Titans or Behemoths? The Multilateral Development Banks

About this book

This volume of the five-volume "Multilateral Development Banks" set draws on the insights of the four regional volumes - Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean - to summarize key points and also to examine the banks as a genre of development agencies. Among the questions Culpeper addresses are: do the banks duplicate each other's activities? Can we afford to have so many institutions doing essentially the same things? Or will it be necessary to reform the policies and operations of the entire system in order to effectively assist the world's one billion desperately poor?

Contents

Part 1 Introduction: three timely reasons; MDBs at the crossroads; overview. Part 2 History and evolution: origins; institutional characteristics; the RDBs and the World Bank; - comparisons and relationships. Part 3 MDBs in the 1990s - reflection and reform: key policy implications of the MDB project; the portfolio reviews; conclusion - relations between the MDBs and related organizations. Part 4 MDBs as agents of change - the development impact: the first three decades (1945-1975) - from investment to growth; impact of multilateral bank assistance; the past of multilateral bank assistance; the past two decades - from poverty reduction to adjustment and back; poverty reduction; conclusion - achievements and prospects for eliminating poverty. Part 5 MDBs in the family of development cooperation agencies: Africa; Asia; The Americas; eastern and central Europe and central Asia; systemic principles and structures; harmonizing evaluation systems; putting borrowing clients in the driver's seat - harmonizing country strategies; creating a client satisfaction unit; conclusions. Part 6 Key challenges for the multilateral banks - resources flows and debt: resources; multilateral debt; nonconcessional debt; the September 1996 Debt Deal; summary. Part 7 Do the multilateral banks have a future? the future of development; toward a vision for the 21st century; from vision to reality; from assistance to cooperation - a role for the MDBs; from resource transfers for quality assurance; challenges to the MDBs - falling resource flows and debt; Titans or Behemoths? conclusion.

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