A feature of the People-Centered Development Forum
North American Regional Consultation on Sustainable Livelihoods
January 13-15, 1995
In an era of global social crisis characterized by increasing unemployment,
jobless growth and ecological destruction, we need a broader vision of how
people can meet their needs in a sustainable way. Attempting to solve the
world’s employment crisis using conventional job creation […]
An Interview with David C. Korten.
By Robert Wright.
David Korten is one of the NGO world’s toughest critics of official
development assistance. His systemic critique comes from more than 30 years of
experience working for the US. Agency for International Development (USAID), the
Ford Foundation, the World Bank and others. The upshot-from that work: a
conclusion that the official […]
PCDForum Column #78, Release Date July 10,1995
by Antonio B. Quizon
The multilateral development banks (MDBs)–the World Bank, IMF, and four
regional development banks–were created by governments with public funds as
public institutions. Yet they wield their enormous power largely beyond the
reach of public accountability. Citizens from the Northern countries are right
to ask, whether taxpayer money is being used […]
December 12, 1995
By David C. Korten
The People-Centered Development Forum
The question of whether the Global Action Plan (GAP) of UN Habitat II conference
to be held in Istanbul in June 1996 will recognize the right to housing as a
basic human right has been the most hotly
contested issue of the Habitat II preparatory process. While many NGOs […]
PCDForum Column #71, Release Date April 20, 1994
by Sarah L. Timpson
The process we call "development" has produced many positive
achievements in the areas of health, literacy, and reduction of infant
mortality. Unfortunately, it has also aggravated mass poverty, inequality,
social disintegration, environmental decline and loss of moral values. UNDP’s
Human Development Reports give ample evidence of these trends.
Many […]
PCDForum Article #5, Release Date January 25, 1994
by Herman E. Daly and David C. Korten
In the course of recent discussions on trade agreements, many economists (often tenured academics) have been quick to condemn those who fear that free trade will cost them their jobs as special interest protectionists who are putting their narrow personal interests […]
PCDForum Column #72, Release Date April 20, 1994.
by Clarence Shubert
Almost everywhere in the world, traditional family structures are
disintegrating in the face of rapid urbanization. The pattern of a limited and
fragmented home life is having a devastating effect on family and community
systems. High rates of divorce, child abuse and neglect, teenage pregnancy,
violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, […]
PCDForum Column #68, Release Date January 25, 1994
by Atherton E. Martin
The development approaches currently pursued in the newly independent states of Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and parts of Latin American with the support of the World Bank and other major aid donors have created conditions that in many localities have eroded vital natural resources to […]
PCDForum Column #70, Release Date February 1, 1994
by Anwar Fazal
World leaders recently congratulated themselves on the successful conclusion
of a new agreement to free the global flow of trade and investment under the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The agreement, heralded as an
important step toward freeing the market to unleash the forces of global
economic […]
An Open Memorandum
January 1994
TO: Participants in the Global Sustainability Movement
FROM: Helena Norberg-Hodge, International Society for Ecology and Culture
RE: Building the Case Against Globalization and For Community-Based Economics
Those who promote the cause of free trade are misleading the public on two fundamental points. First they argue that economic globalization is inevitable. The only option is to […]