One major point to emerge from the day of free-flowing and wide-ranging discussions at Brussels was the need for a new paradigm. As Frans reports, ‘Among the hundred plus attendants there was a general feeling that we need a new paradigm, or a new…

In my last blog I discussed the fact that poverty and even rights-based agendas can be easily co-opted into a ‘Washington Consensus’ policy paradigm. How then can we avoid this propensity? In my background paper I suggested that this should be don…

The MDGs have come to play an important symbolic and substantive role in current development debates and strategy. They are important symbolically because they represent, at one level, an unprecedented international moral consensus that reducing a…

Frans Bieckmann is the Editor in Chief of The BrokerLooking back on, and having briefly chewed over a long day of interesting talks and debates at the High Level Policy Forum in Brussels, I will share with you some of the threads and trends t…

After reading Andy Sumner’s article and then attending the policy forum I thought I would share some of my reflections on the issues that have been raised. It is important to recall that addressing poverty is not particularly antithetical with the…

Marieke Hounjet is reporting live from the Brussels Forum for The BrokerThe last plenary of today was on: ‘Towards and MDG plus agenda?’ presenting a diverse range of talks. The first speaker, Louis Kasekende (Chief Economist, African Development…

Marieke Hounjet is reporting live from the Brussels Forum for The BrokerIn his welcoming word Andy Sumner states that 2015 ‘is a line in the sand’ and that therefore it is good idea to have a discussion on the future of the Millennium Development…

Marieke Hounjet is reporting live from the Brussels Forum for The BrokerThe second plenary of the High Level Policy Forum today in Brussels was titled: ‘What are the key meta-processes shaping development over the next 10-15 years and what do they…

I finished my blog yesterday by highlighting the need for a new development paradigm. This new paradigm may take up to five years to emerge and, from past experience of paradigm shifts, it will draw together ideas from existing theory and practice…

The MDGs provide a set of indicators of development. They adopt an approach to development that has been influenced by management thinking. Setting targets that are measurable was fashionable throughout the 1990’s but is perhaps getting rather tar…