Scaling up: a development strategy for the new millennium

The scaling up of development policies, practices and partnerships is a strategic challenge. The upgrading of development ambition from investment operations and country strategies to global policies would extrapolate a secular trend that has propelled the development business from the pioneering phase of projects conceived as “privileged particles of development”; to the neo-classical phase of macro-economic adjustment; to the advent of environmentally and socially sustainable development and most recently to the adoption of country based comprehensive development frameworks. Because the global economy is increasingly interconnected, the development enterprise must be reshaped to reflect shared objectives, distinct accountabilities and reciprocal obligations between rich and poor countries. Because development is a social transformation process, the development paradigm must become holistic. Because incentives matter, development metrics must be reconsidered to emphasize results. The universal endorsement of the millennium development goals has helped to reverse a decline in the share of national incomes allocated to aid. But it has yet to generate binding commitments or concrete plans. Halfway to the 2015 deadline, progress is partial, halting and insufficient to meet most goals. To accelerate progress, scaling up is needed. Capacity building should strike the right balance between hierarchical, individualistic and relational conceptions of development. Projects should be used to experiment, innovate, learn and evaluate what works and does not work. To trigger an accelerated and self-sustaining reform of the global policies that shape development, new partnerships will be needed to mobilize skills and resources; to generate new ideas; to mobilize public opinion; to trigger judicious standard setting and to implement scaled up development programs. These new development coalitions are likely to take the form of global networks combining the legitimacy of governments, the ethics of the civil society and the innovative energies of the private sector.

[1]  N. Stern,et al.  Role and effectiveness of development assistance lessons from World Bank experience , 2002 .

[2]  J. F Rischard,et al.  High noon : twenty global problems, twenty years to solve them , 2002 .

[3]  J. Clapp,et al.  Development as freedom , 1999 .

[4]  Jayati Datta-Mitra Higher Impact Adjustment Lending (HIAL): Initial Evaluation , 2000 .

[5]  R. Picciotto Putting Institutional Economics to Work: From Participation to Governance , 1995 .

[6]  Paul Milgrom,et al.  Economics, organization and management / Paul Milgrom, John Roberts , 1992 .

[7]  Paul R. Milgrom,et al.  Economics, Organization and Management , 1992 .

[8]  Inge Kaul,et al.  Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization , 2003 .

[9]  Mark S. Granovetter,et al.  The Sociology of Economic Life , 1991 .

[10]  Karl W. Dykema Webster's New World Dictionary, College Edition , 1954 .

[11]  D. Filmer Determinants of Health and Education Outcomes Background Note for World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People , 2003 .

[12]  T. Sandler,et al.  The Future of Development Assistance: Common Pools and International Public Goods , 1999 .

[13]  A Seay,et al.  The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Difference. , 2003 .

[14]  E. Ostrom,et al.  The Institutional Economics of Foreign Aid , 2002 .

[15]  J. P. Lewis,et al.  The World Bank: Its First Half Century , 1997 .

[16]  Promoting environmental sustainability in development - an evaluation of the World Bank's performance , 2002 .

[17]  Albert O. Hirschman Development Projects Observed , 1967 .