines the implementation of the 1990 strategy, maps changes against assessment of Bank performance at both the country and the project level and assesses the relevance of key elements of the 1990 strategy in light of new data and shifts in the development assistance environment. The report concludes that the 1990 strategy remains relevant but needs to be combined with a more comprehensive approach. Lessons from experience confirm the importance of a holistic approach to reach the poor more effectively. This includes a focus on local level institutions and building on existing institutional frameworks wherever possible and on working across sectors for maximum impact. The 1990 strategy and the operational guidelines based on it have failed to generate a clear emphasis on measuring and monitoring results. A critical test of the Bank's evolving poverty strategy will be the design of a credible framework for measuring the results of the Bank's country assistance, and helping to build local capacity for monitoring the impact of poverty reduction programmes. The report is in English with the foreword and the executive summary given in English, Spanish and French.

Download or read book Debt Relief for the Poorest Countries written by John E. Serieux and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debt problems of poor countries are receiving unprecedented attention. Both federal and non-governmental organizations alike have been campaigning for debt forgiveness for poor countries. The governments of creditor nations responded to that challenge at a meeting sponsored by the G-7, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank, all of which upgraded debt relief as a policy priority. Their initiatives provided for generous interpretations of these nations' abilities to sustain debt, gave them opportunities to qualify for debt relief more rapidly, and linked debt relief to broader policies of poverty reduction. Despite this, the crisis has only deepened in the first years of the new millennium. This brilliant group of contributions assesses why this has occurred. In plain language, it considers why debt relief has been so long in coming for poor countries. It evaluates the cost of a persistent overhang in debt for those countries. It also examines, head on, whether enhanced debt relief initiatives offer a permanent exit from over-indebtedness, or are merely a short-term respite. Above all, this volume for the first time addresses the issues on the ground: that is, the views and opinions about debt relief on the part of leaders in advanced nations, and the probability of further support for the most impoverished lands. In this approach, the editors and contributors have made an explicit and successful attempt to be inclusive and relevant at all stages of the analysis. This volume covers the full range of the poorest countries, with contributions by John Serieux, Lykke Anderson and Osvaldo Nina, Befekadu Degefe, Ligia Maria Castro-Monge, and Peter B. Mijumbi. Collectively, they offer a sobering scenario: unless measures are put in place now, in anticipation of further crises, the future of the very poorest nations will remain bleak and troublesome. John Serieux completed this volume as a senior researcher and specialist in international finance for the North-South Institute, an independent research institute based in Ottawa, Canada. Before that he was a lecturer at the graduate program in economics at Chancellor College, at the University of Malawi. His major works are in domestic and foreign resource mobilization. Yiagadeesen Samy is completing his doctoral research in economics at the University of Ottawa in international trade and economics of development. His key interest is now in trade and labor standards.

Download or read book Conditionality Revisited written by Stefan Koeberle and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation This book brings together different perspectives on the role of conditionality, drawing on the experiences and lessons learned by the donor community, NGO critics and academic circles, and the borrowing countries, and provides a board overview of contemporary approaches to conditionality in today's aid architecture.

Download or read book International Financial Institutions and International Law written by Daniel D. Bradlow and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five essays set out the general principles of international law that are applicable to the IFIs and consider how these are or should be evolving to produce IFIs that are respectful subjects of international law and accountable to all relevant stakeholders for their compliance with international law. Six more focus on selected aspects of the IFIs’ operations that both raise important and challenging international legal issues and that have substantial impacts on both the different stakeholders in the operations of the IFIs, and on the sustainability and success of the operations. Introductory and concluding essays frame the volume. The many issues raised include the following: • IFIs’ impact on economic policies in Member States; • IFI operations as private financial transactions; • IFIs as key players in the creation of international law; • IFIs as promoters of the international capitalist system; • IFIs as bearers of human rights obligations under international human rights law or as participants in the UN system; • consequences of an IFI’s breach of its own internal policies or directives; • IFI immunity; • IFI capacity to sue and to be sued in national courts; • ability of various claimants to sue IFIs in domestic courts; • environmental and social rights and interests of third parties affected by IFI financing; • right of indigenous people to give their free, prior, and informed consent to IFI operations that affect them; and • IFIs’ treatment of workers’ rights.