Has the World Bank's dramatic expansion of aid to countries devastated by civil conflict met its stated goals of speeding economic recovery and decreasing the probability of conflict recidivism? Our answer marries previous research into the politics of civil conflict with an understanding of the...

The literature on development effectiveness has traditionally focused on the ex-post analysis of projects. While this is the appropriate method of measuring benefits, a previous step must be taken as a forerunner to good ex-post evaluation: the measurement of the efficiency in the execution of...

The need for infrastructure finance in Africa is tremendous. A 2009 report by the World Bank suggests that the continent faces needs of US$93 billion per year. More recent studies, pointing to economic and population growth trends and using more sophisticated methods of assessing needs, indicate...

This paper examines the complementary and competitive roles of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Asia given the backdrop of a changing world in which development priorities and challenges are changing rapidly and the rapid expansion of financial flows to developing countries...

The operations of multilateral development banks (MDBs) can have both positive and negative environmental, social and human rights impacts. Since negative impacts can have profound and irreversible consequences, they should be avoided or mitigated. The MDBs also need to provide those adversely...

Entwicklungsbanken wie die KfW unterliegen nicht dem Gebot der Gewinnmaximierung, sondern haben das Mandat zur Förderung der wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und ökologischen Entwicklung. Sie helfen Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern, Unzulänglichkeiten des Marktes zu überbrücken, mit dem Ziel,...

Discontent with the substantial influence of major global players in International Financial Institutions (IFIs) has raised a call to restructure these organizations. Greater involvement of borrowing members in lending decisions has been proposed in order to limit the exposure of development...

Trade finance, particularly in the form of short-term, self-liquidating letters of credit and the like, has received relatively favourable treatment regarding capital adequacy and liquidity under Basel III, the new international prudential framework. However, concerns have been expressed over...

Multilateral development finance is at a critical juncture. In the past 70 years, it has developed through four distinct stages. The Bretton Woods conference established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1944 to finance post-war reconstruction and stabilize the global...