UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice

by Richard Jolly, Louis Emmerij, Dharam Ghai, Fr?d?ric Lapeyre

Overview

UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice is at once a history of the ideas and realities of international development, from the classical economists to the recent emphasis on human rights, and a history of the UN's major role in shaping and implementing new development paradigms over the last sixty years. The authors show how the UN approach to development evolved since 1945 from establishing mainstream economic development approaches to later leading the charge against the orthodoxy by advocating for full employment, poverty reduction, fairer distribution of the benefits of growth, equality of men and women, child development, social justice, and environmental sustainability -- in short, for human development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253111012
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	06/18/2004
Series:	United Nations Intellectual History Project Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Richard Jolly is Senior Research Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he is co-director of the United Nations Intellectual History Project.

Louis Emmerij is Senior Research Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he is co-director of the United Nations Intellectual History Project.

Dharam Ghai is Advisor to the International Labour Organization.

Frédéric Lapeyre is Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, Catholic University of Louvain, and a member of the United Nations Intellectual History Project.

Table of Contents

	List of Boxes, Tables, and Figures	vii
	Foreword	ix
	Preface and Acknowledgments	xiii
	List of Abbreviations	xv
Part I.	Values and History
1	Has There Been Progress? Values and Criteria for UN History	3
2	The History of Development Thinking from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes	16
Part II.	Ideas and Action
3	The 1940s and 1950s: The Foundations of UN Development Thinking and Practice	49
4	The 1960s: The UN Development Decade--Mobilizing for Development	85
5	The 1970s: Equity in Development	111
6	The 1980s: Losing Control and Marginalizing the Poorest	138
7	The 1990s: Rediscovering a Human Vision	169
8	Building the Human Foundations	186
9	Structural and Sectoral Change	220
Part III.	Outcomes and the Future
10	The Record of Performance	247
11	UN Contributions and Missed Opportunities	276
12	Lessons for the Future: Development Thinking and the UN's Future	299
Appendix	Country Categories and Distribution of Population and GDP by Regions	317
	Notes	319
	Index	369
	About the Authors	385
	About the Project	387

Editorial Reviews

"One of the titles in a projected 14—volume series sponsored by the United Nations Intellectual History Project (see also Michael Ward's book in this series, Quantifying the World: UN Ideas and Statistics, CH, Oct'04), this institutional history of the UN is surprisingly readable. The product of four authors' collaboration, it tells an interesting story of UN work in development theory and practice. After a brief review of development literature, the authors break down the UN experience into five major periods. The 1940s and 1950s were foundational, with the work of Raul Prebisch and many others promulgated under UN auspices. The 1960s were the decade of development, first declared by John F. Kennedy in 1961. The 1970s saw a focus on equity in development, and the 1980s saw UN agencies being eclipsed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. By the 1990s, the UN Development Program restored a focus on human development that had been lost earlier. Concluding with a review of UN development ideas, the authors describe successes but do not hesitate to point out failures. Well organized and well written, this book will be essential reading in international organization or economic development courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, upper—division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections."—S. Waalkes, Malone College , Choice, January 2005

"Well organized and well written, this book will be essential reading in international organization or economic development courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, upper-division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections.January 2005"—Choice

From the Publisher

One of the titles in a projected 14—volume series sponsored by the United Nations Intellectual History Project (see also Michael Ward's book in this series, Quantifying the World: UN Ideas and Statistics, CH, Oct'04), this institutional history of the UN is surprisingly readable. The product of four authors' collaboration, it tells an interesting story of UN work in development theory and practice. After a brief review of development literature, the authors break down the UN experience into five major periods. The 1940s and 1950s were foundational, with the work of Raul Prebisch and many others promulgated under UN auspices. The 1960s were the decade of development, first declared by John F. Kennedy in 1961. The 1970s saw a focus on equity in development, and the 1980s saw UN agencies being eclipsed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. By the 1990s, the UN Development Program restored a focus on human development that had been lost earlier. Concluding with a review of UN development ideas, the authors describe successes but do not hesitate to point out failures. Well organized and well written, this book will be essential reading in international organization or economic development courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, upper—division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections.

Choice - S. Waalkes

Well organized and well written, this book will be essential reading in international organization or economic development courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, upper-division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections.January 2005

Choice

One of the titles in a projected 14—volume series sponsored by the United Nations Intellectual History Project (see also Michael Ward's book in this series, Quantifying the World: UN Ideas and Statistics, CH, Oct'04), this institutional history of the UN is surprisingly readable. The product of four authors' collaboration, it tells an interesting story of UN work in development theory and practice. After a brief review of development literature, the authors break down the UN experience into five major periods. The 1940s and 1950s were foundational, with the work of Raul Prebisch and many others promulgated under UN auspices. The 1960s were the decade of development, first declared by John F. Kennedy in 1961. The 1970s saw a focus on equity in development, and the 1980s saw UN agencies being eclipsed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. By the 1990s, the UN Development Program restored a focus on human development that had been lost earlier. Concluding with a review of UN development ideas, the authors describe successes but do not hesitate to point out failures. Well organized and well written, this book will be essential reading in international organization or economic development courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, upper—division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections.

Choice - S. Waalkes]]>