The ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have created one of the most dynamic developing regions. They have unveiled the Blueprint for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to achieve a “single market” by 2015. More recently, the full ratification of the ASEAN...

Have you ever wondered how many women are in paid employment compared to men? We know they get unequal wages, but just how unequal is their pay? Meanwhile, who are the managers, and what is their gender makeup? Are women and men entering the higher levels of state in equal numbers?

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been one of the principal beneficiaries of the liberalisation of capital flows over recent decades, and now constitutes the major form of capital inflow for many developing countries, including low-income ones like Chad, Mauritania, Sudan and Zambia. But while...

Latin American Countries vary widely in their institutional capacity to conduct economic policy analysis. Capacity for policy analysis is a necessary condition for economic reform but capacity for implementation is also needed. The point of contact between these two capacities - to analyse and...

The quality of local corporate governance is critically important for the success of long-tem development efforts throughout the developing world today.

Risk-based public debt management and liquid domestic bond markets are important mutually reinforcing strategies for emerging financial markets and developing countries in general.

Technological change and organisational advancements have made possible the greater participation of developing country producers in international trade, in a wide range of goods and services. However, firms based in industrial countries often determine the scope for insertion and upgrading of...

Reducing under-five mortality rates in Africa by two-thirds is urgent. HIV-AIDS, malaria, lack of basic health services and conflict are hampering progress. Preventable diseases take a heavy toll on the under-fives. Preventing the deaths of children is a matter of political will.

Decentralisation has become a key issue in development policy in the past two decades. Whereas the advantages and risks of transferring power and resources to local tiers of government have been debated for quite some time, it is only very recently that the linkages between decentralization and...

Africa’s economic progress now seems on a firm footing after a third straight year of satisfactory performance in 2005, with overall growth of 5 per cent, average per capita income up 3 per cent and inflation steady at under 10 per cent. Two-thirds of the 30 countries surveyed in the Africa...