Category Archives: Sustainable development

Aspiring to be peasants

For everyone from yuppies seeking lifestyle blocks to former slaves seeking a life of freedom, small farms have always been an attractive option. Making support for small farmers a priority is increasingly part of the development agenda, particularly in the … Continue reading

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China: Failed development or just development as usual?

China’s new bullet train system is about to open, with 90 trains a day running from Shanghai to Beijing at 300km/h. The journey is expected to take under five hours. A similar length journey on the US rail system takes … Continue reading

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Reporting development progress

The Overseas Development Institute in the UK has been producing a well-written series of short reports on development progress in particular countries. The results are synthesized into another report Mapping progress: evidence for a new development outlook but the individual … Continue reading

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The politics of nostalgia

On sunny days at least, New Zealanders can be charmingly optimistic in a naive sort of way, which I guess is why New Zealand has a high profile in international trade negotiations. You’d need to be optimistic to be a … Continue reading

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The pleasure and pain of foreign direct investment

As foreign direct investment to developing countries increases, the benefits and losses continue to be debated.  At the Guardian UK’s Poverty Matters blog, Lisa Denney is happy to see Timor Leste taking control of its development path. While natural resources … Continue reading

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Twenty years of (un)sustainable development

Next year is the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Summit on Environment and Development. At the 1992 Rio Earth Summit governments committed themselves to the ‘Agenda 21’ programme of action for sustainable development. After that, everything went on pretty … Continue reading

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