Foreign Policy: It’s Time to Rethink How We Do Development
Matt Andrews, associate professor at the Harvard Kennedy School; Leni Wild, research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute; and Marta Foresti, director of politics and governance at ODI

“…Last month, a group of experts tried to set a different tone. Coming together in a workshop entitled Doing Development Differently, we tried, rather unusually, to focus on what the development community has been doing right — to share stories about projects, policies, and reforms that fostered real change by not doing development in the usual way. Rather than getting stuck on what doesn’t work, the workshop participants set out to examine recent development successes, and attempted to understand precisely why they worked. … It’s time to build on development’s positives, rather than singing an old and sad song about its failure. We are committed to becoming builders, by identifying agents and organizations doing great work, often at the margins and at great risk…” (11/25).