The World Bank and the Poverty Reduction Strategy of Nicaragua: Toward a Post-Neoliberal World Development Order?

Abstract

After two decades of experimentation with neoliberal policy throughout Latin America, a strong wind of change is currently blowing through the Americas. While donor governments and multilateral development institutions have started to more openly acknowledge some of the (increasingly obvious) shortcomings and negative side effects of neoliberal reforms (for example DAC 1996 and World Bank 2001), many New Left governments in the region have initiated experiments with post-neoliberal policies that combine the traditional (neoliberal) emphasis on sound macroeconomic policies with elements of heterodox economic policy and more expansive social policies, in particular targeted human capital investment into the poor.