The way taxes are collected, budgets and policies are set up, and public employees are managed and behave affect the results that governments can achieve. Why then is reforming public sector management so hard to obtain, since benefits are so obvious?

Ideology is being replaced by standards. Never-ending arguments about privatization, who should own the electricity company, have given way to public discussions about performance, who can avoid more black-outs.

What explains the wide variability of development programs in achieving the targeted outcomes? Are we neglecting crucial links that can make development work more effective?

We can build institutions good enough and legitimate enough not just to prevent violent conflict, but also to avoid falling back into it. The police will be "good" when the streets are safe.

At a recent Microfinance Summit, Sam Daley-Harris spoke about making credit available not only to the poorest of the poor, but to those usually excluded from civil society, like beggars and rebels.