International Development

Bruce Currie-Alder is Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa, Cairo, Egypt. His work examines the governance of public research funding and scientific cooperation with developing countries. His past position within IDRC was Senior Policy Advisor and Chief of Staff, facilitating corporate strategy and contributing to Canada's foreign policy. Before joining IDRC in 2003, he worked on environmental management in the Mexican oil industry and published on grassroots natural resource management in Latin America. He holds a Master's in natural resource management from Simon Fraser University and a PhD in public policy from Carleton University.Ravi Kanbur bridges the worlds of rigorous academic analysis and practical policy making in development economics. He has served at the World Bank in various roles, including resident representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the African Region, Principal Advisor to the Chief Economist, and Director of the World Development Report. Professor Kanbur has taught at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Essex, Warwick, Princeton, and Columbia. His work spans conceptual, empirical, and policy analysis, including more than 200 publications, many in leading journals. Kanbur is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and holds a DPhil in economics from the University of Oxford. David M. Malone is Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Rector of the UN University (UNU) headquartered in Tokyo. Previously, he was President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and prior to that the Canadian High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal. He has also been the President of the International Peace Academy (New York) and a Canadian ambassador to the United Nations. He joined Canada's Department of External Affairs in 1975 and served in Ottawa, Cairo, Amman, and New York. Malone is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford Universities, l'Université de Montréal, and the American University in Cairo.Rohinton Medhora is the President of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Previously Dr Medhora was Vice-President of Programs at Canada's International Development Research Centre, where he undertook a series of leadership roles, including directing the Social and Economic Policy program and heading programs related to international economic relations and economic policy. His publications include 'Financial Reform in Developing Countries and Finance and Competitiveness in Developing Countries'. Prior to IDRC, Dr Medhora was with the faculty of economics at University of Toronto, where he also earned his PhD.

Through its richness and depth, the volume addresses a wide audience of students and researchers interested in the issue of development. In particular, it is a useful tool for those scholars looking for a starting point for grasping the fundamental issues presently at stake and an introduction to the main territories explored by the research. The book provides a synthesis, or at least a shared framework, of a debate that appears to have multiplied its perspectives. While this multiplicity may be puzzling at first glance, as suggested by the editors, it is a potential resource for this field of study and action that, in the near future, has to address a conscious diversification of objectives to tackle the issues of each territory. The contribution given by the book is fundamental to meeting this challenge.

• PART 1. CRITICAL ISSUES ; PART 2. CONCEPTS AND THEORIES ; STATE AND SOCIETY ; ECONOMIC ; PEACE AND SECURITY ; ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH ; INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY ; PART 3. EXPERIENCES ; GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY ; DEVELOPMENT ACTORS