Legal reforms matter for economic growth and democratic consolidation. As part of the “second-generation reformsâ€, international financial institutions have sought to build the rule of law by funding a vast array of legal and judicial reform projects throughout the developing world....

The proliferation of country groupings indicates the need to assess the effectiveness of the current system for development cooperation and to explore better ways to manage the international system, as heterogeneity among developing countries increases. Great caution should be exercised in...

International aid is often analysed as if it was a homogeneous product exclusively distributed between a relatively small numbers of public agencies. In contrast, this paper contributes to thinking about aid as a quasi-market with many different suppliers, users, channels, products and brands....

Reaching the objective of universal access to modern energy services will require large investments in infrastructure in developing countries. An important part of funding will be provided in the form of development finance and its effectiveness in producing positive impacts is crucial for this...

This paper examines Bosnia with some comparative insights from Northern Ireland. Both places were extremely fragile in the immediate aftermath of their brokered peace negotiations and consociational institutions, in Bosnia in 1995 and Northern Ireland in 1998. Bosnia in particular was the...

This paper describes the results of an impact evaluation of the National Solidarity Programme, a community-driven development programme in Afghanistan that created democratic village councils and funded small-scale development projects. Using a randomized controlled trial across 500 villages, we...

During recent years, new doubts about the effectiveness of international aid have emerged. One of the arguments employed to justify this sceptical view is that aid can hinder tax effort in developing countries. Nevertheless, empirical research on the aid-tax nexus is inconclusive and it shows...

The Yemen Social Fund for Development (SFD) was established in 1997 with the support of the international community, and in particular the World Bank, to combat national poverty and reinforce the limited existing social safety net. Since its inception, SFD has been widely viewed as successful in...