Reforming the World Bank Hardback: Twenty Years of Trial - and Error - Hardcover

Reviews of the hardback: 'A wonderfully frank, clearheaded, well-researched opus and a great read for organization geeks, foreign aid friends and critics, and World Bank insiders. Bound to annoy and provoke, and maybe to inspire.' Nancy Birdsall, Center for Global Development, Washington DC

'Reorganizations at the World Bank might seem like a narcoleptic subject. But David Phillips brings alive the tortuous history of the Bank and makes us realize that it matters for one oft-overlooked constituency - the world's poor.' William Easterly, New York University

'Why is it that every newly appointed President of the World Bank feels the urge to launch a massive re-organization knowing that all previous attempts to do so ended up creating more problems than those they solved? David Phillips' book offers a fascinating overview of the forces that drive the organizational learning disability that for decades has weakened this important institution.' Moisés Naím, Foreign Policy Magazine

'This book shows how reform often comes out of episodic initiatives and how new solutions often consist simply in reversing what was done earlier.' Michele Alacevich, Harvard University

David A. Phillips has spent many years in developing countries, especially in Africa. He is an economist who, after starting his career in multinational companies, turned his attention to the field of development, spending 14 years at the World Bank Group and in recent years working as director of a private consulting firm based in the UK and United States. Dr Phillips held a lectureship at the University of Bradford Development Centre in the UK and was an official at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. He has also lived and worked on an extended basis in Tanzania, Nepal and Belarus. Dr Phillips has published journal papers on small business development and cost-benefit analysis.