Human development, reflected in the status of people's levels of health and education, affects future growth and, in turn, is affected by decentralization. Unlike earlier exclusive emphasis on budgetary issues, this study focuses on the impact of fiscal decentralization on the level of human...

The paper explores the conditions making for success in Human Development (HD) in developing countries. For this purpose it defines success in HD in a materialistic and reductionist way as being measured by progress in improving life expectancy and reducing infant mortality rates. Drawing on...

The well-known Human Development Index (HDI) encompasses only three rather basic aspects of human welfare. This paper aims to go beyond this, by identifying 11 categories of human development. We next propose plausible candidates as indicators of these categories. We then estimate correlations...

Current thinking about development places individuals firmly at the centre of concern for analysis and policy. This paper explores why groups are important for individual welfare and social stability, and argues that horizontal inequalities (ie inequalities between culturally formed groups) is a...

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have been introduced by the World Bank and the IMF as a necessary aspect of securing HIPC debt relief and access to other funds. They are intended to increase national 'ownership' of programmes, through extensive participation. This paper assesses...

The paper adopts a more expansive definition of Human Development than that encompassed by the Human Development Index and explores alternative patterns of country behavior in terms of this broader definition. We categorize countries according to their behavior on basic human development, and...

This paper reviews the new debt-relief initiative for Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) designed to reduce the debt burden of potentially 36 poor countries. It finds that the HIPC initiative is not likely to make a major contribution to the problems of the world’s poor. It offers...