Recent Event
Reuters/Jennifer Szymaszek - A Mexican Indian coffee-picker collects beans near Tuzamapa. She earns about $2 per day for the work.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Washington, DC
The Wolfensohn Center for Development hosted a discussion with Santiago Levy, former deputy minister of finance of Mexico, about his new book, Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes: Social Policy, Informality and Economic Growth in Mexico. In the book, Levy says that in order to bring Mexico’s poor out of poverty the country’s social programs should be improved to increase productivity, workers’ wages and overall economic growth.
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Mexico, Latin America, Economic Development, Developing Countries, Development
Global Governance
Reuters/Yuri Gripas - IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn speaks at a news conference in Washington.
Johannes F. Linn and Homi Kharas, April 2008
Johannes Linn and Homi Kharas compare the contrasting actions of the International Monetary Fund during similar financial crises—today’s U.S. sub-prime mortgage problem and the 1998 macroeconomic crisis in East Asia. They argue for a more sound governance structure within the IMF in order to restore its role as the leading global financial institution.
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Global Governance, International Monetary Fund, Global Economics, Multilateral Development Banks, Financial Institutions
SPOTLIGHT: Foreign Aid
Reuters/Luc Gnago - Bill Guyton, President of the World Cocoa Foundation, talks with a farmer in the village of Monga in eastern Ivory coast.
Raj M. Desai and Homi Kharas, April 24, 2008
While the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings made recent headlines, the Global Philanthropy Forum, gathering top private aid donors, fell in the shadows. These private aid donors will likely give more aid to the world’s poor this year than the institutions that convened the Spring Meetings. Raj Desai and Homi Kharas compare these two events and discuss how private aid can help to relieve global poverty.
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Foreign Aid, Global Governance, International Monetary Fund, Global Food Crisis, Development
Spotlight: Development Assistance
Reuters/Zohra Bensemra - Boys stand at the door-step of their house in Nairobi's Korogocho slum.
Homi Kharas and Abdul Malik, April 10, 2008
Poor planning and execution of projects, unachievable goals and a lack of accountability resulting in corruption are a handful of reasons why donors’ development assistance is failing to end poverty. Homi Kharas outlines four short term measures to improve the quality of aid by drawing attention to the growing unmanageable aid delivery system with multiple donors, fragmented projects and divided priorities.
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International Monetary Fund, Global Governance, Development, Developing Countries, Multilateral Development Banks
U.S.-Middle East Relations
Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush and Saudi Arabia's Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz greet people outside of Al Murabba Palace in Riyadh.
Navtej Dhillon, February 22, 2008
While the United States concentrates its Middle Eastern policy efforts on democracy and the war on terrorism, 60% of the region’s population is facing a crisis of their own – a fight for decent education, employment and housing. Brookings Fellow Navtej Dhillon says that the United States and the international community must refocus their efforts on building a future for the Middle Eastern majority; from using hard power to boosting smart power. View related video.
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Middle East, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Politics, Foreign Policy, Development