This study investigates the World Bank's use of lending and non-lending instruments to affect the policy priorities of developing countries. In a typical year, the World Bank lends more than $30 billion to its client countries. It also spends approximately $200 million on the provision of...

This paper examines the correlates of success of development policy lending operations of the World Bank between 2004 and 2012. The paper uses a data set constructed of individual loan characteristics and ex-post loan ratings produced by the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group. Departing...

The Millennium Development Goals, which expire in 2015, were a global agreement to promote human development and reduce poverty. But they did not create a legalized institutional regime, in which precise obligations would be delegated to specific actors, nor were they, in many respects,...

This paper examines historically the World Bank's twin features: lending to developing economies to achieve tangible results and advocating specific development policies. Section 1 provides some conceptual underpinnings for the view that an effective state is essential for development. It asks...

This case study explores the role of the Afghan authorities between 2001 and 2006 - the Interim Administration, the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - in shaping the "aid relationship" between those authorities, and various components of the...

Can foreign aid be used to enhance good governance in recipient countries? This paper looks at the history of donor efforts to strengthen public institutions in developing countries, and how these have evolved in response to accumulated learning, changing fashions and donor interests. Systematic...

Environmental governance can be understood as 'the establishment, the reaffirmation or change of institutions (policies, laws, procedures, practices and organisations) to resolve conflicts - overt or latent - between actors over environmental resources. Environmental governance takes place at...

A growing political science literature studies the significance of emerging powers as key players in development. However, these studies have almost all considered the phenomenon from the perspective of donors. This paper assesses how recipient governments respond to the rise of new donors,...