The original purpose of the term 'Washington Consensus' was to distinguish between a number of policies that remain the subject of partisan controversy and a group of policies that were thought to be consensual in the post-1989 world. After its creation in 1989 the term acquired at least two more meanings. Some used it to describe the policies of the IMF and World Bank, which came to embrace not only institutional reform and a concern with governance but also the two-corners solution for exchange rates and capital account convertibility. Others used the term as a synonym for laissez-faire.

During the 1990s development funders 1 officially incorporated into their rhetoric the ideal of passing control of the design, implementation, and monitoring of projects and programmes to recipient ‘stakeholders’, 2 a goal summarised in the term ‘national ownership’. Ownership has joined a list of funder-agency concerns that in recent years has included governance, institutions, poverty reduction, sustainable development, participation, and decentralisation. Whether or not economic performance improves with greater ownership, the move to encourage recipient country ownership represents a change in the aid relationship. Numerous and detailed policy conditionalities characterised the Washington Consensus programmes of the 1990s. The rhetoric of ownership appeared to signal a retreat from that approach to the relationship between funding agencies and recipient governments (‘development partnerships’). This article explores the implications of a commitment to recipient ownership. The conditionalities associated with loans and grants are central to the discussion, particularly in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. Most attention has focused on the seven poverty reduction goals. Less has been directed to goal eight, which calls for new partnerships for development. The article discusses these issues in the context of recent developments in aid delivery in Tanzania. The definition of ‘ownership’ is central to an analytical discussion. The meaning varies across donors, lenders and governments, in part reflecting the history of agencies and intergovernmental relations, as well as ideology. 3 For example, the interpretation by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) of ownership, which was profoundly affected by the politics of international aid in Sweden from the 1970s onwards, differs considerably from that of the World Bank. 4 Similarly, the Ethiopian government’s more literal interpretation and the more funder-accommodating approach of the Tanzanian government are influenced by the different histories of these countries. The lack of an agreed definition arises partly because recipient control of development assistance means different things in different concrete circumstances. In addition, vagueness may serve the interest of parties less willing to reform the more obvious manifestations of ‘donorship’ (a funder-driven process). Thus, one must be cautious in attributing too much meaning to the emerging consensus among development funders that ownership is central to aid policy. 5

In this article, we propose a theory of the cultural evolution of the firm. We apply cultural and evolutionary thinking to the questions posed by theories of the firm: What are firms and why do they exist? We argue that firms are best thought of as cultures, as social distributions of modes of thought and forms of externalization. Using the term ‘meme’ to refer collectively to cultural modes of thought (ideas, beliefs, assumptions, values, interpretative schema, and know-how), we describe culture as a social phenomenon, patterns of symbolic communication and behavior that are produced as members of the group enact the memes they have acquired as part of the culture. Memes spread from mind to mind as they are enacted and the resulting cultural patterns are observed and interpreted by others. The uncertainties of interpretation and the possibilities of reinterpretation and recontextualization create variation in the memes as they spread. Over time, firms evolve as a process of the selection, variation, and retention of memes. Our claim is that understanding firms in this way provides a new perspective (what we call the ‘meme’s-eye view’) on the question of why we have the firms we have and, by allowing us to shed the functionalist assumptions shared by both economics and knowledge-based theories of the firm, makes possible a genuinely descriptive, as opposed to normative, theory of why we have the firms that we have.

One of every five children under age 18 living in the United States is an immigrant or has immigrant parents. The majority of these children are of Hispanic or Asian origin and, as such, are contributing to the growing racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. child and youth population. Because of the long-term importance of children in immigrant families to the American economy and society, the Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families was appointed to conduct a study intended to: (1) synthesize and supplement the relevant research literature and provide a demographic description of children in immigrant families; (2) clarify what is known about the development of children in immigrant families regarding the risk and protective factors associated with differential health and well-being of different immigrant groups and the delivery of health and social services to these groups; and (3) assess the adequacy of existing data and make recommendations for new data collection and research needed to inform and improve public policy and programs. Following an executive summary, Chapter 1 of this resulting report, "Children in Immigrant Families," discusses the charge and scope of the study, the policy and scientific contexts, terminology and analytical distinctions, and the organization of the report. Chapter 2, "Socioeconomic and Demographic Risk," describes general childhood risk factors and risk factors specific to children in immigrant families. Chapter 3, "Health Status and Adjustment," includes discussions of birth weight and infant mortality, chronic health +++++ ED424015 Has Multi-page SFR---Level=1 +++++ conditions, environmental toxins, and adolescent health. Chapter 4, "Public Policies," includes discussions of public benefits and health coverage and access. Chapter 5, "Conclusions and Recommendations," discusses the study's findings and makes recommendations for future research and data collection. The book's appendices are: (1) "Workshop Participants"; (2) "Socioeconomic and Demographic Indicators"; (3) "Glossary"; and (4) "Biographical Sketches." Contains 341 references. (Author/LPP) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. ULFAH I MEN1 01EUUUAI IUN Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as eceived from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OEM position or policy.

SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION AGENCY Department for Evaluation and Internal Audit Address: SE-105 25 Stockholm, Sweden. Visiting address: Sveavagen 20, Stockholm. Tel: +46 8 698 50 00. Fax: +46 8 20 88 64. E-mail: info@sida.se www.sida.se Looking at Swedish development cooperation with three countries in East Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, this study tries to find out how a longstanding Swedish policy of facilitating and promoting partner country ownership of development aid has been translated into practice. In each country, half a dozen projects and programs are examined in depth.