Publication: Balancing the Development Agenda : The Transformation of the World Bank under James D. Wolfensohn, 1995-2005
Loading...
Date
2005
ISSN
Published
2005
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Balancing the Development Agenda examines the evolution of the World Bank and its operations during the presidency of James Wolfensohn. It examines the modernization of this global economic institution which is now focused on home-grown development planning where borrowing countries are in the driver's seat of their own development. It takes a closer look at the major development challenges addressed by the Bank during the past decade such as debt relief, corruption, and HIV/AIDS and provides a timeline of events that have shaped the Bank into the institution it is today.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Kagia, Ruth. Kagia, Ruth, editors. 2005. Balancing the Development Agenda : The Transformation of the World Bank under James D. Wolfensohn, 1995-2005. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7352 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Toward Country-led Development : A Multi-Partner Evaluation of the Comprehensive Development Framework--Synthesis Report(Washington, DC, 2003)This evaluation report synthesizes the findings of a multi-partner effort to assess implementation of the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF). The evaluation's primary objectives are to: Identify the factors that have facilitated implementation of CDF principles, and those that have hindered it. Assess the extent to which CDF implementation has affected intermediate outcomes and, to the extent possible, longer-term development outcomes. In the mid-1990s, the aid community began a candid self-assessment. Disappointing development results-especially in Sub-Saharan Africa-had raised troubling questions: Does the emphasis on structural adjustment ignore the poor? Do the many agencies and international organizations working in developing countries overburden, rather than strengthen, the capacity of recipient governments? Does the poor coordination of donors add to the challenge of making development effective? Increasingly, the painful realization of development agencies, recipient countries, and aid analysts was "yes"-the full potential of international aid to reduce poverty by achieving positive, sustainable development results was not being fulfilled.Publication Turkey : Poverty and Coping after Crises, Volume 2. Background Papers(Washington, DC, 2003-07-28)Turkey experienced severe losses of life and infrastructure in 1999 caused by the August earthquake. The earthquake was followed by a period of economic and financial crisis, culminating in a major currency devaluation in February 2001. What has been the social impact of these crises? In order to answer that question, the World Bank and the Government of Japan co-financed a household survey during the summer of 2001, which consisted of surveying 4200 households on their consumption and income, and interviewing 120 respondents in depth for case studies. This study seeks to answer three main questions: how many are poor in Turkey in 2001; who are the poor and why are they poor?; and how do the poor cope with risk and poverty?. The major effect of the crises has been an increase in poverty in urban areas of Turkey from 1994 to 2001. Extreme poverty in all of Turkey has not changed, and remains at low levels, but inequality is also unchanged at quite high levels. A relatively large share (nearly one-fifth) of the urban population has consumption below a food standard, and qualitative evidence indicates that poverty has worsened in rural areas as well. The report concludes with the following policy recommendations:1) Macroeconomic management to resume broad-based growth, which should reverse the poverty trend since the vast majority of the newly poor are not extremely poor 2) Counter negative coping strategies of the poor by providing conditional cash transfers 3) Expand job opportunities for the newly poor through micro-projects and community development 4) Improve targeting and coverage of the extreme poor and outreach to them through institutional strengthening 5) Institute regular poverty monitoring through household surveys and the development of a poverty map.Publication Energy and Poverty Reduction : Proceedings from a Multi-Sector and Multi-Stakeholder Workshop - How Can Modern Energy Services Contribute to Poverty Reduction?(Washington, DC, 2003-03)This report summarizes the proceedings from a workshop, the first in the region designed to foster a multi-sectoral approach to development energy services for poverty reduction, held at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, October 23-25, 2002. It was co-organized by the World Bank-UNDP sponsored Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the World Bank Africa Energy Unit, and others. The report focuses on the key issues raised in the presentations and discussions which were structured around the following three themes: (a) Understanding the Energy-Poverty situation in the different countries as reflected in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) of each country and clarified by the Ministers and country delegates; (b) Understanding the role of Energy in meeting priority objectives in the social and economic sectors of health, education, water, agriculture and development of small to medium enterprises (SMEs); and (c) Designing appropriate response initiatives in the form of draft country action plans outlining the priority energy interventions required to