2009
September 2009
The challenges that the judiciary system in Uganda has faced are well known, but the country has come a long way from that past. In a new paper, Cynthia Baldwin proposes a four-part approach to control judicial corruption.
July 2009
It is now generally accepted that development interventions can only be successful and sustainable if they are accepted by stakeholders and implemented in accordance with local institutions, culture and norms. In this policy brief, Clifford Zinnes, answering the demand for foreign aid alternatives, assesses a new class of "tournament" approaches that promise to improve on the lackluster performance of conventional methods.
June 2009
President Obama has proposed expanding the Peace Corps and building a global network of volunteers. To achieve this goal, David Caprara, Kevin F. F. Quigley and Lex Rieffel examine alternative service models and offer policy recommendations to the Obama Administration to further enhance U.S. volunteer opportunities with the goal of strengthening America’s multilateral development engagements.
2008
November 2008
After decades of low and volatile growth, economic performance in Sub-Saharan Africa markedly improved over the last decade. Calls for increasing the effectiveness of development aid will likely become more amplified as recipients and donors alike seek to ensure that current investments yield greater impacts. A new paper reflects on U.S. foreign assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa and offers lessons to the new administration.
November 2008
Despite increasing aid volume and ministerial promises and commitments, there are gaps in the effectiveness of development aid. Using a two-pronged approach, Homi Kharas and Johannes Linn analyze these gaps and provide useful recommendations so that the aid architecture can be strengthened, aid flows coordinated and development sustainable—ultimately making aid better.
October 2008
Scaling up—expanding, adapting, and sustaining successful projects, programs, or policies over time—can substantially reduce poverty. Johannes Linn and Arntraud Hartmann outline the actions that bilateral and multilateral donors and private aid agencies need to take in order to support scaling up for effective, sustainable development.
October 2008
In advance of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington, Lex Rieffel asserts that both institutions, which were created in 1944 to be at the center of a sound and dynamic international financial system, have overlapping responsibilities and antiquated governance structures that have undermined their legitimacy. In this policy brief, Rieffel offers steps to visibly differentiate the two institutions and improve their effectiveness, including moving the headquarters of the World Bank to Europe.
September 2008
Reversing the negative attitudes toward the United States that prevail in many parts of the world will require a mix of hard power and soft power instruments. Brookings Fellow Lex Rieffel and National Peace Corps Association President Kevin F. F. Quigley provide recommendations for scaling up the Peace Corps and argue that such an effort could contribute measurably to strengthening America’s relations with the rest of the world.
May 2008
At least 77 million children worldwide do not attend primary school, a problem which is often fueled by a lack of resources but also by a lack of political will. In a new Brookings Global policy brief, Stephen Kosack examines the issue of political will and its affect on primary education access.
2007
February 2007
After decades of zealously protecting their banking markets, in the 1990s many developing and transition economies began to scale down or eliminate barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the banking sector. Today, policymakers in a second wave of countries are in the early stages of opening their banking sectors or are under considerable political pressure to do so.
January 2007
Cronyism undermines markets in several ways. It increases the costs of doing business for firms excluded from inner, "favored" circles. It encourages firms to spend more on cultivating political ties and less on innovation. It allows regulators and policymakers to benefit privately from relationships with certain firms. Reducing the inequality in influence between the most-powerful and least-powerful firms—the "influence gap"—can limit the harmful effects of cronyism. This can be done through support for greater public accountability, anti-monopoly enforcement, and more inclusive consultation mechanisms.
2006
November 2006
Urban violence is a serious development constraint in developing countries and increasingly dominates the daily lives of citizens across the globe. The accompanying increase in fear and insecurity has led to a wide-scale preoccupation with the phenomenon.