Development is dead. Long live Development

The world is changing, and it is changing fast. Some say it is changing irreversibly. For a long time, the United States and Europe were the most important donors for international development. For a long time, they were considered – at least by themselves – as the keepers and protectors of the international rule of law. For a long time, there was a basic trust in the multilateral organizations that helped cope with the many challenges we are facing globally, from pandemics to armed conflicts to human rights violations.

But the world is changing and that is not only a bad thing. Governments in the Global North are saying aloud what we knew was true all along: international development collaboration – and aid – is hardly ever just altruistic. It is transactional and a means to exert influence. Meanwhile, their power and influence are challenged by upcoming economies – China in the lead – with their own strategies. And many countries in the Global South have not only moved to middle-income status, but they have also developed a keen sense of self-confidence in the international political arena.

The world is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up, let alone predict. Except for one thing: partnerships and South-South-North collaborations will be more important than ever. Mutuality and equality will be crucial. Maybe the development decades in the previous style are over, but a new era is starting in which partners in the North and in the South need to join forces to tackle crucial challenges. I don’t want to downplay or sugarcoat the dramatic effects of budget cuts from traditional donor countries and of the withdrawal from multilateral organizations. But if that is the reality we live in, it also creates the space ánd the necessity to build something different: a new truly global, critical, sustainable and just approach to development.

If you ask me what that looks like, I must admit I don’t know, but I am eager to find out. At ISS, we are critically rethinking our own strategies. We want to be a knowledge partner for just transitions. I look forward to discovering – together with our network of partners, alumni, like-minded people – what a new era of development could be. We need not hold on to what got lost if we can envision and help shape what is becoming.

Ruard Ganzevoort, Rector ISS