Is 'Development' a declining industry?

Today, I heard an interchange between two distinguished professors that raised the question 'is 'development' a declining industry' to a new level. Usually, that argument is supported by dragging out the stats which say that poverty and hunger and inequality are not doing very well, and aid agencies, which have taken on these large societal challenges with less than 0.7% of government's budgets and with many semi-supportive NGOs and a few businesses, are, clearly, failing. Sustainable development - where? Not for many of the poor and marginalised the world over. But this conversation was looking at it from a different perspective.

The panel discussion was on 'reimagining development' by some of the many notable cool professors at the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex, where I work. All are hands-on academics - people who continually seek to put theory into practice, and vice versa. One fellow painted a picture of some bilateral aid agencies he has been working with recently. He described them as 'eager to learn' in a quickly changing world. He said they were continually seeking new concepts, frameworks and tools to understand their world; that there was a sense of so much happening - too fast to keep up, and that people were running around, not sure what to do. The desire to measure the impact of their precise action in a wide, complex system was not only ridiculous, but spoke to a sense of a loss of control.

The fellow sitting next to him re-phrased what he had just said, and then suggested, 'well, it sounds like all the signs of a declining industry that is desperately grasping for new ideas to save its skin.'

No one really challenged that - indeed, there seemed general agreement that these bilateral agencies were flailing - they are loosing their power in a world where emerging markets are gaining international and national strength, where Europe seems to be in danger of real long term decline, and where there is an end to the illusion of abundance - including their own ability to have funds. 'Value' seems as much about 'value for money' as about the 'values' that we can live our lives by.

Of course, one of the greatest challenges to the old fashioned development industry isn't the emerging markets or the financial crisis - its climate change, and the glaring fact that we can not escape: western development has had a very negative impact on the whole ecosystem. We now must pay - not charity, but for damages done.

Or else... well, its not clear what the 'else' is. And I'm not sure if Overseas Development Aid is, as of yet, in full decline. But the current models don't work and are becoming older and staler by the hour. Agencies are indeed grasping. But whether that grasp will be transformative and create a reconstruction of the industry that will enable it to really address poverty and inequality or if those ventures will go to other sectors, it is still too early to say.

Photo credit: Cyclamax