UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice

Richard Jolly is Senior Research Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he is co-director of the United Nations Intellectual History Project. Louis Emmerij is Senior Research Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he is co-director of the United Nations Intellectual History Project. Dharam Ghai is Advisor to the International Labour Organization. Frédéric Lapeyre is Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, Catholic University of Louvain, and a member of the United Nations Intellectual History Project.

"One of the titles in a projected 14—volume series sponsored by the United Nations Intellectual History Project (see also Michael Ward's book in this series, Quantifying the World: UN Ideas and Statistics, CH, Oct'04), this institutional history of the UN is surprisingly readable. The product of four authors' collaboration, it tells an interesting story of UN work in development theory and practice. After a brief review of development literature, the authors break down the UN experience into five major periods. The 1940s and 1950s were foundational, with the work of Raul Prebisch and many others promulgated under UN auspices. The 1960s were the decade of development, first declared by John F. Kennedy in 1961. The 1970s saw a focus on equity in development, and the 1980s saw UN agencies being eclipsed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. By the 1990s, the UN Development Program restored a focus on human development that had been lost earlier. Concluding with a review of UN development ideas, the authors describe successes but do not hesitate to point out failures. Well organized and well written, this book will be essential reading in international organization or economic development courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, upper—division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections."—S. Waalkes, Malone College , Choice, January 2005"Well organized and well written, this book will be essential reading in international organization or economic development courses. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, upper-division undergraduate and up, and professional library collections.January 2005"—Choice

• List of Boxes, Tables, and FiguresForeword by Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. WeissPreface and AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsPart I. Values and History1. Has There Been Progress? Values and Criteria for UN History2. The History of Development Thinking from Adam Smith to John Maynard KeynesPart II. Ideas and Action3. The 1940s and 1950s: The Foundations of UN Development Thinking and Practice4. The 1960s: The UN Development Decade—Mobilizing for Development5. The 1970s: Equity in Development6. The 1980s: Losing Control and Marginalizing the Poorest 7. The 1990s: Rediscovering a Human Vision8. Building the Human Foundations9. Structural and Sectoral ChangePart III. Outcomes and the Future10. The Record of Performance11. UN Contributions and Missed Opportunities12. Lessons for the Future: Development Thinking and the UN's FutureAppendix: ILO Special TopicsNotesIndex About the AuthorsAbout the UN Intellectual History Project