The Partnership for Growth (PfG) is one of the first experiments to operationalize the Obama administration’s strategy to bring greater programmatic coherence to U.S. trade and development initiatives in four countries—The Philippines, El Salvador, Ghana, and Tanzania. A key goal was to reinforce a country-led approach, but to also bring to the development table the considerably deeper pockets of non-aid actors, as well as what they are best at bringing—the jobs, training, new businesses, domestic supply chain, and market linkages that are the fundamental ingredients of any sustainable development strategy. This report argues that PfG began the paradigm shift toward a more coordinated and sustainable development strategy by highlighting the benefits of strategic coordination across agencies at the front end of an initiative. It also brought to light the difficulty of using development resources and tools to attract non-aid actors with what is still basically a government-to-government approach to development.

In the late 20th century, there has been a rethinking of the whole concept of development, including a growing awareness of its gender, cultural and environmental dimensions, and the impact of globalization. The contributors to this volume seek to extend these debates to a more fundamental level, tackling such issues as the crisis of development as an intellectual and practical project, the need for a break with development as a Eurocentric concept, and the viability of alternative, non-Western forms of development. The contributors aim to transcend critiques of development which simply engage in a blanket dismissal of the whole enterprise and instead offer ways of re-engaging with reality that, despite globalization, is still a dimension of the late-20th century.

The author exposes the weaknesses of the free market theory but argues that development economics must itself evolve and take on new dimensions which are founded in rational analysis. Comprehensive in scope and lively in style, this book deals with various schools of thought and provides insightful comments on economic thinking relating to development issues.

In 1944, the conferences at Bretton Woods institutionalized the IMF, the World Bank and other international agencies. This book analyzes this process of change as the global situation of the major governments, corporations and financial institutions have altered over this period.