enhance the effectiveness of poverty reduction strategies.Publication The World Bank Research Program 2000 : Abstracts of Current Studies(Washington, DC, 2000-09)The World Bank research program seeks to improve the design of Bank-financed projects, and programs to increase the effectiveness of aid, and improve recognition of emerging problems, in a responsive manner to crises. Moreover, this program supports policy-oriented research in developing, and transition economies, by assisting in the development of research capacity in member countries, as well as improving the Bank's own advisory role capacity. The report is the annual compendium of current Bank research (FY00), with abstracts covering 173 research projects, grouped as follows: 1) poverty, and social welfare, including equity, demographics, and health/nutrition; 2) education and labor markets; 3) environmentally sustainable development, including energy, agriculture, natural resources, and environmental economics; 4) infrastructure, and urban development; 5) macroeconomics, including adjustment, monetary, and fiscal policy; 6) international economics, including debt, trade, and finance; 7) domestic finance, and capital markets; 8) transition economies; and, 9) private sector development, and public sector management, including regulation, institutions, privatization, political economy, and industrial organization. The appendix lists reports, and publications produced from Bank research.Publication When Things Fall Apart : Qualitative Studies of Poverty in the Former Soviet Union(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003)This book documents the experiences of men, women, and children in Armenia, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan as they struggle with the dramatic changes in lifestyle and extreme poverty that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Based on hundreds of open-ended interviews conducted by local people over a span of five years, this book captures the particularities of poverty in each nation-state as well as a collective sense of disillusionment and a strikingly similar array of response to the crisis. certain aspects of the dynamics of poverty in the former Soviet Union and its interaction with gender, age, and ethnicity are highlighted. They deepen the understanding of how poor people in these countries experience, explain, and cope with their new circumstances. The studies also identify the range of cultural and administrative barriers that hinder poor people from accessing public services and exploiting economic opportunities. Above all, they highlight important psychological dimensions of poverty in the FSU, including the collapse of values and beliefs that accompanied the increase in poverty and the resulting disorientation experienced by the poor. Finally, the studies demonstrate the continuing importance of informal support networks and the persistence of paternalistic relationships and expectations that the old regime had fostered.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Doing Business 2020(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020)Doing Business 2020 is the 17th in a series of annual studies investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. It provides quantitative indicators covering 12 areas of the business environment in 190 economies. The goal of the Doing Business series is to provide objective data for use by governments in designing sound business regulatory policies and to encourage research on the important dimensions of the regulatory environment for firms.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-10-17)The World Bank Group has two overarching goals: End extreme poverty by 2030 and promote shared prosperity by boosting the incomes of the bottom 40 percent of the population in each economy. As this year’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity report documents, the world continues to make progress toward these goals. In 2015, approximately one-tenth of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty, and the incomes of the bottom 40 percent rose in 77 percent of economies studied. But success cannot be taken for granted. Poverty remains high in Sub- Saharan Africa, as well as in fragile and conflict-affected states. At the same time, most of the world’s poor now live in middle-income countries, which tend to have higher national poverty lines. This year’s report tracks poverty comparisons at two higher poverty thresholds—$3.20 and $5.50 per day—which are typical of standards in lower- and upper-middle-income countries. In addition, the report introduces a societal poverty line based on each economy’s median income or consumption. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle also recognizes that poverty is not only about income and consumption—and it introduces a multidimensional poverty measure that adds other factors, such as access to education, electricity, drinking water, and sanitation. It also explores how inequality within households could affect the global profile of the poor. All these additional pieces enrich our understanding of the poverty puzzle, bringing us closer to solving it. