The plight of the poorest around the world has been pushed to the forefront of America's international agenda for the first time in many years by the war on terrorism and the formidable challenges presented by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In March 2002, President Bush announced the creation of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). This bilateral development fund represents an increase of $5 billion per year over current assistance levels and establishes of a new agency to promote growth in reform-oriented developing countries. Amounting to a doubling of U.S. bilateral development aidthe...

Private sector activity is crucial for development. It shapes the investment climate, mobilizes innovation and financing in areas such as global health, and can either cause or mitigate social and environmental harm. Yet so far, the international development debate has not focused on the role of the private sector.

This volume --written by members of the private sector, philanthropic organizations, and academia --investigates ways to galvanize the private sector in the fight against global poverty. Using a bottom-up approach, they describe how the private sector affects growth and...

In a world transformed by globalization and challenged by terrorism, foreign aid has assumed renewed importance as a foreign policy tool. While the results of more than forty years of development assistance show some successes, foreign aid is currently dispersed between many agencies and branches of government in a manner that formulation and implementation of a coherent, effective strategy. The current political climate is receptive to a transition toward greater accountability and effectiveness in development aid. Because this transition is clearly an imperative but has not yet been...

The fight against global poverty has quickly become one of the hottest tickets on the global agenda --with rock stars, world leaders, and multibillionaires calling attention to the plight of the poor at international confabs such as the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative. The cozy, all-of-a-kind club of rich country officials who for decades dominated the development agenda has given way to a profusion of mega-philanthropists, "celanthropists," and super-charged advocacy networks vying to solve the world's toughest problems. Supporting the development glitterati is a...

In Brazil, the confluence of strong global demand for the country's major products, global successes for its major corporations, and steady results from its economic policies is building confidence and even reviving dreams of grandeza --the greatness that has proven elusive in the past. Even as the current economic crisis tempers expectations of the future, the trends identified in this book suggest that Brazil will continue its path toward becoming a leading economic power in the future.

Once seen as an economic backwater, Brazil now occupies key niches in energy, agriculture, service...

"Brookings Trade Forum" provides comprehensive analysis on current and emerging issues of international trade and macroeconomics. Practitioners and academics contribute to each volume, with papers that provide an in-depth look at a particular topic. The 2008/2009 edition focuses on climate policy and its impact on trade.

Contents include - Five "Gs" Lessons for Governing Global Climate from World Trade William Antholis (Brookings) - International Trade Law and the Economics of Climate Policy: Evaluating the Legality and Effectiveness of Proposals to Address Competitiveness and Leakage...

Climate change threatens all people, but its adverse effects will be felt most acutely by the world's poor. Absent urgent action, new threats to food security, public health, and other societal needs may reverse hard-fought human development gains. "Climate Change and Global Poverty" makes concrete recommendations to integrate international development and climate protection strategies. It demonstrates that effective climate solutions must empower global development, while poverty alleviation itself must become a central strategy for both mitigating emissions and reducing global...