The authors of WDR2007 and the trend they set for the future: Development and the Next Generation

About the Report


There has never been a better time to invest in young people in developing countries. Those who are 12-24 years of age number 1.3 billion and make up the largest youth cohort in history.

They are, on average, more educated and healthier than generations before them. They represent a potentially stronger base on which to build in a world that is increasingly demanding more than basic skills.

Today's young people are the next generation of workers, entrepreneurs, parents, active citizens and leaders who have relatively fewer dependents because of lower birth rates. Countries need to seize this window of opportunity to invest in the future before the aging process closes it.

World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation discusses priorities for government action across five youth transitions that shape young people's human capital: learning, working, staying healthy, forming families, and excercising citizenship.

Within these transitions, priorities for investment vary across countries. The Report highlights three lenses that help assess priorities: expanding opportunities, enhancing capabilities, and providing second chances.

Expanding opportunities focuses on increasing the quality (not just quantity) of education, smoothing the transition to work, and providing young people with a platform for civic engagement.

Enhancing capabilities involves making young people aware of the consequences of their actions, especially consequences that will affect them much later in life; building their decision-making skills; and giving them the right incentives.

Providing second chances calls for helping young people recover from missed opportunities through remedial education, retraining, treatment, and rehabilitation.

 
World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation


 
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Core Team

World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation


The World Development Report 2007 on Development and the Next Generation will be directed by Emmanuel Y. Jimenez, under the guidance of François Bourguignon, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, and a group of advisors. 
Core team members
Emmanuel Y. Jimenez
Jean Fares
Deon Filmer
Varun Gauri
Paul Gertler
Amer Hasan
Sarojini Hirshleifer
Elizabeth King
Natsuko Kiso
Mattias K. A. Lundberg
David McKenzie
Claudio E. Montenegro
Mamta Murthi
Peter F. Orazem
Annette Richter
Cristobal Ridao-Cano
Juan Felipe Sanchez
Nistha Sinha

[Former] Chief Economist and Senior Vice President: François Bourguignon

François Bourguignon served as Chief Economist of the World Bank and Senior Vice President, Development Economics from October 6, 2003 to October 22, 2007, (when he succeeded Nicholas Stern).

In October 2007, he became Director of the Paris School of Economics.
Mr. Bourguignon's successor has not yet been appointed.



François Bourguignon's Legacy


Mr. Bourguignon is a specialist in the economics of development, public policy, economic growth, and income distribution and inequality. The 2006 World Development Report, produced under his guidance, drew attention to the important role of equity in development. Equity is now increasingly mainstreamed into the Bank’s work, and is an important part of Mr. Bourguignon’s legacy as Chief Economist.

This legacy also includes the World Bank Group’s Long-Term Strategic Exercise, which Mr. Bourguignon led in 2007, culminating in an October 2007 paper entitled "Meeting the Challenges of Global Development". The paper outlines four critical challenges that would be central to a World Bank Group strategy for global inclusiveness and sustainability: Sub- Saharan Africa, fragile states, inclusiveness among and within middle-income countries, and global public goods.

The World Bank’s Development IMpact Evaluation Initiative (DIME) was started under Mr. Bourguignon’s guidance. This initiative focuses on results assessment, and attempts to evaluate the development impact of World Bank projects across a broad range of critical themes—early childhood development, education service delivery programs, conditional cash transfers, and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, among others.

Another significant contribution by Mr. Bourguignon was his commissioning of a comprehensive external evaluation (chaired by Angus Deaton of Princeton University) of World Bank research conducted between 1998 and 2005, and his efforts to ensure that such evaluation work is continued systematically in the institution.

http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,contentMDK:20273940~menuPK:477175~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469372,00.html

Emmanuel Y. Jimenez
World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation
 


EMMANUEL JIMENEZ, from the Philippines, has held a variety of positions as an economist and manager in the policy, research and operational units of the World Bank. Since early 2002, he has been Sector Director, Human Development, in the World Bank’s East Asia Region, where he is responsible for managing operational staff working on education and health issues. Prior to this position, he held a similar position in the Bank’s South Asia Region. Before that he served for many years in the Bank’s Development Economics Staff, where he managed staff and also engaged in research on a variety of topics, including education and health finance, the private provision of social services, the economics of transfer programs and urban development. He has served both formally and informally on several teams preparing World Development Reports. Before joining the World Bank, Mr. Jimenez was on the faculty of the economics department at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada.



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