Comprises seven case studies taken from a larger project on rural labour markets and employment policies. Examines how rural labour markets function and the complex factors that condition their outcomes.

Looks at three different patterns that limit competitiveness: a) questionable working conditions in export processing zones or within global value chains that are driven by a foreign or multinational enterprise; b) exclusion of self-employed from the internal governance process of the chain; c)...

This paper examines in an integrated manner the multiple dimensions of what has come to be called the “policy space” or “policy autonomy” of developing countries, i.e. their ability to calibrate national policies to local conditions and needs (especially with respect to their development...

Explores the development of thinking on structural adjustment during the 1980s and 1990s, highlighting the pro-liberalization ideological basis of programmes designed by the Bretton Woods institutions and the Washington Consensus. Describes the poor results of these programmes and assesses the...

Argues that strategies encouraging surplus extraction from agriculture, combined with stalled industrialisation constitute the root causes of persistent rural poverty. Suggests that an agriculture-first strategy is necessary not only for rural poverty alleviation, but also for successful...

Outlines the effects of development policies on gender inequality in developing countries from the early 1980s to 1992, and sets out an agenda for the 1990s.