Book Description
In Connection with the UNDP-RBAS
Since 1990, the United Nations Development Program has been providing annual “Human Development Reports” that set out the basic social and economic indicators for the nations of the world. The Arab Human Development Report, which is focused exclusively on the twenty-two Arab states, provides a comprehensive and comparative examination of the region. Filled with charts, tables, and sidebars, the book provides analysis of the current situation, compares Arab performance with other world areas, and provides an agenda for action. Past AHDRs have focused on the deficits of freedom, knowledge, and women’s empowerment that exist in the region; the 2004 edition will focus on freedom and good governance. The reports have received considerable attention from the press, policy makers, and politicians, including Thomas L. Friedman in his column for the New York Times: “There is another tremor shaking the Arab world. This one is being set off by a group of courageous Arab social scientists, who decided, with the help of the United Nations, to begin fighting the war of ideas for the Arab future by detailing just how far the Arab world has fallen behind and by laying out a progressive pathway forward.”
Customer Reviews:
Infected by PCism But Readable.......2006-06-15
Patrick Clawson said that the first Arab Human Development Report in 2002 broke from the usual blame-the-foreigner excuses by Arab intellectuals and concentrated instead on the shortcomings of Arabs themselves as the principal reason for the problems of Arab societies. Not surprisingly, this candor sat poorly with Arab governments and hate-the-West intellectuals. As a result, this report, the third annual volume in the series, includes an executive summary and a chapter that bow in the direction of Arab political correctness, departing from the rest of the volume in its focus on the pernicious West as the source of restrictions on Arab freedoms. A particularly bizarre box criticizes Israel for its restrictions on churches--this in a volume that says not a single word about religious freedom for non-Muslims in the Arab world, not even about the ban on organized non-Muslim worship in Saudi Arabia.
The 2004 report focuses on freedom with chapters on the intellectual basis of freedom, an overview of problematic issues, human rights ("denial of fundamental individual freedoms"), legal architecture ("legislative restrictions on freedom"), political architecture ("the vicious circle of repression and corruption"), and societal structures ("the chain that stifles individual freedom"), before closing with a chapter offering "strategic visions of freedom and governance." In the areas it covers, the analysis is quite solid if usually abstract: the authors obviously felt constrained from offering specific examples about freedom deficits in particular countries.
Even accepting those limitations, the report's approach suffers from some obvious omissions, such as ignoring the rampant discrimination against non-Muslim and non-Arab populations, which are significant minorities in most of the Arab world. (In the four large Arab states of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, and Sudan, which between them have a majority of the population of Arab states, minorities constitute a larger share of the population than do blacks in the United States.) The report also suffers from the mythology that an "Arab world" actually exists when problems and accomplishments differ remarkably from one Arabic-speaking country to another. Still, Nader Fergany and the rest of his large team are to be congratulated for being blunt about the Arab world's freedom deficit, a topic that only a few years ago would have been unthinkable as a subject for a report from an international organization.
The painful truth.......2005-10-21
The Arab world has failed to meet the challenge of modernity. It has failed to confront antiquated regimes with leaders who seem far from capable of confronting the real problems of their people. The lack of freedom, discrimination against women of this world mark out its backwardness.
The young Arab intellectuals working to change this are to be commended for their effort.
Regression.......2005-06-14
The first The Arab Human Development Report (2002) reasonably diagnosed the three key constraints to development in the Arab world to be the low status of women, lack of knowledge and lack of freedom. The 2003 Report dealt with the knowledge deficit. The 2004 report is concerned with the lack of freedom in Arab countries which is probably the most fundamental of the three deficit areas.
It is unclear whether the authors would have fearlessly, objectively and honestly dealt with this most important issue if given a free hand. However, being sponsored by a UN organization, in which the Arab governments have a major say, they probably never got the chance. They ended up damning with faint praise. Reading between the lines the authors consider that a very bad situation has become even worse.
The authors continue to tiptoe around the relationship between Islamic values and practices and the fact that functional democracies are almost unknown in the Islamic world. They really do not come to grips with why virtually every Arab state is repressive and corrupt even though some were colonized by the British, some by the French, some by the Spanish and a few never colonized at all. They fall back on that old Arab way of avoiding reality - blaming Israel (and oil) though most Arab states neither border on Israel nor have oil.
