Berlin Workshop
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The World Bank and InWEnt (Capacity Building International, Germany) hold a Development Policy Forum in Berlin every fall since 1998 for the European research community to contribute its perspectives to early discussions in preparation of the World Bank’s annual World Development Report (WDR). The Workshop brings diverse perspectives from outside the World Bank, providing a forum to exchange ideas and debate in the development of the themes to be covered by the upcoming WDR. The final published volume in this series is expected in 2012.
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Publication
Berlin Workshop Series 2010 : Climate Governance and Development
(World Bank, 2011)This volume, Berlin workshop series 2010, contains a selection of papers presented at the 11th International Policy Workshop, held in Berlin, September 28-30, 2008. The workshop was jointly organized by Inwent-Capacity Building International, Germany, and the World Bank in preparation for the World Bank's World Development Report 2010. It provided a forum for an exchange of ideas and viewpoints that contributed to the development of the report. The report will accordingly have six parts, each describing, explaining, or drawing lessons from the climate change that have been observed in both developed and developing countries. Part one looks at climate change as a challenge to development policy. Part two highlights the role of technological innovation and alternative energy sources in promoting sustainable development. Part three examines natural resource governance for adaptation, mitigation, and development. Part four examines the role of the private sector and nongovernmental organizations in addressing climate change. Part five explores financing mechanisms for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Part six and last addresses the capacity and governance of developing countries in mitigating climate change. -
Publication
Berlin Workshop Series 2009 : Spatial Disparities and Development Policy
(World Bank, 2009)The Berlin workshop series 2009 presents a selection of papers from meetings held on September 30-October 2, 2007, at the tenth annual Berlin workshop, jointly organized by InWent-Capacity Building International, Germany, and the World Bank in preparation for the World Bank's World Development Report (WDR) 2009. The workshop brings diverse perspectives from outside the World Bank, providing a forum in which to exchange ideas and engage in debate relevant to development of the WDR. The report will accordingly have three parts, each describing, explaining, or drawing lessons from the spatial transformations that have been observed in both developed and developing countries. The first section of the report will be factual and present the stylized facts on economic concentration and welfare disparities, for both developing and developed countries, over the last two centuries. The second part of the report will identify the main drivers of these changes, distilling the insights provided by the advances in economic thought over the last two decades. The third section of the report will discuss the policy implications, in essence identifying the public policy priorities that help countries to realize the immediate economic benefits of greater concentration and the social and long-term economic benefits of moderate spatial disparities. In essence, the report will emphasize that neighborhoods are important for development. This is true for cities, for regions, and for countries: it is difficult for a city to prosper in the middle of a squalid countryside, it is difficult for a province to prosper rapidly when other provinces in the country are squalid, and it is difficult for a country to prosper for long when the countries around it are mired in squalor. The report will propose that the solution for cities, regions, and countries is to invest in neighborhoods. The principle is to deepen integration and not to attempt isolation. -
Publication
Berlin Workshop Series 2008 : Agriculture and Development
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)The workshop brings diverse perspectives from outside the World Bank, providing a forum in which to exchange ideas and debate in the course of developing the World Development Report (WDR). Participants at the 2006 Berlin Workshop gathered to discuss challenges and successes pertaining to agriculture and development. Agriculture is the major sector contributing to economic development in many poor countries. Three out of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas. As globalization accelerates, development policies should tackle future challenges in agriculture arising from the scarcity of natural resources and globalization. The author highlights the paramount importance of redefining the framework for agriculture, providing us with food for thought and putting forward suggestions that need greater reflection and more detailed discussion. The contribution focuses on three main topics. First, the author presents some considerations on global agricultural development and trade. The author describes the different approaches to agricultural development, outcomes and effects of these approaches and evaluates which nations or which population groups are benefiting, as this could help to develop target group oriented strategies in poverty alleviation and agriculture. Second, the author takes a critical look at how agriculture and the rural sector can be an effective engine for growth. Another issue on the agenda is to determine what agriculture needs in the way of technology, infrastructure, and financial support to become a growth engine? These new insights should contribute to an appropriate formulation and implementation of tailored agriculture for development programs. Finally, the author looks at development in connection with systematic capacity building and training, pointing out the need to define sound capacity-building measures in terms of agriculture as well as to determine how these could be used more effectively. -
Publication
Berlin Workshop Series 2007 : Development and the Next Generation
