An event hosted by ODI to launchA Chance for the World Bank by Josef Ritzen. The book, published by Anthem Press, has been described by Paul Collier as, 'A persuasive agenda for development reform, written with authority and insight' and features a foreward by Joseph Stiglitz.

This book is about the World Bank as the nerve centre of development cooperation. In A Chance for the World Bank, Jo Ritzen presents a picture of a world at a crossroads. One road leads to radical reform in the rich countries, the other leads to further increases in inequality between rich and poor countries. 'Millennium development goals' - such as achieving universal primary education by 2015 or reducing child mortality by two-thirds in 2015 - have had widespread support. They will not be reached if the world follows this road; unfortunately, the signs suggest that it has already started to do so.

This unique book brings together the author's experience of three areas: politics, academic economics and development cooperation. The result, in the face of gloomy prospects for convergence between rich and poor countries, is an authoritative and radical manifesto for urgently needed changes in development cooperation.

Jozef Ritzen is President of the Universiteit Maastricht. He was previously Vice President of the World Bank's Human Development Network (2001-2003) and Vice President of the World Bank's Development Economics Department (1999-2001). He was Minister of Education, Culture and Science of The Netherlands (1989-1998). He has written and supervised a number of publications, including the World Bank Development Reports (2000, 2001).

In addition to the presentation, there was time for general discussion from the audience.