121 research outputs found
The implications of foreign aid fungibility for development assistance
No full textA foreign aid or foreign lending policy that focuses exclusively on project financing may have unintended consequences, report the authors. New research shows that aid intended for crucial social and economic sectors often merely substitutes for spending that recipient governments would have undertaken anyway and the funds that are thereby freed up are spent for other purposes. If the aid funds something that would have been done anyway, traditional ways of evaluating the aid's effectiveness are not really accurate. Ifaid funds are fungible and the recipient's public spending program is unsatisfactory, project lending may not be cost-effective. If the recipient's public spending program is satisfactory, perhaps the donor should finance a portion of it instead of financing individual projects. One solution to the problem of fungibility, then, is that donors could tie assistance to an overall public spending program (in the recipient country) that provides adequate resources to crucial sectors. To make this kind of reform operational, the authors propose a new lending instrument: a public expenditure reform loan (PERL). A PERL would tie an institution's lending strategy to the recipient country's achievement of mutually agreed-upon development goals. Everyone agrees that better donor coordination is needed, but it has been difficult to achieve because some donors tend to prefer projects (usually with the national flag flying over them). By agreeing on a public expenditure program and financing a portion of it, the World Bank credibly ask other donors to do the same.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Gender and Development,Decentralization,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Poverty Assessment,National Governance,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Public Sector Economics&Finance
A rapid action plan to improve diagnosis and management of lipodystrophy syndromes
No full textIntroductionLipodystrophy syndromes are rare diseases that can present with a broad range of symptoms. Delays in diagnosis are common, which in turn, may predispose to the development of severe metabolic complications and end-organ damage. Many patients with lipodystrophy syndromes are only diagnosed after significant metabolic abnormalities arise. Prompt action by clinical teams may improve disease outcomes in lipodystrophy syndromes. The aim of the Rapid Action Plan is to serve as a set of recommendations from experts that can support clinicians with limited experience in lipodystrophy syndromes.MethodsThe Rapid Action Plan was developed using insights gathered through a series of advisory meetings with clinical experts in lipodystrophy syndromes. A skeleton template was used to facilitate interviews. A consensus document was developed, reviewed, and approved by all experts.ResultsLipodystrophy is a clinical diagnosis. The Rapid Action Plan discusses tools that can help diagnose lipodystrophy syndromes. The roles of clinical and family history, physical exam, patient and family member photos, routine blood tests, leptin levels, skinfold measurements, imaging studies, and genetic testing are explored. Additional topics such as communicating the diagnosis to the patients/families and patient referrals are covered. A set of recommendations regarding screening and monitoring for metabolic diseases and end-organ abnormalities is presented. Finally, the treatment of lipodystrophy syndromes is reviewed.DiscussionThe Rapid Action Plan may assist clinical teams with the prompt diagnosis and holistic work-up and management of patients with lipodystrophy syndromes, which may improve outcomes for patients with this rare disease
Evidence for Two Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya Traditions in the Gilgit Prātimokṣa-sūtras
No full textThe Sanskrit prātimokṣa-sūtras contained in the Gilgit Buddhist manuscripts have been identified as belonging to the Mūlasarvāstivāda school. However, the identification of these manuscripts as Mūlasarvāstivādin texts is problematic. A key factor for determining the school affiliation of a prātimokṣa is the rule order. The Gilgit prātimokṣa-sūtras, however, differ in their rule order. In this thesis, I explore the relationship of these Gilgit prātimokṣa-sūtras to Mūlasarvāstivādin literature. In order to do so, I have conducted a comparative analysis of the Gilgit prātimokṣa-sūtras focusing on differences in rule order in Gilgit Serials 2, 3a, and 4b/4c. I have also compared the rule order contained within the Gilgit prātimokṣa-sūtras to known Mūlasarvāstivādin commentaries. I argue that we have evidence for two distinct Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya traditions within the Gilgit prātimokṣa-sūtras. The author(s)/redactor(s) of Gilgit prātimokṣa-sūtras 2 and 3a were aware of a tradition similar, if not identical, to that known to the author(s)/redactor(s) of the Mūlasarvāstivādin prātimokṣa-sūtra contained in the Tibetan canon. Serial 4b/4c contains a different Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya tradition, one that has close parallels to Mūlasarvāstivādin commentaries. The Gilgit prātimokṣa-sūtras, therefore, contain Sanskrit evidence for multiple Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya traditions.Master of Arts (MA
Foreign aid's impact on public spending
No full textUsing a model of aid fungibility, the authors examine the relationship between foreign aid and public spending. Based on a panel of cross-country and time-series data, their results show that roughly 75 cents of every dollar given in net development assistance goes to current spending and 25 cents to capital spending in the recipient countries. But concessionary loans - a component of development assistance - stimulate far more government spending. Their results also show that aid increases both public and private investment. To test aid fungibility across both public spending categories, they use a newly constructed data series on the net disbursement of concessionary loans. They find that concessionary loans given to the transport and communication sector are fully nonfungible. But loans to the energy sector are converted into fungible monies and part of the funds leak into transport and communications. Loans to agriculture and education are also fungible. There is no evidence of concessionary funds being diverted for military purposes. Their results show that total public spending in the health sector has no impact on reducing infant mortality, but concessionary loans to the health sector do. This finding leads the authors to conclude that linking foreign aid to an agreed-upon public spending program in areas critical to development might be an effective way to transfer resources to developing countries.Decentralization,Gender and Development,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Inequality,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Public Sector Economics&Finance,National Governance,Economic Stabilization
Public spending and outcomes : does governance matter?
No full textThe authors examine the role of governance-measured by level of corruption and quality of bureaucracy-and ask how it affects the relationship between public spending and outcomes. Their main innovation is to see if differences in efficacy of public spending can be explained by quality of governance. The authors find that public health spending lowers child and infantmortality rates in countries with good governance. The results also indicate that as countries improve their governance, public spending on primary education becomes effective in increasing primary education attainment. These findings have important implications for enhancing the development effectiveness of public spending. The lessons are particularly relevant for developing countries, where public spending on education and health is relatively low, and the state of governance is often poor.Health Systems Development&Reform,Public Health Promotion,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Decentralization,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,National Governance,Governance Indicators,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Public Sector Economics&Finance
Genres and Jurisdictions: Laws Governing Monastic Inheritance in Seventeenth-Century Burma
No full textThis article examines laws governing the inheritance of monastic property and discourse about such law, expressed in the two principle vernacular and Pāli genres of written law in circulation in seventeenth-century Burma: Vinaya and dhammasattha.Calling into question any strict divide between lay and monastic legal spheres, it shows that monastic inheritance did not fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of Vinaya, and also that Vinaya laws regulating monastic partition were appropriated by dhammasattha for application to the lay community.This is a Corrected Version of Record of: Lammerts, C. (2014). Genres and Jurisdictions: Laws Governing Monastic Inheritance in Seventeenth-Century Burma, In French, R. and Nathan, M. Buddhism and Law: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press), 183-197. Copyright Cambridge University Press 2014. Reprinted with permission.Peer reviewe
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