Amid blaring headlines on Iraq, war, and reconstruction, several African finance ministers and a central bank governor held a press briefing on April 11 in Washington to remind the world that their continent’s needs required urgent and continued attention. Charles Konan Banny (Governor of the Central Bank of West African States), Benjamin Radavidson (Madagascar), Timothy T. Thahane (Lesotho), Joseph B. Dauda (Sierra Leone), and Gerald M. Ssendaula (Uganda) reported on progress with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), highlighted pressing issues, among them market access, meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and debt relief. They appealed to donors to attend to Afghani and Iraqi needs but not withdraw support for Africa’s determined effort to reduce poverty.
For the latest thinking about the international financial system, monetary policy, economic development, poverty reduction, and other critical issues, subscribe to Finance & Development (F&D). This lively quarterly magazine brings you in-depth analyses of these and other subjects by the IMF’s own staff as well as by prominent international experts. Articles are written for lay readers who want to enrich their understanding of the workings of the global economy and the policies and activities of the IMF.
One billion people, half the population of the developing world, live on diets that are deficient in essential calories. One third of them are children below the age of ten. This article discusses the magnitude of the problem, and reviews the economic implications of specific intervention programs designed to solve it.
How can the development community advance the use of ethical thinking in the cause of economic and social progress? Opening the Ethics and Development Day conference held at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on January 16, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics Amartya Sen proposed a more active, participatory role for citizens in applying ethics to further sustainable development.
Approaches toward alleviating a major development problem; lessons from four country projects
For the latest thinking about the international financial system, monetary policy, economic development, poverty reduction, and other critical issues, subscribe to Finance & Development (F&D). This lively quarterly magazine brings you in-depth analyses of these and other subjects by the IMF’s own staff as well as by prominent international experts. Articles are written for lay readers who want to enrich their understanding of the workings of the global economy and the policies and activities of the IMF.
Recovery from the deepest recession in 60 years has started. But sustaining it will require delicate rebalancing acts, both within and across countries. IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard writes in our lead article that the turnaround will not be simple. The crisis has left deep scars that will affect both supply and demand for many years to come. This issue of F&D also looks at what’s next in the global crisis and beyond. We look at ways of unwinding crisis support, the shape of growth worldwide after the crisis, ways of rebuilding the financial architecture, and the future of reserve currencies. Jeffrey Frankel examines what’s in and what’s out in global money, while a team from the IMF’s Research Department looks at what early warning systems can be expected to deliver in spotting future problems. In our regular People in Economics profile, we speak to Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman, whose work led to the creation of the field of behavioral economics, and our Picture This feature gives a timeline of how the Bank of England’s policy rate has fallen to its lowest level in 300 years. Back to Basics gives a primer on monetary policy, and Data Spotlight looks at how the crisis has affected the eastern European banking system.