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Recommended resources 2003

27 January 2004

The Age of Consent: A manifesto for a new world order
British journalist Monbiot makes the case for a World Parliament, an International Clearing Union to replace the IMF, and a Fair Trade Organization in place of the WTO.
George Monbiot
Flamingo, 2003 ISBN: 0 00 715042 3

Silent Revolution: The rise and crisis of market economics in Latin America (second edition)
Green traces the roots of this neoliberal transformation to the impact of the debt crisis and subsequent IMF-encouraged austerity policies, both of which contributed to the failure of state-led economic models in the region.He outlines the modest macro-economic successes of the neoliberal model and then contrasts those successes with their devastating impact on the poor.
Duncan Green
Monthly Review Press, 2003 ISBN: 0-85345-969-X

Demanding Accountability: Civil society claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel
Provides a comprehensive assessment of the work of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel in practice, assessing the strengths and weaknesses through case studies of key claims made during its brief history.
Edited by Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox and Kay Treakle
Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 ISBN: 0-7425-3310-7

Real World Economic Outlook
Published as a counterweight to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, the Real World Economic Outlook reviews the global economy from a different and radical perspective. This first report looks at globalization and debt deflation.
Edited by Ann Pettifor
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 ISBN: 1-4039-1795-7

Multilateral Institutions: a Critical Introduction
This book offers a critical introduction to the major institutions that make up the multilateral development system. Boas and McNeil argue that they are political organizations whose programmes have a significant impact on the domestic policies of the many countries in which they are involved.
Morten Bas, Desmond McNeill
Pluto Press, 2003 ISBN: 0745319203

The Economist’s Tale: a consultant encounters hunger and the World Bank
In this account of a mission Griffiths undertook in Sierra Leone in 1986, he tells the story of how the World Bank, obsessed with the free market, imposed a secret agreement on the government, banning all government food imports or subsidies.
Peter Griffiths
Zed Books, 2003 ISBN: 1 84277 185

Challenges to the World Bank and IMF: Developing country perspectives
The collection ranges from discussions on reforming the IMF and its conditionality, debt workouts and restructuring, through management of capital flows, debt sustainability and insurance against crisis, to Millennium Development Goals and the ‘global partnership for development’.
Edited by Ariel Buira
Anthem Press, 2003 ISBN: 1 84331 141 0

Making Global Trade Work for People
Provides a valuable counterpoint to the mainstream view of trade openness leading to growth leading to poverty reduction. Examines how the multilateral trading regime can be reformed so that its central goal is human development.
UNDP, 2003 ISBN: 1 85383 982 5

Between Light and Shadow: The World Bank, the IMF and International Human Rights Law
Darrow applies international legal rules governing the “proper” interpretation of the instituions’ mandates and looks at the policy consequences for human rights integration into the BWI’s programmes.
Mac Darrow
Hart Publishing, 2003 ISBN: 1 84113 390 6

Merging in the Circle: the politics of Tanzania’s Poverty Reduction Strategy
Argues that the in the formulation of Tanzania’s PRS, the shifting alliances between the three main groups of actors (the state, non-state and donors) included in policy formulation did not encompass the wide range of views required for inclusive and transparent poverty oriented policies.
Jeremy Gould and Julia Ojanen
University of Helsinki, 2003
Eurodad

Creating Alternatives for Indonesia: A Collection of Selected Papers from INFID’s Conference 2002
Activists, academics and government officials contribute papers on alternatives in external debt management, inequality and poverty and the Doha ‘development’ round.
INFID, 2003

The IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility: A Blind Alley
Examines the participatory rhetoric of the World Bank and IMF as against the actual influence of civil society on the formulation of the PRGF and its follow-up. Authors conclude that PRGF is “unlikely to change prospects of the majority of the people in Bolivia.”
CEDLA, 2003

Reforming the World Bank: Will the new gender strategy make a difference?
First comprehensive look at the Bank’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy and efforts at implementation. Finds the Bank’s mandates and incentives lagging behind the rhetoric.
Elaine Zuckerman and Wu Qing, Gender Action
Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2003