The financial crisis should give a new impetus to governments’ efforts to improve aid effectiveness. Over the last few months, the governments of OECD countries have pledged trillions of dollars in loans, guarantees, capital injections, and other...

Since the credit crisis first erupted, relatively little attention has been given to the consequences of the financial crisis on low-income countries’ indebtedness. Although in recent years developing countries as a group have benefited from...

The contagion of the global credit crisis from the industrialised countries to the emerging markets has taken some time to develop. Then, in October 2008, it spread rapidly, afflicting all emerging markets, without any distinction or regard to their...

Have you ever wondered how many women are in paid employment compared to men? We know they get unequal wages, but just how unequal is their pay? Meanwhile, who are the managers, and what is their gender makeup? Are women and men entering the higher...

The ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have created one of the most dynamic developing regions. They have unveiled the Blueprint for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to achieve a “single market” by 2015. More...

During the 1990s and the 2000s a variety of crises affected the stability of international capital markets: from the European Monetary System crisis in 1992-93 and the emerging market crises to today’s financial crisis have been present in the arenas...

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI, www.eitransparency.org) aims to improve transparency and accountability by the full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues. The revenues flowing from natural...

A strengthened social contract in Latin American countries relies on the improved quality of public services such as health and education, which would build a constituency for a broader tax base. Latin American middle-income sectors express strong...

Income is very unequally distributed in Latin America - but so too are opportunities for upward mobility. Early childhood development is a powerful mechanism to level the social playing field. More and better secondary education is key. Better...

Informality remains pervasive in Latin American and Caribbean labour markets. Many "middle-sectors workers" (around the middle of the income distribution) are employed informally and contribute irregularly to a public or private pension. Governments...

ASEAN countries should play a more active role in the international standard-setting process for carbon labelling.Fragmented, bottom-up approaches to carbon labelling may lead to a proliferation of different labelling schemes, acting as a constraint...

There is no unique model of reform for infrastructure that is equally applicable to all countries.Fixed-line privatisation has often failed due to weak economic and institutional endowments.Governments and International Financial Institutions (IFIs)...

Chinese Taipei; Hong Kong, China; Korea and Singapore (the East Asian Newly Industrialised Countries or NICs) have been successful in attaining income convergence with high-income countries while Latin American countries remain caught in the...