Overview

50 years ago, World Bank President Robert McNamara promised to end poverty. Alleviation was to rely on economic growth, resulting in higher incomes stimulated by Bank loans processed by deskbound Washington staff, trickling down to the poorest.  Instead, child poverty and homelessness are on the increase everywhere. In this book, anthropologist and former World Bank Advisor Glynn Cochrane argues that instead of Washington’s “management by seclusion,” poverty alleviation requires personal engagement with the poorest by helpers with hands-on local and cultural skills. Here, the author argues, the insights provided by anthropological fieldwork have a crucial role to play.

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9781789201314

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Reviews

[This book] offers many significant insights regarding the World Bank, its institutional outlook, and [its] practices. The author, given his early involvement at the Bank, as well as his subsequent experience with NGOs, the private sector, and other organizations, is an ideal candidate to provide such an account. * A. Peter Castro, Syracuse University

[This book] offers many significant insights regarding the World Bank, its institutional outlook, and [its] practices. The author, given his early involvement at the Bank, as well as his subsequent experience with NGOs, the private sector, and other organizations, is an ideal candidate to provide such an account. A. Peter Castro, Syracuse University

Author Information

Glynn Cochrane was World Bank Advisor on Public Administration in Papua New Guinea, and Chief World Bank/UNDP Advisor for Civil Service Reform in Tanzania. In 1971 he proposed the establishment of an interdisciplinary Development Anthropology for practitioners. Based on the recommendations in his 1973 report the World Bank hired its first anthropologists, and in 1974 he wrote Social Soundness Analysis, an appraisal system that has been used in USAID projects for over 40 years.

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