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Lessons for the Urban Century : Decentralized Infrastructure Finance in the World BankThis book takes a look at the past to
 gain insights for the future. Nearly 30 years ago, when the
 world urban population was only about half of the 3 billion
 that it is today, when most Less Developed Countries (LDCs)
 were primarily rural, and before the wave of
 decentralization of the 1980s and 1990s, the World Bank
 developed an instrument with great potential. The key
 characteristics of this instrument, the Urban Infrastructure
 Fund (UIF), are several. It provides finance for an array of
 urban services, not just one sector, such as water and
 sanitation, leaving flexibility for local beneficiaries to
 set their priorities. UIF projects operate in more than one
 city. Perhaps the most important distinctive feature is that
 these projects use local institutions to do the work of
 identifying, appraising and channeling finance to
 subnational entities (municipalities, local utilities, or
 community groups) on behalf of the World Bank. This
 arrangement makes it feasible to reach beyond the major
 capitals or business centers such as Chongqing, Mumbai, or
 Sao Paulo, or even regional capitals, to fund much smaller
 subprojects, suited to the needs and capacities of smaller
 cities and towns, because local agents are tasked with
 identifying and appraising these projects. Delegating these
 functions makes it practicable not only for a large
 International Financial Institution (IFI) such as the World
 Bank but also for national governments to reach small
 municipalities. Providing support to large numbers of
 municipalities with relatively small investment needs is a
 complex task, but it is fundamental to scaling up beyond
 small pilot projects to programs improving urban services countrywide.
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Global Survey of Development BanksHistorically, development banks have
 been an important instrument of governments to promote
 economic growth by providing credit and a wide range of
 advisory and capacity building programs to households, small
 and medium enterprises, and even large private corporations,
 whose financial needs are not sufficiently served by private
 commercial banks or local capital markets. During the
 current financial crisis, most development banks in Latin
 America, followed by Asia, Africa, and Europe, have assumed
 a countercyclical role by scaling up their lending
 operations exactly when private banks experienced temporary
 difficulties in granting credit to the private sector.
 Despite the importance of development banks during crisis
 and non-crisis periods, little is known about them. This
 survey examines how development banks operate, what their
 policy mandates are, what financial services they offer,
 which type of clients they target, how they are regulated
 and supervised, what business models they have adopted, what
 governance framework they have, and what challenges they
 face. It also examines the countercyclical role played by
 development banks during the recent financial crisis. This
 survey is based on new data that have been collected from 90
 national development banks in 61 countries.
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Trade Finance in Crisis : Should Developing Countries Establish Export Credit Agencies?New data on export insurance and guarantees suggest that publicly backed export credit agencies have played a role to prevent a complete drying up of trade finance markets during the current financial crisis. Given that export credit agencies are mainly located in advanced and emerging economies, the question arises whether developing countries that are not equipped with these agencies should establish their own agencies to support exporting firms and avoid trade finance shortages in times of crisis. This paper highlights a number of issues requiring attention in the decision whether to establish such specialized financial institutions. It concludes that developing countries should consider export credit agencies only when certain pre-requirements in terms of financial capacity, institutional capability, and governance are met.