Assessment of Debt Restructuring Operations in Commonwealth Small States

Michele Robinson

This paper highlights the concerns of Commonwealth small states about unsustainable debt burdens and the emerging challenges to their overall debt sustainability. It offers key lessons learned from Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Seychelles.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291354
• Publication Date: May 2015
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Small States in the Multilateral Trading System

Teddy Y. Soobramanien

This study provides a fresh perspective on how measures can be taken to enhance the participation of small states and least developed countries (LDCs) in the multilateral trading system. It contributes to the ongoing general debate about reforming the World Trade Organization and global trade governance.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291392
• Publication Date: Nov 2015
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Achieving the Istanbul Programme of Action by 2020

Achieving the Istanbul Programme of Action by 2020 focuses on four specific themes: structural transformation and export diversification in the LDCs; prospects of graduation of countries from the LDC group; implications of the 2030 Agenda in view of LDC concerns; and new challenges facing LDCs in their pursuit for achieving SDGs.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291484
• Publication Date: Aug 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

A Sustainable Future for Small States

Resina Katafono

This publication reviews seven sectors that can catalyse economic development in the Commonwealth Pacific: political governance; development effectiveness and co-ordination; oceans governance; non-communicable diseases; ICT and connectivity; migration and climate change; and energy, and offers policy solutions to address these challenges.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291637
• Publication Date: Sep 2017
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Youth Work in the Commonwealth

Youth Work in the Commonwealth: A Growth Profession aims to help countries learn from good practices, and assess gaps in establishing youth work as a recognised profession in diverse contexts.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849291736
• Publication Date: Sep 2017
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

A Better Globalization

Kemal Dervis

The huge costs of armed conflict, the great challenge of state failure, and the slow pace of international actions to address world poverty all point to weaknesses in the global institutional framework and the need for much more effective international cooperation. In this book, Kemal Dervis argues that it is time to build a new international governance structure, breaking away from a system that reflects the post World War II world toward one that is appropriate to the realities and requirements of the 21st century. He proposes a reform of the international institutional architecture based on high-level governance in both the political and economic domains by a renewed and modernized United Nations. Navigating between careful realism and bold idealism, he formulates a coherent vision encompassing both institutional reform and new ideas for policies supported by the specialized institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, the UN agencies themselves, and regional institutions such as the regional development banks. In this plea for "better" globalization, Dervis proposes that, under the legitimizing umbrella of the UN, the specialized institutions deal with the deep causes of the obstacles to poverty reduction and instability rather than their immediate manifestations. He recognizes the great potential that more and freer trade can have for accelerating growth throughout the world. He also stresses, however, that for this potential to be unleashed, the hearts and minds of people must be won by transforming not only the WTO framework but the entire governance of the international economic system into something that is perceived as more legitimate and more responsive to the concerns of the developing world as well as wealthy and creditor nations.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780815717638
• Publication Date: Mar 2005
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Handbook II: Advanced Teaching Strategies for Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty

Donald Greive

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780940017399
• Publication Date: Jan 2016
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Overcoming Stagnation in Aid-Dependent Countries

Nicolas van de Walle

In this book, Nicolas Van de Walle identifies 26 countries that are extremely poor and grew little if at all in the 1990s. His sample excludes North Korea and countries where civil war explains some of their failure to grow (Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tajikistan and others). The 26 countries have limited infrastructure and human capital and the small size of their markets deter private savings and investment. Aid was meant to help overcome these problems, and these countries received a lot. Yet they have failed to grow. What is wrong? Is foreign aid a solution or part of the problem? What changes might make aid more effective? Given these countries require the financial and technical resources of the West, why haven't aid programs made a difference? Van de Walle blames their economic failure mostly on the venality and incompetence of their political leadership. He analyzes the contradictions and tensions faced by the aid community in poorly run countries, providing a sobering analysis of the perverse effects of aid where the politics is all wrong. Too often, resources provided by foreign aid keep the wrong government in office, and undermine adoption of economic as well as political reforms. Bad government combined with aid, in short, hurts poor countries – and particularly the poorest people in those countries. Despite good intentions, little progress has been made in implementing announced "reforms" of the aid business itself. A constituency for reform is lacking, in the donor countries and in the recipient countries, where those in power benefit from the status quo.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286013
• Publication Date: Mar 2005
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Making Markets for Vaccines

Ruth Levine

Making a commitment in advance to buy vaccines if and when they are developed would create incentives for industry to increase investment in research and development. New commercial investment would complement funding of research and development by public and charitable bodies, accelerating the development of vital new vaccines for the developing world. This report presents the proposal from theory to practice, by showing how a commitment can be consistent with ordinary legal and budgetary principles. By creating arrangements that devote the same scientific effort to diseases of the poor as we put into diseases of the rich, we can make a lasting contribution to the defeat of poverty.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286020
• Publication Date: Apr 2005
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Short of the Goal

Nancy Birdsall

Failed states are at greatest risk for collapse and pose an urgent threat to international security. Yet, ironically, new U.S. foreign assistance programs such as the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) routinely bypass these poorly performing countries, while providing increased aid to so-called good performers. This volume provides a lucid account of failed states that are ineligible for this new assistance, thus residing "on the other side of the MCA." The first part analyzes U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Indonesia, Yemen, Myanmar, and Central America in order to examine the fundamental causes of poor performance. The second part examines the role of specific U.S. policy instruments in building state capacity to prevent deterioration and collapse. Uncovering one of the most recognizable, yet poorly understood, trends in the developing world, Short of the Goal sets an important agenda for increased American engagement with failed states to promote both development and security in the developing world.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286051
• Publication Date: May 2006
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Africa's Private Sector

