Paper (in Dutch): Een wereld van verschil - Een zaak van iedereen: Ontwikkelingssamenwerkingsbeleid van Pronk tot Koenders
Process report: "Understanding development better"

On this site you can find the different outcomes of the "Understanding Development Better" conference. We invite you to navigate to the forum-section of this site, where you can download the complete overview of the conference; and also submitted position papers, speeches, reports which were used during the conference. On this forum you can discuss on all different elements submitted.

Background of the Conference

"Technical assistance of the early years was followed by community development support in the 1950s, aid to fill trade and investment gaps in the 1960s, aid to provide for basic human needs in the 1970s, assistance to structural adjustment and debt relief in the 1980s, humanitarian assistance in combination with support for rehabilitation of countries after the civil wars of the 1990s and at the turn of the century, aid for human development and aid to prevent violent conflicts and foster democratic governance."
Jan Pronk, Catalysing Development 2004

The above statement from Jan Pronk, a former Dutch Minister for Development Co-operation clearly indicates that in the last 60 years, many different development paradigms have been adhered to. Accordingly approaches, modalities and instruments have been permanently challenged and very frequently altered or adjusted. At the same time it is still questionable whether we truly understand the relation between aid and development. Under what conditions aid catalyses development and when does it stifle development? Or even: do we understand development? A lot is going on in our sector; the adoption of the Millennium Declaration 2000, the Monterrey Consensus 2002, the Paris Declaration 2005 and more recently the intentions for up-scaling the volume of aid drastically and the increasing attention of management for development results.

Doubts exist as to whether the increased aid levels will be effective, or whether an emphasis on other approaches such as trade & aid and a more equitable international economic order will be needed to catalyse development. The question is still on the table; do we understand development?

The ‘Understanding Development Better’ conference was designed to serve as a platform for discussions directly related to this fundamental question. During these three days development was approached and analysed from different theoretical angles, during presentations and in-depth discussions.
The conference was organised in Ede (The Netherlands) on August 27-28-29.

Participants
This 'Understanding Development Better' conference was visited by senior staff from funding agencies, government and semi-government organisations from the Netherland as well as researchers and development practitioners.

Conference objectives
At the end of the conference, participants:
• have deepend their insight and sharpened their minds concerning development;
• enlarged the knowledge on development, approaches from different theoretical and practical angles.
• discussed, named and understood different constraints in development processes

Post-conference Objectives

Participants and non-participants are encouraged to use this website in order to reach the post-conference objectives, which are:

* exchange of renewed insights
* and a continuation of the debate on development