CHINA AND THE WORLD BANK: PROMOTING CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT


Book Description

The book China and the World Bank: Promoting Capacity Development summarizes the experience of China’s capacity development under the support of the World Bank through the detailed analysis of China’s 50 loan projects. Professor Yifu Lin, former chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank wrote the foreword of the book. And he recommends the book as filling the gap of the research field in China’s capacity development under the help of the World Bank. Capacity development usually refers to a dynamic and perfecting process, that the recipient countries’ public sectors allocate and use available resources for promoting the development capacity to achieve the expected goals of economic and social development in a more effective, efficient, appropriate and sustainable way. This book is divided into five parts: the first part is "economic management and system reform", which discusses the experience of capacity development in economic reform, finance, taxation and industry sectors; the second part is "poverty alleviation and rural development", which analyzes the experience of capacity development in poverty alleviation and development, agricultural comprehensive development and rural water supply and environmental sanitation; the third part is "infrastructure", which refines water conservancy and hydropower experience in capacity development of expressways and urban transportation. The fourth part is "human development", which describes the experience of capacity development of basic education and medical health. The fifth part is "environmental protection", summarizing the experience of environmental management and urban water industry capacity development.




China


Book Description

Since opening to the outside world and embarking on an economic reform programme in 1978, China has had one of the highest rates of sustained economic growth and poverty reduction in the world. However, during the 1990s several challenges emerged in relation to levels of inequality and environmental degradation. This evaluative report on the relative effectiveness of World Bank assistance to China focuses on the period 1993-2002, although it includes some references to developments in earlier and more recent years also. Findings include that the World Bank has made important contributions to economic reform, poverty reduction, infrastructure development, and environmental protection, but has fallen short of its objectives in promoting fiscal and financial reforms to reduce inequality and risk.




Attacking Inequality in the Health Sector


Book Description

The last 10 years have seen a resurgence in interest and research around inequalities in the health sector. While a disproportionate share of the new research has focused on measuring inequality in the health sector, work is emerging on how to understand the causes of inequality and on identifying successful approaches for tackling the problem. This book summarizes the operational lessons emerging from this new focus. It is intended to be an operational resource for change agents within and outside government in low and middle countries committed to improve access and use of critical health services to income poor and social vulnerable populations.




Small Town China


Book Description

While much has been written about rural migrant workers’ experiences in the big cities, population movements into China’s vast network of towns and small cities has been largely neglected. This book presents a detailed case study of rural migrant workers experiences in a small town in a north China county. The author explores the processes and institutions that enable or preclude the social inclusion of rural workers into the town’s socio-economic system. Inclusion and exclusion are assessed through an examination of rural workers’ immersion into the urban labour market, their access to welfare benefits and to social services, such as housing, education and health. The book proposes that outside the larger cities there are alternative accounts of urban social change and of the integration of rural migrant workers. It stresses the fact that the particular socio-economic structure of towns, where the state-owned share of the economy has been smaller and where consequently social and private forces have been more active, allowed for a more open inclusion of rural workers. Though shortcomings are still observed, the book suggests that China's transformation may not necessarily result in dysfunctional and socially polarized urban environments. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of China’s rural migrant workers, bottom-up urbanization and small town development, social policy, and more broadly on contemporary social change in China.




Environment Matters


Book Description




Principles of Health Economics for Developing Countries


Book Description

Developing countries present health economists with an array of situations and circumstances not seen in developed countries. This book explores those characteristics particular to developing countries.




Getting Health Reform Right


Book Description

This book provides a multi-disciplinary framework for developing and analyzing health sector reforms, based on the authors' extensive international experience. It offers practical guidance - useful to policymakers, consultants, academics, and students alike - and stresses the need to take account of each country's economic, administrative, and political circumstances. The authors explain how to design effective government interventions in five areas - financing, payment, organization, regulation, and behavior - to improve the performance and equity of health systems around the world.




Social Health Insurance for Developing Nations


Book Description

Specialist groups have often advised health ministers and other decision makers in developing countries on the use of social health insurance (SHI) as a way of mobilizing revenue for health, reforming health sector performance, and providing universal coverage. This book reviews the specific design and implementation challenges facing SHI in low- and middle-income countries and presents case studies on Ghana, Kenya, Philippines, Colombia, and Thailand.




Using Training to Build Capacity


Book Description

The World Bank finances about US$720 million in training every year, through both its lending projects and its in-house World Bank Institute (WBI). The evaluation found that while most of the training reviewed resulted in demonstrable participant learning, this learning frequently did not lead to real change in participants' workplace performance. Poor training outcomes most often resulted from training content that wasn't relevant to the needs and goals of the target institutions, or from the trainees' lack of incentives or resources to apply learning in their workplaces. These findings highlight how important it is for training to be embedded in broader capacity-building programs that identify and address organizational and institutional capacity constraints alongside human ones.




Imperial Nature


Book Description

A piercing, first-hand analysis of the World Bank, one of the most powerful actors in today's global economy.