Is `Global Development' dead?

The case for optimism on the possibilities for economic expansion and continued improvements in human welfare

There is much food for thought in a piece by David Oks and Henry Williams over at American Affairs on the “slow death of global development” (including in Africa).

I do not endorse all the claims made in the piece (see below). However, I hope that academics and practitioners working in the field of international development read it and think carefully about its core claims. In my view, the authors present an important critique of current development research and practice.

The piece’s main weakness is that it downplays several positive changes that have taken place in global development over the last four decades. By focusing on the failures of the Western “global development” establishment, the authors ended up missing the realities of economic change since the 1980s in much of the developing world as well as potential paths to future prosperity .

I: On the alleged death of global development

The piece starts with a general critique of the fetishization of measurement and rigor in the s…