Author Description

In the 1990s the World Bank changed its policy and took the position that the problems of poverty and governance are inextricably linked. Improving the governance of its borrower countries became progressively accepted as a legitimate part of the World Bank's development activities. This book examines why the World Bank came to see good governance as important, and evaluates what the World Bank is doing to improve the governance of its borrower countries. David Williams examines changing World Bank policy since the late 1970s to show how a concern with good governance grew out of the problems it experienced over structural adjustment lending, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Whilst providing an account of the early years of the World Bank through to the 1990s, the book also systematically relates the policies of good governance to liberalism. A detailed case study of World Bank lending to Ghana demonstrates what the attempt to improve 'governance' looks like in practice.