By the dawn of the 21st century, more than half of the world's population was living in urban areas. This volume explores the implications of this unprecedented expansion in the world's most urbanized region, Latin America, exploring the new urban reality, and the consequences for both Latin America and the rest of the developing world.

This book examines the various channels and transmission mechanisms, such as greater openness to trade and foreign investment, economic growth, effects on income distribution, technology transfer and labour migration through which the process of globalization affects different dimensions of poverty in the developing world.

World hunger is prevalent yet receives relatively less attention compared to poverty. The MDGs have taken a step to address this with the resolution of halving the number of starving people in the world by 2015. Hunger though is not a straightforward problem of producing enough to feed the world's population; it has many cross-cutting dimensions. This volume discusses the significance of human rights approaches to food and the way it relates to gender considerations, addressing links between hunger and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, agricultural productivity and the environment.

The Asian road to the market has generally been seen as a model of success and the object of widespread admiration. But even in countries experiencing sustained growth, there have been unmistakable signs of deep social strain. This book evaluates the experience and debunks widespread myths about Asian growth. It does so by identifying the link between alternative transition models, public policies and household responses on the one hand, and key welfare changes on the other.

Although the new small and medium enterprises (SME) sector is emerging as one of the driving forces in transition economies, little is known about the conditions behind its successful development or about policies which could facilitate its expansion. This unique book explores the complex relationship between the growth of the SME sector and the current policies and institutional, historical and cultural forces that shape its fate.

This book analyzes the new trends in capital flows to emerging markets since the Asian crisis, their determinants and policy implications. It explains why such flows have declined so dramatically in recent years, emphasising both structural and cyclical factors. Senior bankers, regulators, and well-known academics explain the behaviour of different players. The book breaks new ground by showing in detail how such behaviour has contributed to the decline of flows and their volatility. The book suggests what coping mechanisms developing countries could adopt to deal with crisis situations; what...

Conventional wisdom recommends the superiority of private ownership of enterprises. The reality confronts it with a rich diversity in ownership and governance structures. This volume examines five types of unorthodox ownership and governance form emerging in the industrial sector across major economies. It analyzes two cases to demonstrate that there are alternative ways to harden budget constraints of state-owned enterprises. It investigates the driving forces behind these evolving dynamics and explores policy implications for developing and transition economies.

Foreign finance for private sector development (PSD) has become popular with the donor community and in multilateral development policy fora, seen as an antidote for recipient economies' aid dependency and a way of accomplishing growth, poverty reduction and empowerment. This book analyzes the pattern of foreign finance for PSD and examines multilateral and bilateral donors' practices in PSD financing, giving special attention to microfinance and microenterprises. It also models and explains private capital flows from developed to developing countries and reverse flows in the form of capital...

After a massive international campaign calling attention to the development impact of foreign debt, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is now underway. But will the HIPC Initiative meet its high expectations? Will debt relief substantially raise growth? How do we make sure that debt relief benefits poor people? And how can we ensure that poor countries do not become highly indebted again? These are some of the key policy issues covered in this rigorous and independent analysis of debt, development, and poverty.

The "development credibility" of the current trade regime in general, and the WTO in particular, is at stake. The Doha Round aims to reverse the brewing scepticism by providing a reliable engine of trade-led growth and development. The essays in this volume identify the key challenges in this regard, make an assessment of the current situation in agriculture and manufacturing market access and evaluate alternative policy options that will make the goal attainable.