Middle-Income Countries : Development Challenges and Growing Global Role

Fallon, Peter ; Hon, Vivian ; Qureshi, Zia ; Ratha, Dilip

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABATEMENT;    ACCOUNTABILITY;    AGRICULTURAL SECTOR;    ANNUAL GROWTH;    ANNUAL GROWTH RATE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2657
RP-ID  :  WPS2657

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

There has been much debate recentlyabout the role of international development institutions,such as the World Bank in middle-income countries. Someobservers have suggested that middle-income countries havereached a stage in their economic development that callsinto question the rationale for developmentinstitutions' continued engagement in these countries.But the authors find that middle-income countries continueto face significant development challenges. The nature ofthese challenges varies substantially, but all of thesecountries face an agenda calling for continued partnershipwith the international development community. Middle-incomecountries still have high levels of poverty. They are hometo more than three-quarters of the world's poor (thoseliving on less than U$S 2 a day). Poverty is pervasive insome middle-income countries, while in others the problem isone of major concentrations of poverty in backward areas.And recent crises have revealed the fragility of some of thegains against poverty in these countries. On the policyfront, some countries have made great strides in reform, butmany lag considerable behind, and even among the advancedreformers, the unfinished policy agenda is substantial. Thecountries' institutional capacity to manage reformvaries greatly. So does their integration with the globaleconomy. Many middle-income countries still have littleaccess to international capital markets, and even those withbetter access, must contend with volatility in privatecapital flows. Beyond the need to assist middle-incomecountries in addressing these challenges, the case forcontinued engagement by international developmentinstitutions, derives from the increasing importance ofthese countries for a range of global public goods. Withtheir growing role, and integration in the global economy,partnership with middle-income countries is a key element ofglobal collective action, in such areas as reducing globalpoverty, maintaining international financial stability,improving global economic governance, protecting the globalenvironmental commons, and fighting systemic health threats.