If these reports do not recover their rigor and intellectual integrity they will just represent so many trees unnecessarily slaughtered in a bad cause.
(...)
Book Description
The theme of The World Development Report 2007 is youth - young people between the ages of 12 to 24. As this population group seeks identity and independence, they make decisions that affect not only their own well-being, but that of others, and they do this in a rapidly changing demographic and socio-economic environment. Supporting young people's transition to adulthood poses important opportunities and risky challenges for development policy. Are education systems preparing young people to cope with the demands of changing economies? What kind of support do they get as they enter the labor market? Can they move freely to where the jobs are? What can be done to help them avoid serious consequences of risky behavior, such as death from HIV-AIDS and drug abuse? Can their creative energy be directed productively to support development thinking?
The report will focus on crucial capabilities and transitions in a young person's life: learning for life and work, staying healthy, working, forming families, and exercising citizenship. For each, there are opportunities and risks; for all, policies and institutions matter.
Customer Reviews:
A Mix of Hope and Despair.......2006-12-16
This book is an interesting mix of hope and despair.
There is a basis for hope, after all the World Bank which puts out this report is in the business of providing hope for millions of people in the poorer parts of the world. They can point to numerous programs and projects where the overall situation has improved.
At the same time there is an underlying tone of despair when the report is talking about the spread of HIV and AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, access to safe abortions or condoms, or are fighting in some military or rebel organization.
I am also concerned about what has been left out of the report. I find no mention of such things as drug resistant TB, or the approaching energy crisis, which if not factored into the World Bank's plans may make all of their planning and investing pointless.
The World Bank's Annual Review of Development.......2006-10-28
This is the World Bank's Annual Review of Development. For those who do not follow world development, the World Bank is the key international financial institution dealing with this subject. This annual review contains useful information and is useful to see how the Bank sees its mission. It is not written in a very interesting manner. For some better books on this subject I recommend readers check my Future Watch Listamania which can be found by going to my profile page.
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Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)
ASIN: 0226468348 |
Book Description
Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries draws out the underlying economics in business history by focusing on learning processes and the development of competitively valuable asymmetries. The essays show that organizations, like people, learn that this process can be organized more or less effectively, which can have major implications for how competition works.
The first three essays in this volume explore techniques firms have used to both manage information to create valuable asymmetries and to otherwise suppress unwelcome competition. The next three focus on the ways in which firms have built special capabilities over time, capabilities that have been both sources of competitive advantage and resistance to new opportunities. The last two extend the notion of learning from the level of firms to that of nations. The collection as a whole builds on the previous two volumes to make the connection between information structure and product market outcomes in business history.
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Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction (World Bank Policy Research Report)
World Bank
Manufacturer: A World Bank Publication
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Land Law Reform: Achieving Development Policy Objectives (Law, Justice, and Development)
ASIN: 0821350714 |
Book Description
This volume synthesizes insights from the vast literature on land policy. It evaluates the implications of these insights for development policy, taking due account of actual experiences in policy implementation, and suggests ways to design land policies that promote growth as well as poverty reduction.
Download Description
Land is a key component of the wealth of any nation. Throughout history, virtually all civilizations have spent considerable time defining land rights and establishing institutions to administer them. Well-defined, secure, and transferable rights to land are crucial to development efforts. In developing countries, most land is used for agricultural production, a mainstay of economic sustenance. The possession of land rights also typically ensures a baseline of shelter and food supply and allows people to turn latent assets into live capital through entrepreneurial activity. Once secure in their land rights, rural households invest to increase productivity. Moreover, the use of land as a primary investment vehicle allows households to accumulate and transfer wealth between generations. The ability to use land rights as collateral for credit helps create a stronger investment climate and land rights are thus, at the level of the economy, a pre-condition for the emergence and operation of financial markets. Property rights to land are one of the cornerstones for the functioning of modern economies. This book looks first at the historical, conceptual, and legal contexts of property rights to land. It then considers aspects of land transactions, including the key factors affecting the functioning of rural land markets. Finally, it explores the scope and role of governments and land policy formation and discusses ways in which developing countries can establish land policy frameworks that maximize social benefit.
