A Chance for the World Bank

Description

This book is an authoritative and radical manifesto for urgently needed changes in development cooperation. 'A Chance for the World Bank' provides an overview of the challenges faced by the World Bank, and explores how it has organized itself to deal with its mission. It proposes that, unless radical steps are taken by the World Bank, the first decade of the century will witness a ever-widening gulf between the poor and rich countries.

Jozef Ritzen is President of the Universiteit Maastricht. Previously he was Vice President of the World Bank's Development Economics Department (2001-3) and was the Minister of Education, Culture and Science for The Netherlands (1989-98).

'A persuasive agenda for development reform, written with authority and insight.' Paul Collier, Professor of Economics, University of Oxford 'A very rich analysis of the political economy of development and the changing role of the World Bank in further enhancing the growth and poverty reduction of the Third World. A refreshing and original vision, this book deserves to be carefully read and digested'. Erik Thorbecke, HE Babcock Professor of Economics, Cornell University 'The book will be useful for all those interested in contemporary policy making on development assistance... food for further thought about some of the great political and moral issues of today.' Wil Hout, Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands "Ritzen (president, Univ. Maastrict, the Netherlands, and former World Bank vice president) describes the chance the World Bank has, in his view, to play an important role in promoting international development and achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals, as the window of opportunity for development cooperation--the period between the Cold War and the war on terrorism--draws to a close. The agenda is ambitious: 'increase aid, refocus on efficient delivery and development effectiveness rather than donor foreign policy and commercial interests, prosecute multinational corporations in order to reduce corruption, and eliminate barriers to developed country markets.' However, discussion of how to build a coalition to achieve these goals is mostly limited to public relations and youth involvement. Indeed, Ritzen's vision is clearly larger than simply changing the role of the World Bank. The agenda he lays out is sandwiched around an interesting if unusual mix of memoir and introductory material on international cooperation. Overall, the book is interesting less for its scholarly contribution and more for its candor (including some telling details of US-World Bank relations) and other topics Ritzen chooses to emphasize."--C. Kilby, Vassar College in CHOICE