SIR WILLIAM RYRIE'S varied career, including much first-hand experience of the Third World, qualifies him particularly well to write about aid and development. The first fifteen years of his life were spent in India. He worked in the Colonial Office and then for twenty years at the British Treasury, including four years on the Boards of the World Bank and the IMF. For two years he managed the British aid programme, as Permanent Secretary of the Overseas Development Administration. Then from 1984 to 1993 he was Head of the International Finance Corporation, a part of the World Bank Group which exists to promote economic development through the fold, establishing it as an important factor on the world development scene. Ryrie is now a part-time investment banker mainly active in emerging markets around the world. He is Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Development Corporation.