PCDForum Column #20 Release date December 1, 1991
by Donella Meadows
The fashionable solution to the economic woes of a community, state, bank, or nation, is to open its boundaries.
The idea is that a larger system, more capital, bigger
markets or the involvement of more parties will somehow
solve the problem. It would be wise, however, to look out
the […]
PCDForum Column #8 Release Date January 25, 1991
by Tony Quizon
In 1992, the United Nations will hold a world conference on environment and development
(UNCED) in
Brazil. An official International Facilitation Committee,
on which I represent the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, is planning for independent sector participation.
It is a timely event. The rapid breakdown of socio-political […]
PCDForum Column #18, Release Date August 15, 1991
by Paul Ekins
The prevailing prescriptions for resolving the global problems of poverty
and environmental devastation from the New International Economic Order of the
1970s, to the structural adjustment and Brundtland Commission prescriptions of
the 1980s are all variants on a single theme. Each is grounded in a faith,
embraced and propagated […]
PCDForum Column #17, Release Date August 15, 1991
by James Robertson
Citizen movements throughout the world are discovering the extent to which
our collective social and environmental crisis stems directly from outmoded
economic policies and perspectives seriously in conflict with the needs of a
democratic, post-European, sustainable one-world economy. This realization has
given birth to an international citizen coalition, the […]
PCDForum Column #15, Release Date July 1, 1991
by Luis Lopezllera Méndez
A crisis in the Middle East has produced the most recent, and one of the
most blatant, of a long series of shameful acts of the powerful–the Persian
Gulf War. In Latin America, where the Western democracies have long nurtured
those dictators willing to serve their economic […]
PCDForum Column #11 Release Date April 12, 1991
by David C. Korten
A few years ago a major multi-agency study of foreign aid
observed that from two-thirds to three-fourths of development projects funded by official foreign donors are judged
by the donor to be satisfactory at the time project implementation is completed and the donor withdraws. Only
rarely do donors […]
PCDForum Column #10 Release Date March 4, 1991
by Ron Léger
Humankind has made extraordinary advances in the past
few decades in science and technology, and in its ability
to tap the riches of Earth’s ecology. These advances allow
a few of us to live in a style that once would have been the
envy of kings and queens. Unfortunately, however, […]
PCDForum Column #9 Release Date March 1, 1991
by David C. Korten
As voluntary organizations around the world re-examine
their development roles and accept a greater responsibility
for reshaping development policies, they are confronting
a harsh reality. Not only is our existing political leadership
failing to acknowledge the true nature of our global crisis,
it is actively and aggressively committing us to […]
December 3, 1991
David C. Korten
The People-Centered Development Forum
The world’s official development institutions are currently pursuing policies
based on invalid assumptions about
economic growth, a globalized world
economy, and international assistance.
These policies are the antithesis of
those appropriate to sustainable development. Our new orientation must
recognize that the current level of
human economic activity has filled the
earth’s available ecological space.
Further improvements […]
PCDForum Column #25, Release date December 5, 1991
by Janet Hunt
Behind the current debate on environment and development
lies a basic question. What kind of development? While the
world’s governments seem studiously committed to not
asking, I believe that responsible nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) concerned with environmental and social
issues must raise this question publicly and call for honest
debate. Indeed growing […]