Governing Failure: Provisional Expertise and the Transformation of Global Development FinanceJacqueline Best argues that the 1990s changes in IMF, World Bank and donor policies, towards what some have called the 'Post-Washington Consensus,' were driven by an erosion of expert authority and an increasing preoccupation with policy failure. Failures such as the Asian financial crisis and the decades of despair in sub-Saharan Africa led these institutions to develop governance strategies designed to avoid failure: fostering country ownership, developing global standards, managing risk and vulnerability and measuring results. In contrast to the structural adjustment era when policymakers were confident in their solutions, this is an era of provisional governance, in which key actors are aware of the possibility of failure even as they seek to inoculate themselves against it. Best considers the implications of this shift, asking if it is a positive change and whether it is sustainable. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Books Online and via Knowledge Unlatched. |
Contents
A mesolevel analysis | 20 |
What came before | 45 |
Transformations | 66 |
Fostering ownership | 91 |
Developing global standards | 115 |
Managing risk and vulnerability | 139 |
Measuring results | 164 |
The politics of failure and the future of provisional | 189 |
Endnotes | 209 |
List ofpeople interviewed | 263 |
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Governing Failure: Provisional Expertise and the Transformation of Global ... Jacqueline Best No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
analysis approach Asian financial crisis assessments Bank staff member Bank’s borrowing Bruno Latour changes chapter CIDA civil society Clare Short codes initiative complex concept conditionality country ownership debates development finance DFID Director discussed economic economists efforts expert authority expertise focus focusing forms of power fostering framework global governance governance agenda governance practices governance strategies ideas IFIs and donors IMF and World IMF Archives IMF’s increasingly inscriptions International Development International Monetary Fund Jacqueline Best kind lending LICs managing risk measurement ment Michel Michel Callon Michel Camdessus Millennium Challenge Corporation neoliberal NGOs Operations Evaluation Department organizations particular problem problematization programs PRSP public choice theory reform rely results-based management Review risk and vulnerability risk management role seek shift Social Protection social risk standards and codes structural adjustment style of governance success and failure techniques underpinned University Press Washington World Bank World Bank staff