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This publication discusses development challenges and successes pertaining to the young generation, while considering how economic policies can help young people during the period of most fundamental changes in their life-the transition from youth to adult status- leaving school and becoming employed, keeping healthy, starting a family, and assuming a responsible role in society. Its main message: investing in the human capital of this generation is critical if developing counties are to make further progress in stimulating growth and reducing poverty. Moreover, it is particularly important to safeguard and develop this human capital during youth transition. The book is organized thus: Part I deals with youthful transitions in a changing world, providing an overview of demographic and other socioeconomic challenges and discusses broadly the implications of these challenges on the youth population; Part II provides thoughts on the transition from schooling; Part III focuses on the youth bulge in developing economies and whether or not it can be an advantage in the labor market; Part IV considers the topic of migration and the youth and examines issues that are particularly related to immigrants and their children; Part V examines the changes in behavior of the young regarding family formation and how these changes are likely to affect the welfare of the young both now and in the future; and Part VI focuses on the concern of how to direct young people's creative potential to promote productive transition to citizenship. -
Publication
Berlin Workshop Series 2006 : Equity and Development
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2006)This year, the workshop examined the conceptual foundation of the workshop sessions by discussing the definition of equity itself. What do we mean by equity, and how does equity differ from equality? Whereas equity is commonly associated positively with impartiality and justice, economists understand equality as an idealistic and unattainable goal often linked to socialism and communism. The terminological twins equity/equality, however, can be conceptualized in highly diverging ways with different consequences for development strategy. The discussions throughout the workshop mirror the controversial positions of international discourse on the topic. Through the varying dimensions of these terms, discussions focused on the different responsibilities for political action such terms entail. For example, whereas equality in outcome implies an egalitarian perspective, economic studies on inequality in outcome mostly take into account the results of actions and conditions such as unequal incomes. Session I, on what is equity, and, what is the role for governments in the promotion of equity, further discussed how does this role differ between developed and developing countries. Nonetheless, it was suggested that before operationalizing and measuring inequity, the concept itself has to be clarified, and, further arguments indicated that one future challenge for development policy is precisely to combine growth-promoting policies with policies that assure that the poor can fully participate in the opportunities that growth offers. Session II, on equity-enhancing social transformation and historical evidence from European and Transition Countries, focus on policies that impact equity. Session III, on building efficient welfare states and lessons learnt, discussed the task of formulating policies that foster both efficiency and equitable social welfare, while Session IV, on international inequalities and what can be done to reduce them, focuses on the global level, contrary to Session III which concentrated on equity issues at the national level. Finally, Session V, on what will greater integration mean for inequalities between and within the richer and poorer countries of the New Europe, draws a very differentiated picture. Conclusions outlined key issues that need to be addressed, noting the importance of carefully analyzing different redistributive instruments with respect to their effects on growth and efficiency, and vice versa. -
Publication
Berlin Workshop Series 2005 : Investment Climate, Growth, and Poverty
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)This report addresses topics discussed at the fifth annual forum of the Berlin Workshop Series co-hosted by InWent and the World Bank, held in September 2003. At the meetings, key researchers and policy makers from Europe, the United States, and developing countries around the world met to identify and brainstorm on development challenges and successes that are examined in-depth in the World Development Report 2005: A Better Investment Climate for Everyone (report no. 28829). This title presents selected papers from the meetings which highlight key issues on investment climate; covering such issues as property and contractual rights, financial markets, regulation, governance, and corruption. -
Publication
Berlin Workshop Series 2004 : Service Provision for the Poor--Public and Private Sector Cooperation
(Washington, DC, 2004)The articles in this volume were presented at the fifth annual Berlin Workshop, held in July 2002, and sponsored by InWEnt-Capacity Building International, Germany, established in 2002 through a merger of the German Foundation for International Development and Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, and the World Bank. The workshop series is intended as a forum for the research community to contribute to early discussions in preparation for the World Bank's annual World Development Report. Furthermore, the workshop series exposes initial ideas for upcoming World Development Reports-ideas whose policy implications may not yet be entirely clear-to recent thinking by European and other economists and key policymakers outside the Bank. Participants at the 2002 workshop came from a range of research, academic, and policymaking institutions in Europe, the United States, and developing countries as well as the World Bank and German development institutions and organizations. The workshop investigated how countries could accelerate progress toward the Millennium Development Goals by making services work for people living in poverty. The participants hailed successful innovations; took a hard look at some of the failures; and drew conclusions about how to learn from both in order to guide policymakers, donors, and citizens on ways to improve the delivery of basic services: health, education, and water. Making services work for poor people is also the theme of the World Development Report 2004.