In the past few years, the role of international organizations involved in supplying developing countries with capital has changed - not only have they increased their volume of lending, but they have also become catalytic agents stimulating continuing private bank lending to less developed...

The cooperation between international organizations, private banks, and national governments as put forward in the Baker Plan has prevented major disruptions of the international financial system resulting from the debt crisis. Rescheduling agreements have been reached in large numbers....

A number of highly indebted developing countries have experienced severe foreign exchange shortages for a couple of years. They could not simply roll over old debt any more by taking up new loans. Since export revenues could not be raised sufficiently, quite a few countries resorted to a...

"Many developing countries assign local governments increasing responsibilities in fighting poverty. This requires local social policy to go beyond the execution of centrally designed and funded education and health programs. Hence, local governments and their partners have both an opportunity...

Skills are widely regarded as being necessary for boosting productivity, stimulating innovation, and creating new jobs, while skill mismatches are often cited as being responsible for a lack of dynamism in the labor market. However, heavy investments in technical and vocational training programs...