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Report on the State of the European Union: Volume 2 (Report on the State of the European Union)
Jean-Paul Fitoussi , and
Jacques Le Cacheux
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: 1403987408
Release Date: 2007-02-20 |
Book Description
The time has come to open a lucid debate on the ways and means to make Europe better deliver democracy and sustainable growth. The Report on the State of the European Union examines the progress of European integration and focuses on economic aspects of the process. This second volume in the series, explores the four crises of contemporary Europe, those of growth, trust, inequalities and unity. The report is written in an accessible way and will be a useful resource for academics, students, policymakers, journalists and government advisors.
Book Description
Civil wars attract much less attention than international wars but they are becoming increasingly common and typically go on for years. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails countries can become trapped in a vicious circle: war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. This new World Bank Policy Research Report challenges the belief that civil wars are inevitable and proposes an agenda for global action.
Customer Reviews:
civil war != development.......2006-02-02
These days, when the idea of failed states occupies the minds of many policymakers in the developed world, Collier provides a timely study of how civil war can help bring about a failed state. He studies several decades of civil wars, spread across the world, though primarily focused on Africa. In these wars, we see how the development of those countries was severely stunted. From Liberia to Sudan to Cambodia and other places.
The tragedy of course is that these countries already had parlous economies, prior to the conflicts. Plus, during the wars, conditions naturally worsened.
Quite a thoughtful book. The author and, implicitly, the World Bank, argue that until such wars end, it is futile to seriously contemplate any development policy.
Product Description
This Report examines the challenges of financing urban shelter development, focusing on the shelter needs of the poor and within the overall context of the United Nations Millennium Development target on slums. By 2030, an additional 3 billion people or about 40% of the current worlds population will need housing. If adequate financial resources are not invested in the development of urban shelter and requisite services, this additional population will also be trapped in urban poverty, deplorable housing conditions, poor health and low productivity, thus further compounding the enormous slum challenge that exists today.
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The Global Information Technology Report 2001-2002: Readiness for the Networked World (World Economic Forum)
World Economic Forum
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0195152581 |
Book Description
Very little has been written or published on the global experience vis-a-vis information technology that puts both developed and developing countries into a larger context from which lessons can be extrapolated. Within the IT and Development fields, there has been much talk and hyperbole about the power of IT to transform the economic development process, but very little rigorous analysis has been carried out to document the global situation. The frontier of the field is to explore and understand how IT is being used in the developing world, what the barriers to IT diffusion and adoption are in developing countries, and what the main lessons are from the developing world that can aid in designing policies and solutions that can overcome the international digital divide. The Global Information Technology Readiness Report 2001-2002 provides the first comprehensive and comparative analysis of the diffusion and use of information technology in 70 countries around the world. The Report consists of three main sections: a series of country rankings comparing the global experience of different nations based on various crieteria of IT readiness; a collection of essays by recognized experts on a series of IT-related subjects key to understanding the issues involved in extending the benefits of IT to the developing world; and country profiles that highlight the overall situation and major trends relating to IT within each country. The scope of the Report is quite ambitious, as is the methodology, as data has been generated through a series of surveys of global business leaders. Both the range and depth of the issues and data make the Global Information Technology Readiness Report 2001-2002 a unique and valuable publication.
Book Description
Known as the standard reference for international economic data, the twenty-second annual edition of the World Development Report provides a set of Selected World Development Indicators as an appendix, presenting social and economic statistics for more than 200 countries.
Book Description
The current account deficit of the United States is more than six percent of its gross domestic product—an all-time high. And the rest of the world, including other G7 countries such as Japan and Germany, must collectively run current account surpluses to finance this deficit. How long can such unevenness between imports and exports be sustained, and what form might their eventual reconciliation take? Putting forth scenarios ranging from a gradual correction to a crash landing for the dollar, G7 Current Account Imbalances brings together economists from around the globe to consider the origins, status, and future of those disparities.
An esteemed group of collaborators here examines the role of the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the history of previous episodes of current account adjustments, and the possibility of the Euro surpassing the dollar as the leading international reserve currency. Though there are areas of broad agreement—that the imbalances will ultimately decline and that currency revaluations will be part of the solution—many areas of contention remain regarding both the dangers of imbalances and the possible forms of adjustment.
This volume will be of tremendous value to economists, politicians, and business leaders alike as they look to the future of the G7 economies.
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