The Pursuit of Development

Ian Goldin has had a distinguished career as an economist, including at the World Bank, and is currently director of the Oxford Martin School, which is a premier research institution. This is an authoritative and highly readable account of evolution of economic and social development that goes beyond a focus on economic growth to a broader understanding of well-being. He defines development and its history, including key factors of natural resources, infrastructure, the environment, finance, education, health and gender. A different emphasis on the various aspects accounts for the large disparity and varying developmental trajectories between countries. The most important current framework is expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals that have succeeded the earlier Millennium Development Goals and reflect a more sophisticated and universally applicable approach. The success of much development means that the middle-class will expand from 500 million in the 1980s to 4 billion in the 2020s, with a corresponding increase in environmental impact. Goldin is fully aware of the implications, but feels that some important lessons have been learned although enormous challenges will remain in terms of climate change, conflict, fundamentalism and pandemics requiring increasing cooperation and partnership.