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The subnational dimension of infrastructure has emerged as one of
the greatest challenges in contemporary public finance policy and
management. Ensuring the efficient provision of infrastructure
represents a challenge for all countries irrespective of their
level of centralization or decentralization. This book proposes an
innovative approach for the strengthening of decentralized public
investment and infrastructure management. Decentralization and
Infrastructure in the Global Economy: From Gaps to Solutions covers
the most important aspects of infrastructure investment in a
decentralized setting. It discusses infrastructure gaps and the
quality of subnational spending; how functional responsibilities,
financing and equalization can be designed; sector-specific
arrangements in high expenditure areas, such as health, education
and roads; key steps of the public investment cycle and management;
and analyses the political economy and corruption challenges that
typically accompany decentralized infrastructure projects. This
book challenges some of the well-accepted principles of
intergovernmental fiscal relations and will be useful to
researchers and practitioners of public finance policy and
management.
The subnational dimension of infrastructure has emerged as one of
the greatest challenges in contemporary public finance policy and
management. Ensuring the efficient provision of infrastructure
represents a challenge for all countries irrespective of their
level of centralization or decentralization. This book proposes an
innovative approach for the strengthening of decentralized public
investment and infrastructure management. Decentralization and
Infrastructure in the Global Economy: From Gaps to Solutions covers
the most important aspects of infrastructure investment in a
decentralized setting. It discusses infrastructure gaps and the
quality of subnational spending; how functional responsibilities,
financing and equalization can be designed; sector-specific
arrangements in high expenditure areas, such as health, education
and roads; key steps of the public investment cycle and management;
and analyses the political economy and corruption challenges that
typically accompany decentralized infrastructure projects. This
book challenges some of the well-accepted principles of
intergovernmental fiscal relations and will be useful to
researchers and practitioners of public finance policy and
management.
A memoir by photographic artist Jona Frank told in captivating
stories and poignant images with a cast of actors, including Laura
Dern and Imogene Wolodarsky, Cherry Hill tells the story of one
girl's suburban youth and deliverance. Cherry Hill is a multimedia
memoir of photographic artist Jona Frank's upbringing in - and
flight from - a stifling suburban household. Told in words and
evocative photographs, Frank's account of her childhood struggles
with a repressive mother, mentally ill brother, and overwhelming
expectations is leavened with episodes from her rich interior
world. Akin to a graphic novel, this hybrid of personal essay and
photography breaks open the memoir format, detailing the life of a
young artist as she spends her days dreaming of a friendship with
Emily Dickinson, longing for Bruce Springsteen and eschewing the
rules of femininity. Frank employs a cinematic approach to
construct vivid scenes from her youth. Using elaborately dressed
sets, era-specific wardrobes, and multiple actors to portray
herself as a child, Frank refashions her memories into vibrant
tableaux. Strikingly, Frank cast Academy Award-winning actor Laura
Dern in the role of her strict and complicated mother in a
performance as bravura as her film and television work. As Frank
outgrows the confines of her environment and suffocating domestic
life, discovering art and photography as the path to her personal
fulfillment, she plots her ultimate escape. A unique photographic
storytelling project reminiscent of such classics as Fun Home and
The Best We Could Do, Cherry Hill is an intimate self-portrait of
what it takes to break free of convention and answer the question,
Who am I meant to be?
Public resources - if invested well in public infrastructure and
services - can catalyze private and community efforts and unleash
an inclusive growth and development process. But public investment
attracts political interest, usually of the kind that undermines
efficiency. Too often public projects are poorly designed,
under-funded, long-delayed, or badly implemented, with little
benefit to the population. This is a critical challenge for many
countries, both rich and poor. Paradoxically, some countries are
even unable to spend their limited investment budgets while others
lack "shovel ready" projects for a fiscal stimulus. The quality of
institutions is fundamental. This book identifies eight key
institutional features that countries need to adopt to ensure that
public investments support growth and development. Very broadly,
the eight stages correspond to a disciplined system for guiding,
appraising, reviewing and selecting projects that are most likely
to stimulate inclusive development, and following through to ensure
that they are implemented, adjusted, operated and evaluated to
deliver the public services that citizens and the private sector
expect. A review of over 30 countries suggests that these eight
features are present in all countries that manage resources
efficiently but most countries are missing key features. Not
surprisingly, those weaknesses contribute to poor investment and
development outcomes. Strengthening institutions for public
investment management is critical to developmental success. This
book provides a clear, non-technical discussion on approaches to
improving project appraisal, dealing with uncertainty (an issue
that is likely to grow in importance with the effects of climate
change), integrating procurement skills into project design and
implementation, and of managing the decision on public private
partnerships. By providing a simple but comprehensive framework and
global experience, the book provides policy makers the guidance to
adopt good functional principles in the design of institutions to
strengthen public investment management.
Decentralization in Ecuador offers a new provocative interpretation
in understanding why and how power, as well as resources, are
shifted to local levels of government. The book argues that actors
and their incentives are the driving force for change - legislators
and labor unions, indigenous people and presidents, finance
ministers and regional governors are the real protagonists of the
game of decentralization. It shows why Ecuador's different interest
groups achieved breakthroughs to redistribute resources at
particular moments in time, but failed so remarkably in others,
falling onto the path of "successful failure." As becomes apparent
time and again, ironically it is often the winners of partial
decentralization that provide the greatest obstacle to complete
reform and achieve more beneficial outcomes. Drawing from
first-hand experience with Ecuadorian policymakers,
Decentralization in Ecuador presents conclusions about political
strategies that have important implications for all countries
pursing decentralization. This book should appeal to economists,
political scientists, decision-makers, and all those interested in
developing countries, particularly in Latin American politics or
economics.
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