31. Strengthening Institutional Capacity in Poor Countries: Shoring Up Institutions, Reducing Global Poverty
- Author:
- Carol Graham
- Publication Date:
- 04-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- In a speech preceding the recent Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, Mexico, former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director Michel Camdessus noted that if the summit could only deliver one thing, it should be extending assistance to enhance institutional capacity in poor countries. Addressing this problem is key to achieving the Millennium Goals—established at the September 2000 UN Millennium summit—of reducing world poverty by half by 2015. Countless development efforts have failed because countries lack institutions with the ability to sustain their economic policies. The crisis in Argentina—triggered in large part by the country's reliance on an inflexible currency regime and by its inability to rein in fiscal flagrancy by local governments—is a case in point. Meanwhile, numerous discussions at Monterrey highlighted weak institutional capacity as a major obstacle to economic development.
- Topic:
- Human Welfare, International Organization, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Argentina and Mexico