1991

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 […]

PCDForum Column #23    Release date December 1, 1991

by David C. Korten

From October 14-17, 1991, the directors of the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) met in
Bangkok, Thailand’s elegant international conference
center to set the future directions of the global economy.
Many enthusiastically pointed to Thailand as demonstrating
the success of the export-led growth model based on
opening national […]

PCDForum Column #21   Release date December 1, 1991

by Smitu Kothari

Many foreign assistance agencies have recently proclaimed new commitments to

the environment and to democratization. These are essential priorities of the

1990s, but to date only a minuscule percentage of assistance from Japan, the

United States, Western Europe, the Soviet Union and the multilateral agencies

has enhanced environmental sustainability […]

PCDForum Column #19,   Release Date August 15, 1991

by Florencio "Butch" Abad

Many of us in the Philippine NGO sector currently find ourselves in a state

of transition in our relationship to national electoral processes. The context

of that transition is a political tug-of-war between the old oligarchic politics

of elite privilege and a new politics of social justice […]

Published in Development, 1991:3/4, pp. 87-94
by the Society for International Development

David C. Korten
The People-Centered Development Forum

This article builds from the arguments set
forward in David C. Korten, “Development as Transformation: Voluntary
Action in the 1990s,” Development,
1990:3/4. That article argued that pursuit of a growth-centered development
vision has led to a growing global crisis
of deepening poverty, […]

PCDForum Column #14 Release Date July 1, 1991

by Robin Broad, John Cavanagh, and Walden Bello

Washington is offering Latin American countries the carrot
of increased access to North American markets if they
continue repaying their debts and agree to a development
strategy that emphasizes private enterprise, removal of
trade barriers, and the opening of their economies to
foreign investment. Essentially, the Bush […]

October 4, 1991, Quezon City, Philippines

by Sixto K. Roxas

I.

The March 1987 report of the World Commission
on Environment and Development, now known as
the Brundtland Report after its chairperson,
Madame Gro Harlem Brundtland, divided the
“trends that the planet and its people cannot long
bear” into two categories: a) failures of development and b) failures of environmental management.

Failures of development are […]

PCDForum Column #16,   Release Date August 12, 1991

by James Robertson

The recent London economic summit of the Group of
Seven (G7)–Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada,
France and the United States–again confirmed what has
long been evident. The leaders of the world’s high consumption, high polluting economies are not prepared to
offer an effective response to the deep-seated world
crisis brought on […]

PCDForum Column #24,   Release date December 5, 1991

by Janet Hunt

As do most aid giving countries, Australia maintains that poverty alleviation is the driving motivation behind many of its international trade and aid policies. In line with prevailing orthodox economic theory these policies view external trade as the driving force of economic growth, which in turn […]