Openness, Democracy and Humility: The principles of a new era in development

Jonathan Glennie argues that the global economic crisis provides us with the opportunity to alter the way we understand development. It is not just what decisions are made that matters. How they are made is just as important. Just as damaging for developing countries as the wrong-headed thinking behind neo-liberal economic policies has been the arrogance, narrowness and self-interest with which countries have been pressurized into implementing them. We need to build a context in which the right answers are not imposed, but are allowed to emerge, learning from mistakes and sharing lessons. The evidence does not point us towards a new global theory that will right our world's problems, but towards a new attitude, one of radical humility in the face of intense complexity, and of respect for efficient and accountable sovereign governments.