Vijaya Ramachandran

Why is business performance lagging in Africa? To provide answers, this volume focuses on the day-to-day problems that private sector managers and entrepreneurs there encounter. Through enterprise surveys conducted in several African countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, these businesspeople identify poor infrastructure—particularly the lack of a reliable source of power—as a huge constraint on private sector activity.Politics also plays a key role in limiting the success of African businesses. Many countries there have private sectors that are ethnically segmented or dominated by ethnic minorities or both. Segmented networks in already sparse economic environments limit competition, encourage an ambivalent attitude toward facilitating a good business environment, and constrain the growth of firms outside the dominant network. Consequently, Africa has yet to see the emergence of a broad-based business class. Africa's Private Sector identifies several solutions to address both the infrastructure and political economy constraints hampering business growth in Africa.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286280
• Publication Date: Jan 2009
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Performance Incentives for Global Health

Rena Eichler

This volume demonstrates how incentives can improve the delivery and use of health services in low- and middle-income countries. The authors describe the rationale for introducing incentives tied to achievement of specific health-related targets, and they provide clear guidance about designing, implementing, and evaluating programs that provide incentives to health care providers and patients. A set of case studies focuses on recent uses of incentives addressing a range of health conditions in diverse countries. In particular, these studies emphasize how explicit incentives can be used to strengthen weak health systems.The book will be of use to policymakers and program managers in both developing countries and the donor community interested in improving health outcomes through the strategic use of performance-based incentives.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286297
• Publication Date: Apr 2009
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

Due Diligence

David Roodman

The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is?Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286488
• Publication Date: Dec 2011
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Cash on Delivery

Nancy Birdsall

Foreign aid has no shortage of critics. Some argue that it undermines development and inherently does more harm than good; others insist that aid must be seriously reformed to work properly. Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid proposes serious reform to make aid work well by forcing accountability, aligning the objectives of funders and recipients, and sharing information about what works.Public and private aid can improve lives in poor countries, but the willingness of taxpayers and private funders to finance aid programs depends more than ever on showing results. COD Aid is a funding mechanism that hinges on results. At its core is a contract between funders and recipients that stipulates a fixed payment for each unit of confirmed progress toward an agreed-upon goal. Once the contract is struck, the funder takes a hands-off approach, allowing the recipient the freedom and responsibility to achieve the goal on its own. Payment is made only after progress toward the goal is independently verified by a third party. At all steps, a COD Aid program is remarkably transparent: the contract, the amount of progress made, and the payment are disseminated publicly to highlight the credibility of the arrangement and improve accountability to the public. COD Aid is a new approach to foreign aid, but one that complements other aid programs and would ultimately encourage funders and recipients to use existing resources more efficiently.Cash On Delivery Aid: A New Approach to Foreign Aid explains the approach in detail and investigates its application in one sector: education. More specifically, the authors show how foreign aid agencies could use COD Aid to help developing countries achieve universal primary school education. The example illustrates how to deal with potential challenges of the approach—challenges that are no greater than those of traditional aid—and includes model term sheets for contracts that could be used for any COD Aid agreement.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781933286600
• Publication Date: Apr 2011
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5-7 Working Days

The Impact of China and India on Sub-Saharan Africa

Oliver Morrissey

Through detailed country-level analysis, this study examines the trading partnerships between China, India and sub-Saharan Africa. It assesses the economic impacts, identifies challenges and provides recommendations to assist policy-makers enhance the ability of SSA countries to derive benefits and to take advantage of new opportunities.

• Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849290555
• Publication Date: May 2011
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Growing Up Human

Sybella Ng

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9789675492228
• Publication Date: Jul 2022
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Popular Music in East and Southeast Asia

Mayco A. Santaella

• Format: Hardback
• ISBN: 9789675492693
• Publication Date: Aug 2022
• Availability: In Stock - Despatched Within 5 Working Days

Effectiveness of Aid for Trade in Small and Vulnerable Economies

Massimiliano Calì

This Economic Paper presents the first analyses of the use and effectiveness of Aid for Trade (AfT), the initiative to help developing countries boost their involvement in the global economy. It examines the extent to which SVEs have been able to access AfT funds and to what extent this assistance has helped them to improve their trade performance.

• Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849290487
• Publication Date: Mar 2011
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Educators in Exile

Barry Sesnan

This study addresses a gap in the literature on the role and status of teachers in emergencies. Through field research from Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, it identifies issues facing refugee teachers and makes recommendations on how policy can address their needs, and thus improve access to education to populations affected by an emergency.

• Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9781849290913
• Publication Date: Feb 2013
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days

Gender Budgets Make Cents

Debbie Budlender

Providing an understanding of gender responsive budgets, this text is part of the inter-agency programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat, IDRC and UNIFEM. It covers the theoretical framework, the evolution of work in this area, the role of different stakeholders and the lessons learned to date.

• Imprint: Commonwealth Secretariat
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 9780850926965
• Publication Date: Jan 2002
• Availability: Temporarily out of stock: Usually despatched in 14-18 days