Striving Toward the Millennium
Development Goals
Building Consensus on Poverty Reduction
Masood Ahmed
Taking Stock of Poverty Reduction Efforts
Brian Ames, Gita Bhatt, and Mark Plant
Crafting Bolivia's PRSP: Five Points of
View
Ramiro Cavero Uriona, Juan Carlos Requena P., Juan Carlos N��ez, Rosalind Eyben, and Wayne Lewis
Is the PRGF Living Up to Expectations?
Sanjeev Gupta, Mark Plant, Thomas Dorsey, and Benedict Clements
An Automatic Safety Net?
Martin Ravallion
A series of World Bank case studies suggests that the poor bear the brunt of government spending cuts. Better safety nets that can provide more automatic protection are needed.
Financial Crises, Poverty, and Income
Distribution
Emanuele Baldacci, Luiz de Mello, and Gabriela Inchauste
How do financial crises affect income distribution and the poor? A recent IMF study shows that poverty rises and, in some cases, so does inequality —underscoring the need for adequate and flexible safety nets, ideally in place before crises strike.
Reconciling Conditionality and Country Ownership
Mohsin S. Khan and Sunil Sharma
For the international community, one of the biggest
challenges is how to reconcile the need for more country ownership
of adjustment and reform programs with the need for conditions on
IMF loans. Critics charge that IMF conditions are too numerous or
too intrusive and hence undermine country ownership. A variety of
solutions are being explored, including focusing conditions not
just on policies but also on outcomes.
External Debt and Growth
Catherine Pattillo, H�l�ne Poirson, and Luca Ricci
Reasonable levels of external debt that help finance productive investment may be expected to enhance growth, but beyond certain levels additional indebtedness may reduce growth. An IMF study estimates two critical turning points: when additional debt slows growth and when it contributes negatively to growth, making the
country worse off.
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Odious Debt
Michael Kremer and Seema Jayachandran
Many developing countries are carrying debt incurred by rulers who borrowed without the people's consent and used the funds either to repress the people or for personal gain. A new approach is warranted to prevent dictators from running up debts, looting their countries, and passing on their debts to the population.
Challenges in Expanding Aid Flows
Peter S. Heller and Sanjeev Gupta
Many developing countries are carrying debt incurred by rulers who borrowed without the people's consent and used the funds either to repress the people or for personal gain. A new approach is warranted to prevent dictators from running up debts, looting their countries, and passing on their debts to the population.
Also in This Issue
The Allure of the Value-Added Tax
Liam Ebrill, Michael Keen, Jean-Paul Bodin, and Victoria Summers
The VAT began life in the more developed countries of Europe and Latin America but, over the past 25 years, has been adopted by a vast number of developing and transition countries. A recent IMF study concludes that the VAT can be a good way to raise resources and modernize the overall tax system —but this requires that the tax be well designed and implemented.
Lessons from a Decade of Transition in
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
Pradeep K. Mitra and Marcelo Selowsky
A decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, some transition economies are performing far better than others. A recent World Bank study finds that poor incentives for the creation of new firms is the single biggest obstacle. But reducing barriers to entry is not enough —hard budget constraints must also be imposed on the old money-losing state-owned enterprises.
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