Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action

Governments play a major role in the development process, and constantly introduce reforms and policies to achieve developmental objectives. Many of these interventions have limited impact, however; schools get built but children don't learn, IT systems are introduced but not used, plans are written but not implemented. These achievement deficiencies reveal gaps in capabilities, and weaknesses in the process of building state capability. This book addresses these weaknesses and gaps. It starts by providing evidence of the capability shortfalls that currently exist in many countries, showing that many governments lack basic capacities even after decades of reforms and capacity building efforts. The book then analyses this evidence, identifying capability traps that hold many governments back - particularly related to isomorphic mimicry (where governments copy best practice solutions from other countries that make them look more capable even if they are not more capable) and premature load bearing (where governments adopt new mechanisms that they cannot actually make work, given weak extant capacities). The book then describes a process that governments can use to escape these capability traps. Called PDIA (problem driven iterative adaptation), this process empowers people working in governments to find and fit solutions to the problems they face. The discussion about this process is structured in a practical manner so that readers can actually apply tools and ideas to the capability challenges they face in their own contexts. These applications will help readers devise policies and reforms that have more impact than those of the past.

Business & Money

Andrews, Matt

Pritchett, Lant

Woolcock, Michael

Economics

Oxford University Press

Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up (2)

'No matter if I fall, I get up again. If I fall 5,000 times, I will stand up another 5,000 times.' -- William, a 37-year-old from El Gorrión, Colombia Why and how do some people move out of poverty―and stay out―while others remain trapped? Most books on growth and poverty reduction are dominated by the perspectives of policy makers and academic experts. In contrast, 'Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up' presents the experiences of poor people who have made it out of poverty. The book's findings draw from the Moving Out of Poverty research conducted in communities in 15 countries in Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and South Asia. The authors synthesize the results of qualitative and quantitative research based on discussions with over 60,000 people in rural areas. They offer bottom-up perspectives on the processes and local institutions that play key roles in escapes from poverty. The study finds that there are no differences in the initiatives taken by the poor, the rich, and the upwardly mobile. What, then, explains the difference in outcomes? The authors demonstrate how―in the face of deep social inequalities that block access to economic opportunities and local democracies―individual initiative and empowerment by themselves are often not enough to escape poverty. This book will be of interest to all concerned with equity in an increasingly unequal world.

Narayan, Deepa

Kapoor, Soumya

UK, Palgrave Macmillan

World Bank Publications

“No matter if I fall, I get up again. If I fall 5,000 times, I will stand up another 5,000 times.”― William, a 37-year-old from El Gorrión, ColombiaWhy and how do some people move out of poverty―and stay out―while others remain trapped? Most books on growth and poverty reduction are dominated by the perspectives of policy makers and academic experts. In contrast, 'Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up' presents the experiences of poor people who have made it out of poverty. The book’s findings draw from the Moving Out of Poverty research conducted in communities in 15 countries in Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and South Asia. The authors synthesize the results of qualitative and quantitative research based on discussions with over 60,000 people in rural areas. They offer bottom-up perspectives on the processes and local institutions that play key roles in escapes from poverty.The study finds that there are no differences in the initiatives taken by the poor, the rich, and the upwardly mobile. What, then, explains the difference in outcomes? The authors demonstrate how―in the face of deep social inequalities that block access to economic opportunities and local democracies―individual initiative and empowerment by themselves are often not enough to escape poverty.This book will be of interest to all concerned with equity in an increasingly unequal world.

In Let Their People Come, Lant Pritchett discusses five "irresistible forces" of global labor migration, and the "immovable ideas" that form a political backlash against it. Increasing wage gaps, different demographic futures, "everything but labor" globalization, and the continued employment growth in low skilled, labor intensive industries all contribute to the forces compelling labor to migrate across national borders. Pritchett analyzes the fifth irresistible force of "ghosts and zombies," or the rapid and massive shifts in desired populations of countries, and says that this aspect has been neglected in the discussion of global labor mobility. Let Their People Come provides six policy recommendations for unskilled immigration policy that seek to reconcile the irresistible force of migration with the immovable ideas in rich countries that keep this force in check. In clear, accessible prose, this volume explores ways to regulate migration flows so that they are a benefit to both the global North and global South.

Let Their People Come: Breaking the Gridlock on Global Labor Mobility

Center for Global Development

Despite great progress around the world in getting more kids into schools, too many leave without even the most basic skills. In India's rural Andhra Pradesh, for instance, only about one in twenty children in fifth grade can perform basic arithmetic.
 The problem is that schooling is not the same as learning. In The Rebirth of Education, Lant Pritchett uses two metaphors from nature to explain why. The first draws on Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom's book about the difference between centralized and decentralized organizations, The Starfish and the Spider. Schools systems tend be centralized and suffer from the limitations inherent in top-down designs. The second metaphor is the concept of isomorphic mimicry. Pritchett argues that many developing countries superficially imitate systems that were successful in other nations— much as a nonpoisonous snake mimics the look of a poisonous one.
 Pritchett argues that the solution is to allow functional systems to evolve locally out of an environment pressured for success. Such an ecosystem needs to be open to variety and experimentation, locally operated, and flexibly financed. The only main cost is ceding control; the reward would be the rebirth of education suited for today's world.

The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain't Learning

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

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Books by Pritchett, Lant

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pritchett, Lant. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action

Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action

Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up (2)

Moving Out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up (2)

Let Their People Come: Breaking the Gridlock on Global Labor Mobility

The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain't Learning