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/PSPPublication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-10-02)Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016 is the first of an annual flagship report that will inform a global audience comprising development practitioners, policy makers, researchers, advocates, and citizens in general with the latest and most accurate estimates on trends in global poverty and shared prosperity. This edition will also document trends in inequality and identify recent country experiences that have been successful in reducing inequalities, provide key lessons from those experiences, and synthesize the rigorous evidence on public policies that can shift inequality in a way that bolsters poverty reduction and shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. Specifically, the report will address the following questions: • What is the latest evidence on the levels and evolution of extreme poverty and shared prosperity? • Which countries and regions have been more successful in terms of progress toward the twin goals and which are lagging behind? • What does the global context of lower economic growth mean for achieving the twin goals? • How can inequality reduction contribute to achieving the twin goals? • What does the evidence show concerning global and between- and within-country inequality trends? • Which interventions and countries have used the most innovative approaches to achieving the twin goals through reductions in inequality? The report will make four main contributions. First, it will present the most recent numbers on poverty, shared prosperity, and inequality. Second, it will stress the importance of inequality reduction in ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity by 2030 in a context of weaker growth. Third, it will highlight the diversity of within-country inequality reduction experiences and will synthesize experiences of successful countries and policies, addressing the roots of inequality without compromising economic growth. In doing so, the report will shatter some myths and sharpen our knowledge of what works in reducing inequalities. Finally, it will also advocate for the need to expand and improve data collection—for example, data availability, comparability, and quality—and rigorous evidence on inequality impacts in order to deliver high-quality poverty and shared prosperity monitoring.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-10-07)Previous Poverty and Shared Prosperity Reports have conveyed the difficult message that the world is not on track to meet the global goal of reducing extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030. This edition brings the unwelcome news that COVID-19, along with conflict and climate change, has not merely slowed global poverty reduction but reversed it for first time in over twenty years. With COVID-19 predicted to push up to 100 million additional people into extreme poverty in 2020, trends in global poverty rates will be set back at least three years over the next decade. Today, 40 percent of the global poor live in fragile or conflict-affected situations, a share that could reach two-thirds by 2030. Multiple effects of climate change could drive an estimated 65 to 129 million people into poverty in the same period. “Reversing the reversal” will require responding effectively to COVID-19, conflict, and climate change while not losing focus on the challenges that most poor people continue to face most of the time. Though these are distinctive types of challenges, there is much to be learned from the initial response to COVID-19 that has broader implications for development policy and practice, just as decades of addressing more familiar development challenges yield insights that can inform responses to today’s unfamiliar but daunting ones. Solving novel problems requires rapid learning, open cooperation, and strategic coordination by everyone: from political leaders and scientists to practitioners and citizens.Publication The African Continental Free Trade Area(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-07-27)The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating. The pact will connect 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined GDP valued at $3.4 trillion. It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035. But achieving its full potential will depend on putting in place significant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures. The scope of the agreement is considerable. It will reduce tariffs among member countries and cover policy areas, such as trade facilitation and services, as well as regulatory measures, such as sanitary standards and technical barriers to trade. It will complement existing subregional economic communities and trade agreements by offering a continent-wide regulatory framework and by regulating policy areas—such as investment and intellectual property rights protection—that have not been covered in most subregional agreements. The African Continental Free Trade Area: Economic and Distributional Effects quantifies the long-term implications of the agreement for growth, trade, poverty reduction, and employment. Its analysis goes beyond that in previous studies that have largely focused on tariff and nontariff barriers in goods—by including the effects of services and trade facilitation measures, as well as the distributional impacts on poverty, employment, and wages of female and male workers. It is designed to guide policy makers as they develop and implement the extensive range of reforms needed to realize the substantial rewards that the agreement offers. The analysis shows that full implementation of AfCFTA could boost income by 7 percent, or nearly $450 billion, in 2014 prices and market exchange rates. The agreement would also significantly expand African trade—particularly intraregional trade in manufacturing. In addition, it would increase employment opportunities and wages for unskilled workers and help close the wage gap between men and women.