If the term poverty it taken to mean human needs that are not met, then most of the estimates for the scale of urban poverty in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean appear too low. World Bank estimates for 1988 suggested that there were 330 million "poor" people living in urban areas (World Bank 1991) which implied that more than three-quarters of the urban population in low and middle...

Health care systems spend a relatively high percentage of their resources on the purchase of medicines, and the poor spend a disproportionate amount of their income on pharmaceuticals. There is ample evidence in the literature that drugs are very poorly used. World Bank-led health reforms aim at improving equity, efficiency, quality, and users' satisfaction, and it will be difficult to achieve ...

This Article reviews the principal means of IFI peace-building and offers several proposals to enhance the effectiveness of those means. Focusing primarily on the World Bank Group and the IMF, this Article posits that profound changes are necessary if the Bretton Woods institutions are to realize their potential as leaders in the international peace process. Part I of this Article provides a br...

Standard Disclaimer. This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in t...

This paper argues that changes in intergovernmental relations in Japan in the post-war period are best understood in terms of an integrationist as opposed to a separationist model. While the latter model emphasizes the benefits of autonomy for local governments and of competition among them, the former stresses the benefits of minimizing coordination problems and building capacity through the s...

☆ The first draft of this paper was written when Jamal dent at University of California, Berkeley. The author wo mous referees for useful comments; Barry Eichengreen, Rose for helpful discussions; and the UC Berkeley Irma ing. Ammar Yasser Safa provided inspiration. The finding sions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the a represent the views of the International Bank for Reco World...

American Development Bank for supporting this work and the many people in the Inter-American Development Bank and in the World Bank who gave their time to discuss the issues in this paper and for supplying background material. In addition I wish to thank

University and Professor of Economics at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. This paper was prepared for the Asian Development Bank’s Distinguished Speakers Program held on 11 October 2004 in Manila, Philippines. The original lecture style of presentation has been preserved. This paper draws heavily on the author’s 2003 and 2004 papers, “Development Strategy, Viability, and Economic...