Suppose a DAC donor earmarks $1 billion of taxpayers’ money for official development assistance (ODA). The donor may use two instruments as an outright grant or in combination with a market loan to produce a concessional loan of $2 billion with a percentage grant element of 50 per cent. Many...

One of the particular features of poor countries’ economies is their volatility, due mostly to their dependence on commodities. The paper shows that this volatility is a prime factor behind the debt crises of the poorest countries. It advocates the adoption by donors of a new lending...

This paper discusses major policy issues related to commodity dependence and export diversification in low-income countries. Contrary to some widely-held view, it argues that natural resources are not necessarily a “curse” — that they do not condemn low-income countries to underdevelopment...

The emergence of a “second wave” of developing-country multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a variety of industries is one of the characterizing features of globalisation. These new MNEs did not delay their internationalisation until they were large, as did most of their predecessors, and...

Globalisation, governance and economic performance affect each other in very complex mutual relationships. In this paper, we establish a clear and well-circumscribed hypothesis: “is there an effect of globalisation <I>on</I> governance?” To test this hypothesis or, even more specifically, to test...</i>

The experience of the five examined industries (agro-food in Chile, cut flowers in Kenya, garment in Lesotho and in Mauritius and seafood in Thailand) demonstrates that non-traditional industries can emerge and achieved strong growth rates in very diverse settings in terms of geography and...

Grâce au progrès technologique et aux nouvelles pratiques d’organisation, les producteurs des pays en développement participent de plus en plus aux échanges internationaux d’une large gamme de biens et de services. Pourtant, les entreprises des pays industriels décident souvent de...

Supposons qu’un bailleur du CAD (Comité d’aide au développement de l’OCDE) alloue un milliard de dollars de ses recettes fiscales à l’aide publique au développement (APD). Ce bailleur peut faire appel à deux instruments : soit un don pur et simple, soit un don associé à un prêt...

La bonne tenue des cours des matières premières tire la croissance africaine, qui devrait avoisiner les 6 pour cent en 2007 et 2008. Une insuffisante intégration du continent dans le commerce international et les flux mondiaux d’investissement est source de vulnérabilité extérieure....

L’annulation de la dette des pays pauvres ne signifie pas que les dons soient la meilleure et unique solution pour allouer l’aide. L’aide sous forme de prêts pourrait se révéler bien souvent préférable, pourvu que la dette reste soutenable. Un nouveau système de prêts...