scholarly journals Fighting Poverty, Combatting Social Exclusion

Author(s):  
William L. Partridge

AbstractThe Chinese have a saying: through a drop of water you can see the whole ocean. This chapter analyzes the process of integrating social development policy and practice into the operations of the World Bank through the lens of my own personal experience, a drop of water through which we will see how sociologists and anthropologists transformed the larger organizational culture of the institution.

Author(s):  
Olga Pryazhnikova ◽  

The World Bank has made an important contribution to shaping the global agenda for reducing poverty, increasing prosperity and promoting sustainable development. The review examines the main milestones in changes of the World Bank’s activities in the field of social development. The evolution of the organization’s approaches to solving the problem of poverty reduction as one of the key obstacles to socio-economic development is outlined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheheryar Banuri ◽  
Stefan Dercon ◽  
Varun Gauri

Abstract Although the decisions of policy professionals are often more consequential than those of individuals in their private capacity, there is a dearth of studies on the biases of policy professionals: those who prepare and implement policy on behalf of elected politicians. Experiments conducted on a novel subject pool of development policy professionals (public servants of the World Bank and the Department for International Development in the UK) show that policy professionals are indeed subject to decision-making traps, including the effects of framing outcomes as losses or gains, and, most strikingly, confirmation bias driven by ideological predisposition, despite having an explicit mission to promote evidence-informed and impartial decision making. These findings should worry policy professionals and their principals in governments and large organizations, as well as citizens themselves. A further experiment, in which policy professionals engage in discussion, shows that deliberation may be able to mitigate the effects of some of these biases.


Author(s):  
Subrata Mukherjee ◽  

In 2006, Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts through micro-credit to create economic and social development. Muhammed Yunus received the prize not in the field of economics because only sustainable development of the proletariat and the marginalised sections of society can bring peace. More than 80% of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening. The poorest 40% of the world’s population accounts for 5% of global income, while the richest 20% accounts for three quarters of world income. According to the World Bank (WB), the proportion of people in the developing world living on less than $1.25 a day was 20.5% in 2010, down from 43.1% in 1990 and 52.2% in 1981 (in 2005 prices). That is 1.22 billion people lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2010 compared with 0.91 billion in 1990 and 1.94 billion in 1981. In this paper an attempt is made to explain the relevance of Marxism and the need for the co-operative movement to assist in providing a means for social well-being of the downtrodden classes of people. Keywords: Economy and social development, sustainable development, Marxism


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6A) ◽  
pp. 123-130
Author(s):  
Gbolahan S. Osho ◽  
Arinola C. Ebalunode

Literacy rate is a major indicator of economic and social development, the campaign for growth and improvement in this area by several international organizations have caused significant growth in all major regions of the world. The persistent theme to these various programs is that illiteracy is nonetheless prevalent in the world and more study needed to eradicate it, thus generates a significant interest in this issue. Therefore, the primary goal of this current study is to compare five major regions in the world as classified by the World Bank in regards to the differences which exist in literacy. The study concludes that literacy rates of male and female across the regions are different for Youth literacy between the age of 15 and 24. The vast conclusion is that that there is a no significant difference in male literacy among the regions in the world except for Africa. While no significant difference in female literacy among the regions in the world.


2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-51
Author(s):  
Rob Winthrop

This is a troubled time for development policy, and for the institutions that define it. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization have been subjected to an unprecedented barrage of criticism. Since the disastrous 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, the conspicuous failures of development policy—structural adjustment, the Asian financial crisis, and the unraveling of the post-Soviet economies—have become a matter of public debate. Critics of development have directed much of their fire at the assumptions of neoliberal economics, which prescribes fiscal austerity, monetary stability, trade liberalization, and a minimalist role for government. But it is less often recognized that development economics is in the midst of its own debate, which in tandem with the voices of outside critics may portend interesting changes in the practice of institutions such as the World Bank. Through such debates, and the innovative programs they may engender, anthropologists may find new intellectual and practical connections with the field of international development.


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